React Native Show Message for empty FlatList

Message for Empty FlatList

Here is an example of React Native Show Message for empty FlatList. As the topic name describes we will show the Message for the empty list. We can use this while we are making a dynamic list and the data is coming from the server. After loading the data from the server we can directly set the DataSource to the list by defining the props ListEmptyComponent of FlatList. This will show the error message which you have set for the empty list but if the DataSource has some value it will render the List.

Here is some line of code that we have used to show the message for the empty List.

<FlatList
  data={dataSource}
  keyExtractor={(item, index) => index.toString()}
  ItemSeparatorComponent={ItemSeparatorView}
  renderItem={ItemView}
  //Message to show for the Empty list
  ListEmptyComponent={EmptyListMessage}
/>

To start with this example

To Make a React Native App

Getting started with React Native will help you to know more about the way you can make a React Native project. We are going to use react native command line interface to make our React Native App.

If you have previously installed a global react-native-cli package, please remove it as it may cause unexpected issues:

npm uninstall -g react-native-cli @react-native-community/cli

Run the following commands to create a new React Native project

npx react-native init ProjectName

If you want to start a new project with a specific React Native version, you can use the --version argument:

npx react-native init ProjectName --version X.XX.X

Note If the above command is failing, you may have old version of react-native or react-native-cli installed globally on your pc. Try uninstalling the cli and run the cli using npx.

This will make a project structure with an index file named App.js in your project directory.

Code

Open App.js in any code editor and replace the code with the following code

App.js

// React Native Show Message for empty FlatList
// https://aboutreact.com/react-native-show-message-for-empty-flatlist/

// import React in our code
import React, {useState} from 'react';

// import all the components we are going to use
import {SafeAreaView, StyleSheet, View, FlatList, Text} from 'react-native';

const App = () => {
  const [dataSource, setDataSource] = useState([]);

  const EmptyListMessage = ({item}) => {
    return (
      // Flat List Item
      <Text
        style={styles.emptyListStyle}
        onPress={() => getItem(item)}>
        No Data Found
      </Text>
    );
  };

  const ItemView = ({item}) => {
    return (
      // Flat List Item
      <Text
        style={styles.itemStyle}
        onPress={() => getItem(item)}>
        {item.id}
        {'.'}
        {item.title.toUpperCase()}
      </Text>
    );
  };

  const ItemSeparatorView = () => {
    return (
      // Flat List Item Separator
      <View
        style={{
          height: 0.5,
          width: '100%',
          backgroundColor: '#C8C8C8',
        }}
      />
    );
  };

  const getItem = (item) => {
    // Function for click on an item
    alert('Id : ' + item.id + ' Title : ' + item.title);
  };

  return (
    <SafeAreaView style={{flex: 1}}>
      <FlatList
        data={dataSource}
        keyExtractor={(item, index) => index.toString()}
        ItemSeparatorComponent={ItemSeparatorView}
        renderItem={ItemView}
        //Message to show for the Empty list
        ListEmptyComponent={EmptyListMessage}
      />
    </SafeAreaView>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  emptyListStyle: {
    padding: 10,
    fontSize: 18,
    textAlign: 'center',
  },
});

export default App;

To Run the React Native App

Open the terminal again and jump into your project using.

cd ProjectName

1. Start Metro Bundler

First, you will need to start Metro, the JavaScript bundler that ships with React Native. To start Metro bundler run following command

npx react-native start

Once you start Metro Bundler it will run forever on your terminal until you close it. Let Metro Bundler run in its own terminal. Open a new terminal and run the application.

2. Start React Native Application

To run the project on an Android Virtual Device or on real debugging device

npx react-native run-android

or on the iOS Simulator by running (macOS only)

npx react-native run-ios

Output Screenshots

Output in Online Emulator

This is how you can show the message for empty FlatList. If you have any doubts or you want to share something about the topic you can comment below or contact us here. There will be more posts coming soon. Stay tuned!

Hope you liked it. 🙂