What If Your Table Sorted Itself?

Build an orders data table with TanStack Table, React and Tailwind. Columns: checkbox, Order ID in mono font, Customer with a small avatar, Status rendered as a tinted badge from this fixed set — paid in emerald, processing in amber, refunded in rose — Total right-aligned in tabular numerals, and Created date sorted descending by default. Header clicks toggle sort direction with an arrow glyph on the active column only. Above the table, a search input filters globally with a 250ms debounce and a status select narrows further; both write to the URL query string so views are shareable. Paginate 25 per page with Previous and Next, a page-size select, and "Showing 26–50 of 143" text between them. Keep the header sticky within the card and the first column pinned during horizontal scroll on narrow screens.

Create a users table with row selection designed for bulk actions. Store selected rows as a Set of string ids, not objects, so selection survives sorting and pagination. The header checkbox selects all rows on the current page and shows an indeterminate state when the selection partially overlaps the page; a caption under the table explains "Selection applies across pages". When the set is non-empty, slide up an action bar above the table showing "N selected", a Clear selection link, and Archive and Export buttons that receive the selected ids. Checkboxes are 16px with a visible focus ring and a label for screen readers via aria-label on each row checkbox. Show the action bar with a 150ms translate and opacity transition, and announce selection count changes through an aria-live polite region.

Create a data table whose body handles loading, error and empty as explicit states. While pending, render eight skeleton rows matching the real row height, each cell a rounded grey block with a subtle shimmer animation — no spinner overlay, so column widths do not jump when data lands. On error, span a single row across all columns with the message "Could not load orders", the error summarized in smaller text, and a Retry button that refetches. On empty, span a centered empty state with an illustration placeholder, a one-line explanation, and a Clear filters button when a filter is active versus a create action when the dataset itself is empty. Keep the header rendered in all three states so the layout is stable, and set aria-busy on the table container while loading.

Build a transactions table with many columns that scrolls horizontally inside its card at any width. Pin the first column — the transaction reference — to the left with position sticky and a solid background so underlying cells do not show through, and pin the last column holding a row actions menu to the right. Add a subtle shadow on the pinned edge that appears only while there is overflow to scroll in that direction. Keep column widths fixed with table-fixed and explicit widths so the layout does not reflow while scrolling, and give the scroll container a visible focus style plus keyboard scrolling via arrow keys when focused. Include 10 columns of sample financial data so the overflow is real, and at 640px and below offer a toggle to collapse to a compact set of four columns.

Create a data table with inline editing on the Quantity and Notes columns. Clicking an editable cell swaps it for an input pre-filled with the current value; Enter or blur saves, Escape cancels, and Tab moves to the next cell in the same row. On save, update the row immediately and fire the request in the background — an optimistic update — showing a small spinner in the cell until the response lands. If the request fails, revert the value and show a red ring plus an error tooltip on that cell for five seconds, with the console carrying the details. Track which cell is being edited in state keyed by row id and column id, so only one cell is editable at a time and re-renders stay local to the row. Include a keyboard hint in the header: "Click a cell to edit. Enter saves, Escape cancels."

Build a dense audit-log table rendering 5,000 rows with windowing so only visible rows are in the DOM. Rows are 36px tall, 13px text, alternating none — separate with a 1px divider instead of zebra striping — and every cell uses tabular numerals so times and counts align. Columns: timestamp in mono, actor with avatar initials, action as a plain text verb, and a details cell truncated to one line with a title attribute for the full text on hover. Filtering is a single input matching any column, applied client-side with no debounce since the data is local. A footer strip shows "5,000 events, filtered to N" and the scroll position jumps to top when the filter changes. The table fills its container height and scrolls internally, with the header pinned.