How to Make Row Scrollable in Flutter

Flutter is a powerful tool for crafting beautiful UIs, and understanding how to make a scrollable Row is essential for a seamless user experience, especially when dealing with horizontal lists of items that might extend beyond the screen width.

Let’s check the details of making a Row widget scrollable in Flutter.

Why Make a Row Scrollable?

Sometimes, you have more items to show horizontally than what can fit on the screen. For instance, a list of images, tags, or small widgets like chips. In such cases, it’s user-friendly to have a scrollable Row that allows users to swipe through the items.

Build a Scrollable Row

Let’s dive into the code and create a scrollable row from scratch.

Step 1: Set Up a Basic Row

Without scrollability, a basic Row containing several Container widgets might look like this:

Row(
  children: <Widget>[
    Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.red),
    Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.green),
    Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.blue),
  ],
)

This row will cause an overflow error if the combined width of the containers is greater than the screen width.

Step 2: Make the Row Scrollable

We wrap our Row with a SingleChildScrollView and specify the horizontal direction to enable scrolling:

SingleChildScrollView(
  scrollDirection: Axis.horizontal,
  child: Row(
    children: <Widget>[
      Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.red),
      Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.green),
      Container(width: 150, height: 100, color: Colors.blue),
    ],
  ),
)

Now, users can scroll through the containers horizontally.

Considerations for a Better User Experience

• Performance: For a large number of containers, consider using a ListView.builder instead of SingleChildScrollView. It’s more efficient as it only renders the items that are currently visible on the screen.
• Responsiveness: Always test your scrollable Row on various device sizes to ensure that the UI scales well.

A scrollable Row in Flutter can significantly enhance your application’s interface, especially when dealing with horizontal lists. By following these steps, you can implement a smooth, scrollable row that accommodates any number of containers, ensuring a clean and user-friendly design.