Rendering Performant Cross-Platform Lists in React Native and Expo

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

In a dynamic mobile app development landscape, efficiently rendering lists is paramount for delivering a smooth user experience. React Native provides two powerful components, FlatList and SectionList, or Shopify’s FlashList to tackle this challenge. In this guide, we’ll explore these components, delve into best practices, and learn how to optimize performance using PureComponent.

Why not ScrollView?

ScrollView is one of the most fundamental components in React Native for creating scrollable content. It’s a versatile component that allows you to render a collection of child components, whether text, images, or custom views, and enables users to scroll through them vertically or horizontally.

Here’s a simple example of how to use ScrollView:

import React from 'react';
import { ScrollView, Text, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';

const MyScrollView = () => {
  return (
    <ScrollView style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.item}>Item 1</Text>
      <Text style={styles.item}>Item 2</Text>
      <Text style={styles.item}>Item 3</Text>
      {/* Add more items as needed */}
    </ScrollView>
  );
};

export default MyScrollView;

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    padding: 16,
  },
  item: {…