How to implement calendars in React Native

In React Native, calendars are user-friendly tools that help developers add calendar functionalities to mobile apps. With customizable options, these calendars allow users to easily view schedules, manage events, and interact with dates. Their integration enhances the overall app experience.

Therefore, we need to use a library to render calendars in React Native. For this purpose, we use the react-native-calendar-picker library, which enables developers to incorporate calendars into their React Native applications easily.

import React, { Component } from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, View } from 'react-native';
import CalendarPicker from 'react-native-calendar-picker';

export default class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {
      selectedStartDate: null,
    };
    this.onDateChange = this.onDateChange.bind(this);
  }

  onDateChange(date) {
    this.setState({
      selectedStartDate: date,
    });
  }

  render() {
    const { selectedStartDate } = this.state;
    const startDate = selectedStartDate ? selectedStartDate.toString() : '';
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <CalendarPicker
          onDateChange={this.onDateChange}
          width={700}
          height={500}
        />
        <Text>SELECTED DATE:{startDate}</Text>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    backgroundColor: '#FFFFFF',
    alignItems: 'center', // Center horizontally
    justifyContent: 'center', // Center vertically
  },
});

React Native application with calendars

Note: Press 'w' key to see the output in web browser.

Line 9: The component's state has a property named selectedStartDate initialized as null.
Lines 14–18: The onDateChange method updates the selectedStartDate state when a date is selected in the calendar.
Lines 20–33: In the render method:
- Line 21: The selectedStartDate is extracted from the state and stored in the startDate variable.
- Lines 24–31: The UI consists of a View container with a CalendarPicker component and a Text component to display the selected date.
- Line 26: The onDateChange method updates the state when a date is selected in the calendar.
- Line 30: the selected date is extracted from the state and stored in the startDate variable.

This serves as a simple illustration of how calendars are incorporated into React Native. However, you can apply it in more practical scenarios, such as integrating it into to-do applications. When the onDateChange event occurs, you have the flexibility to invoke a function that manages the desired functionality.

How to implement calendars in React Native

Installing dependencies

Creating a basic calendar