Dynamically render columns in Angular material table

Did you know that you can dynamically render columns in #angular material table?

No, I am not talking about simply adding/removing columns on click of button, but a more robust solution like shown in below.

<table-basic-example>
  <ng-container matColumnDef="boilingPoint">
    <th mat-header-cell *matHeaderCellDef mat-sort-header="boilingPoint">
      Boiling Point
    </th>
    <td mat-cell *matCellDef="let element">{{ element.boilingPoint }}</td>
  </ng-container>
</table-basic-example>

As show in code above, it's upto consumer component which column it needs to render This technique involves mainly 2 things

1st is hostDirectives - to attach MatSort with component.

It is needed so that consumer can use mat-sort-header if it wants

@Component({
  selector: 'table-dynamic-example',
  standalone: true,
  imports: [MatTableModule, MatSortModule],
  hostDirectives: [MatSort],
})

2nd is contentChildren - to get projected columns

Due to internal structure of MatTable, we can't directly use content projection here using ng-content, hence contentChildren is needed

private customCols = contentChildren(MatColumnDef);

And finally render them in afterViewInit hook using MatTable.addColumnDef

Also make sure to attach host MatSort with dataSource's sort. Otherwise sorting will not work

ngAfterViewInit() {
    this.dataSource.sort = this.matSort;
    this.customCols().forEach((col) => {
      const columnName = col.name;
      this.matTable()?.addColumnDef(col);

      // need to wait until column is added
      this.ngZone.onStable.pipe(take(1)).subscribe(() => {
        this.columnsToDisplay.push(columnName);
      });
    });
  }

<table mat-table [dataSource]="dataSource" class="mat-elevation-z8">
  @for (column of displayedColumns; track column) {

  <ng-container [matColumnDef]="column">
    <th mat-header-cell *matHeaderCellDef mat-sort-header>{{ column }}</th>
    <td mat-cell *matCellDef="let element">{{ element[column] }}</td>
  </ng-container>
  }

  <tr mat-header-row *matHeaderRowDef="columnsToDisplay"></tr>
  <tr mat-row *matRowDef="let row; columns: columnsToDisplay;"></tr>
</table>

That's it! Full code is available on stackblitz