How to delete the content of the selected cell using hotkeys in VTable?
Tags: vtable, visactor, visiualization, webdev
Published: 2024-06-14 10:37:58

## Question Description
We have implemented the editable table business scenario using the editing capabilities provided by VTable. However, there is a requirement to delete the content of the selected cell when the delete key or backspace key is pressed on the keyboard.
## Solution
Currently, VTable itself does not support this feature. You can implement it yourself by listening for keyboard events and calling the VTable interface to update cell values.
First, listen for the keydown event and call the changeCellValue interface to update cell values in the event.
See the demo for implementation logic: https://visactor.io/vtable/demo/interaction/context-menu.
```
    // 监听键盘事件
    document.addEventListener('keydown', (e) => {
       if (e.key === 'Delete'||e.key === 'Backspace') {
         let selectCells = tableInstance.getSelectedCellInfos();
        if (selectCells?.length > 0) {
          // 如果选中的是范围，则删除范围内的所有单元格
          deleteSelectRange(selectCells);
        } else {
          // 否则只删除单个单元格
          tableInstance.changeCellValue(args.col, args.row, '');
        }
      }
    });
    //将选中单元格的值设置为空
    function deleteSelectRange(selectCells) {
      for (let i = 0; i < selectCells.length; i++) {
        for (let j = 0; j < selectCells[i].length; j++) {
          tableInstance.changeCellValue(selectCells[i][j].col, selectCells[i][j].row, '');
        }
      }
    }
```
## Code Examples
```
let tableInstance;
fetch('https://lf9-dp-fe-cms-tos.byteorg.com/obj/bit-cloud/VTable/North_American_Superstore_data.json')
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(data => {
    const columns = [
      {
        field: 'Order ID',
        title: 'Order ID',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Customer ID',
        title: 'Customer ID',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Product Name',
        title: 'Product Name',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Category',
        title: 'Category',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Sub-Category',
        title: 'Sub-Category',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Region',
        title: 'Region',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'City',
        title: 'City',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Order Date',
        title: 'Order Date',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Quantity',
        title: 'Quantity',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Sales',
        title: 'Sales',
        width: 'auto'
      },
      {
        field: 'Profit',
        title: 'Profit',
        width: 'auto'
      }
    ];

    const option = {
      records: data,
      columns,
      widthMode: 'standard',
      menu: {
        contextMenuItems: ['copy', 'paste', 'delete', '...']
      }
    };
    tableInstance = new VTable.ListTable(document.getElementById(CONTAINER_ID), option);
    window['tableInstance'] = tableInstance;

    // 监听键盘事件
    document.addEventListener('keydown', (e) => {
      debugger
       if (e.key === 'Delete'||e.key === 'Backspace') {
         let selectCells = tableInstance.getSelectedCellInfos();
        if (selectCells?.length > 0 ) {
          // 如果选中的是范围，则删除范围内的所有单元格
          deleteSelectRange(selectCells);
        } else {
          // 否则只删除单个单元格
          tableInstance.changeCellValue(args.col, args.row, '');
        }
      }
    });
  });

      //将选中单元格的值设置为空
    function deleteSelectRange(selectCells) {
      for (let i = 0; i < selectCells.length; i++) {
        for (let j = 0; j < selectCells[i].length; j++) {
          tableInstance.changeCellValue(selectCells[i][j].col, selectCells[i][j].row, '');
        }
      }
    }
```

## Result Display
You can copy the code to the official website's code editor and test the effect directly.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5tkyy6je628r8atum7bj.png)


## Related documents
Demo of deleting data: https://visactor.io/vtable/demo/interaction/context-menu
Tutorial of data update: https://visactor.io/vtable/guide/data/data_format
Related API:
https://visactor.io/vtable/api/Methods#changeCellValue
github：https://github.com/VisActor/VTable