React is a powerful and popular JavaScript library used for creating user interfaces. Its component-based approach makes it easy to create complex, dynamic web applications. With React, you can create everything from a simple web page to a complex web application.

One of the most common components of web applications is a calendar. Calendars are used to display events, meetings, and other important information. Fortunately, creating a custom calendar in React is not that difficult. In this article, we will go over how to set up and build a custom calendar in React.

![react calendar](https:&#x2F;&#x2F;devbrite.io&#x2F;media&#x2F;cover1.jpg)
## What is React-Calendar?

React-Calendar is a popular open source library for creating custom calendars in React. It is lightweight, customizable, and provides a lot of features out of the box. It is used by many large companies, including Facebook, Netflix, and Airbnb.

## Setting Up The React Project

Before we can start building our custom calendar, we first need to set up a React project. To do this, we will be using the [Create React App](https:&#x2F;&#x2F;create-react-app.dev&#x2F;) tool.

First, let&#x27;s create a new project using the following command:

&#96;&#96;&#96;
npx create-react-app my-calendar
&#96;&#96;&#96;

Once the project is created, we can install the React-Calendar library using the following command:

&#96;&#96;&#96;
npm install react-calendar
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## How to Build a Custom Calendar in React

Now that we have our project set up, let&#x27;s start building our custom calendar. We will start by creating a basic calendar component.

First, let&#x27;s create a new file called &#96;Calendar.js&#96; in the &#96;src&#96; folder of our project.

In this file, we can start by importing the necessary libraries and components:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
import React, { useState } from &quot;react&quot;;
import Calendar from &quot;react-calendar&quot;;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

Next, let&#x27;s create our &#96;Calendar&#96; component. We will use the &#96;useState&#96; hook to initialize the &#96;date&#96; state:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
function Calendar() {
  const [date, setDate] = useState(new Date());

  return (
    &lt;div&gt;
      &lt;Calendar
        onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
        value={date}
      &#x2F;&gt;
    &lt;&#x2F;div&gt;
  );
}
&#96;&#96;&#96;

In the above code, we are using the &#96;Calendar&#96; component from the &#96;react-calendar&#96; library. We are also passing the &#96;date&#96; state as the &#96;value&#96; prop, and setting the &#96;onChange&#96; prop to a function that updates the &#96;date&#96; state when the user selects a new date.

Now, we can render our &#96;Calendar&#96; component in our App component:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
function App() {
  return (
    &lt;div className=&quot;App&quot;&gt;
      &lt;Calendar &#x2F;&gt;
    &lt;&#x2F;div&gt;
  );
}
&#96;&#96;&#96;

If we run our application, we should see a basic calendar with the current date selected.

## How to Style a Custom Calendar in React

Now that we have our basic calendar set up, let&#x27;s add some styling to it. React-Calendar provides a range of built-in styling options to choose from.

For example, we can add a custom background color to the calendar with the &#96;tileClassName&#96; prop:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
&lt;Calendar
  onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
  value={date}
  tileClassName=&quot;custom-background&quot;
&#x2F;&gt;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

We can then define our custom background color in the &#96;App.css&#96; file:

&#96;&#96;&#96;css
.custom-background {
  background-color: #F7F7F7;
}
&#96;&#96;&#96;

We can also add custom styles to the selected date with the &#96;tileContent&#96; prop:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
&lt;Calendar
  onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
  value={date}
  tileContent={({ date, view }) =&gt; (
    &lt;div className=&quot;custom-date-style&quot;&gt;
      {date.getDate()}
    &lt;&#x2F;div&gt;
  )}
&#x2F;&gt;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

And then define the custom style in the &#96;App.css&#96; file:

&#96;&#96;&#96;css
.custom-date-style {
  color: #FFFFFF;
  background-color: #3F51B5;
  border-radius: 50%;
  width: 30px;
  height: 30px;
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## Various Calendar Examples in React

Now that we know how to set up and style our custom calendar, let&#x27;s look at some examples of what we can do with it.

### Displaying Events

We can use the &#96;onClickDay&#96; prop to display events when a user clicks on a day:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
&lt;Calendar
  onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
  value={date}
  onClickDay={date =&gt; alert(&#96;You have an event on ${date.toLocaleDateString()}&#96;)}
&#x2F;&gt;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

### Selecting Multiple Dates

We can also use the &#96;selectRange&#96; prop to allow users to select multiple dates:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
&lt;Calendar
  onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
  value={date}
  selectRange={true}
&#x2F;&gt;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

### Customizing The Date Format

Finally, we can use the &#96;formatDate&#96; prop to customize the date format that is displayed in the calendar:

&#96;&#96;&#96;js
&lt;Calendar
  onChange={date =&gt; setDate(date)}
  value={date}
  formatDate={date =&gt; date.toLocaleDateString(&quot;en-US&quot;, { month: &quot;long&quot;, day: &quot;numeric&quot;, year: &quot;numeric&quot; })}
&#x2F;&gt;
&#96;&#96;&#96;

## Conclusion

In this article, we went over how to set up and build a custom calendar in React. We discussed how to use the React-Calendar library to create a basic calendar, and how to add styling and various features to it. We also looked at some examples of what we can do with a custom calendar in React.

Creating custom calendars in React is a great way to add functionality and visual appeal to your web applications. With the help of the React-Calendar library, it is relatively easy to create complex and powerful calendars.

Building a Custom Calendar in React

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