How to prevent the children of Flutter Listview from rebuilding?

Question

The state here is maintained in a list of instances of Products called _shoppingCart (The following code is an example from https://docs.flutter.dev/development/ui/widgets-intro#keys). The state is being mapped to widgets and every time a change is made to the list of products, all the widgets part of the list, regardless of being changed, still rebuild. Is this how it is supposed to be? or is there a better way?

  import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

class Product {
  const Product({required this.name});

  final String name;
}

typedef CartChangedCallback = Function(Product product, bool inCart);

class ShoppingListItem extends StatelessWidget {
  ShoppingListItem({
    required this.product,
    required this.inCart,
    required this.onCartChanged,
  }) : super(key: ObjectKey(product));

  final Product product;
  final bool inCart;
  final CartChangedCallback onCartChanged;

  Color _getColor(BuildContext context) {
    // The theme depends on the BuildContext because different
    // parts of the tree can have different themes.
    // The BuildContext indicates where the build is
    // taking place and therefore which theme to use.

    return inCart //
        ? Colors.black54
        : Theme.of(context).primaryColor;
  }

  TextStyle? _getTextStyle(BuildContext context) {
    if (!inCart) return null;

    return const TextStyle(
      color: Colors.black54,
      decoration: TextDecoration.lineThrough,
    );
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    print("rebuilding ${product.name}");
    return ListTile(
      onTap: () {
        onCartChanged(product, inCart);
      },
      leading: CircleAvatar(
        backgroundColor: _getColor(context),
        child: Text(product.name[0]),
      ),
      title: Text(
        product.name,
        style: _getTextStyle(context),
      ),
    );
  }
}

class ShoppingList extends StatefulWidget {
  const ShoppingList({required this.products, super.key});

  final List<Product> products;

  // The framework calls createState the first time
  // a widget appears at a given location in the tree.
  // If the parent rebuilds and uses the same type of
  // widget (with the same key), the framework re-uses
  // the State object instead of creating a new State object.

  @override
  State<ShoppingList> createState() => _ShoppingListState();
}

class _ShoppingListState extends State<ShoppingList> {
  final _shoppingCart = <Product>{};

  void _handleCartChanged(Product product, bool inCart) {
    setState(() {
      // When a user changes what's in the cart, you need
      // to change _shoppingCart inside a setState call to
      // trigger a rebuild.
      // The framework then calls build, below,
      // which updates the visual appearance of the app.

      if (!inCart) {
        _shoppingCart.add(product);
      } else {
        _shoppingCart.remove(product);
      }
    });
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: const Text('Shopping List'),
      ),
      body: ListView(
        padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 8.0),
        children: widget.products.map((product) {
          return ShoppingListItem(
            //key: ObjectKey(product),
            product: product,
            inCart: _shoppingCart.contains(product),
            onCartChanged: _handleCartChanged,
          );
        }).toList(),
      ),
    );
  }
}

void main() {
  runApp(const MaterialApp(
    title: 'Shopping App',
    home: ShoppingList(
      products: [
        Product(name: 'Eggs'),
        Product(name: 'Flour'),
        Product(name: 'Chocolate chips'),
      ],
    ),
  ));
}

Answer 1

I think you don't need to worry about this, keep using const or value keys where you think that these widgets will not be changed, Otherwise let Flutter framework handle this, Flutter framework is smart enough, during setState it will only update the element tree, will not create/paint it from start, So only updated elements will be repainted rest will be there.