marmelab/react-admin · error · Error

Missing at least one of the following props: render, field…

Error message

Missing at least one of the following props: render, field, children, or source

What it means

<DataTableCell> renders a single cell value and needs one of four ways to obtain content: a `render` function, a `field` element, `children`, or a `source` field name (also used for column hiding). When all four are absent it throws, since there is nothing to render and no way to identify the column.

Solutions

1. Add a `source` prop: `<DataTableCell source="name" />`.
2. Or pass a `render` function: `<DataTableCell render={record => record.name} />`.
3. Or supply `field`/`children` with a field element to render.

Example fix

// before
<DataTableCell label="Name" />
// after
<DataTableCell label="Name" source="name" />

if (!render && !field && !children && !source) {
  throw new Error('DataTableCell needs one of render, field, children, or source');
}

const renderableCell = (p: { render?: Function; field?: React.ReactElement; children?: React.ReactNode; source?: string }): boolean =>
  !!p.render || !!p.field || React.Children.count(p.children) > 0 || typeof p.source === 'string';

When it happens

Trigger: Rendering <DataTableCell> with none of render/field/children/source, e.g. `<DataTableCell label="Name" />` (label alone is not a source of data) or a props spread that omits all four.

Common situations: Building custom DataTable columns and passing only cosmetic props; conditional rendering where children resolve to nothing; copy-pasting a header-only column config into a cell.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• components should be used inside a component or provided…
• requires either a `render` prop or `children` prop
• components should be used inside a component or provided…
• DatagridRow expects an id prop
• DataTableRow can only be used within a RecordContext or be…

AI-assisted analysis of marmelab/react-admin@051f511bb0 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/61d8468dc4734f93. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/ra-ui-materialui/src/list/datatable/DataTableCell.tsx:47

                source,
                sortByOrder,
                label,
                sx,
                ...rest
            } = props;
            const { storeKey, defaultHiddenColumns } =
                useDataTableStoreContext();
            const [hiddenColumns] = useStore<string[]>(
                storeKey,
                defaultHiddenColumns
            );
            const record = useRecordContext();
            const isColumnHidden = hiddenColumns.includes(
                source ?? (label as string)
            );
            if (isColumnHidden) return null;
            if (!render && !field && !children && !source) {
                throw new Error(
                    'Missing at least one of the following props: render, field, children, or source'
                );
            }
            const sxValue = {
                ...(cellSx && record ? cellSx(record) : {}),
                ...sx,
            } as SxProps;

            const fieldValue = get(record, source!);
            return (
                <TableCellStyled
                    ref={ref}
                    className={clsx(
                        DataTableClasses.rowCell,
                        className,
                        cellClassName,
                        `column-${source}`
                    )}

View on GitHub (pinned to 051f511bb0)