TabController class Null safety

Coordinates tab selection between a TabBar and a TabBarView.

The index property is the index of the selected tab and the animation represents the current scroll positions of the tab bar and the tab bar view. The selected tab's index can be changed with animateTo.

A stateful widget that builds a TabBar or a TabBarView can create a TabController and share it directly.

When the TabBar and TabBarView don't have a convenient stateful ancestor, a TabController can be shared by providing a DefaultTabController inherited widget.

This widget introduces a Scaffold with an AppBar and a TabBar.
class MyTabbedPage extends StatefulWidget {
  const MyTabbedPage({ super.key });
  @override
  State<MyTabbedPage> createState() => _MyTabbedPageState();
}

class _MyTabbedPageState extends State<MyTabbedPage> with SingleTickerProviderStateMixin {
  static const List<Tab> myTabs = <Tab>[
    Tab(text: 'LEFT'),
    Tab(text: 'RIGHT'),
  ];

  late TabController _tabController;

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    _tabController = TabController(vsync: this, length: myTabs.length);
  }

 @override
 void dispose() {
   _tabController.dispose();
   super.dispose();
 }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        bottom: TabBar(
          controller: _tabController,
          tabs: myTabs,
        ),
      ),
      body: TabBarView(
        controller: _tabController,
        children: myTabs.map((Tab tab) {
          final String label = tab.text!.toLowerCase();
          return Center(
            child: Text(
              'This is the $label tab',
              style: const TextStyle(fontSize: 36),
            ),
          );
        }).toList(),
      ),
    );
  }
}

This example shows how to listen to page updates in TabBar and TabBarView when using DefaultTabController.
To create a local project with this code sample, run:
flutter create --sample=material.TabController.2 mysample

Inheritance

Constructors

TabController({int initialIndex = 0, Duration? animationDuration, required int length, required TickerProvider vsync})
Creates an object that manages the state required by TabBar and a TabBarView.

Properties

animation Animation<double>?
An animation whose value represents the current position of the TabBar's selected tab indicator as well as the scrollOffsets of the TabBar and TabBarView.
read-only
animationDuration Duration
Controls the duration of TabController and TabBarView animations.
read-only
hashCode int
The hash code for this object.
read-onlyinherited
hasListeners bool
Whether any listeners are currently registered.
protected">@protectedread-onlyinherited
index int
The index of the currently selected tab.
read / write
indexIsChanging bool
True while we're animating from previousIndex to index as a consequence of calling animateTo.
read-only
length int
The total number of tabs.
final
offset double
The difference between the animation's value and index.
read / write
previousIndex int
The index of the previously selected tab.
read-only
runtimeType Type
A representation of the runtime type of the object.
read-onlyinherited

Methods

addListener(VoidCallback listener) → void
Register a closure to be called when the object changes.
inherited
animateTo(int value, {Duration? duration, Curve curve = Curves.ease}) → void
Immediately sets index and previousIndex and then plays the animation from its current value to index.
dispose() → void
Discards any resources used by the object. After this is called, the object is not in a usable state and should be discarded (calls to addListener will throw after the object is disposed).
override
noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) → dynamic
Invoked when a non-existent method or property is accessed.
inherited
notifyListeners() → void
Call all the registered listeners.
protected">@protectedvisibleForTesting">@visibleForTestinginherited
removeListener(VoidCallback listener) → void
Remove a previously registered closure from the list of closures that are notified when the object changes.
inherited
toString() String
A string representation of this object.
inherited

Operators

operator ==(Object other) bool
The equality operator.
inherited