This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Ghofrane Baaziz
I built a custom range slider for Retool with a histogram built in
Range sliders in Retool are great until you need to understand your data. They let you pick min and max values, but they don’t tell you anything about the distribution itself.
I kept running into this when building internal tools, so I built a custom range slider that includes a histogram, handles uneven distributions and exposes clean values. It’s written in TypeScript and works as a native Retool component.
🔗 GitHub repo: https://github.com/StackdropCO/custom-range-slider-retool-component
🔗 More Awesome Retool components here: https://github.com/StackdropCO/awesome-retool-components
Here’s why I built it and how to use it.
Why I built this
A real example that pushed me to do this:
I needed a filter for “years of experience” inside a Retool app. Most candidates had between 0 and 20 years, but a few outliers had 45 years. With the standard slider, you get min and max, but no clue whether the middle ranges are empty or dense.
It forces you to guess, or worse, manually inspect the dataset.
To show what I mean:
Retool’s default slider (no visibility):
Custom Range Slider with distribution visible:
The histogram makes it obvious where your data actually sits. In my case, the “20 to 45 years” range was basically empty. With a logarithmic scale, even large skewed values become readable.
This small change makes filtering more honest and more useful.
What I focused on while building it
Here are the engineering decisions that mattered:
Histogram built in
Shows distribution directly on the slider.Multiple scales
Linear, logarithmic and square root for different distribution shapes.Clean values
Access the selected range throughselectedRange.startandselectedRange.end.Flexible inputs
Arrays, number lists, query outputs — anything numeric.Click-to-select
Click any histogram bar to jump to that range.Custom colors
Fully themeable inside Retool.Negative values supported
Useful for datasets that include offsets or deltas.
Installation
Clone the repo:
git clone https://github.com/StackdropCO/custom-range-slider-retool-component.git
Install dependencies
cd custom-range-slider
npm install
Log in to Retool and initialize
npx retool-ccl login
npx retool-ccl init
Start development mode
npx retool-ccl dev
Deploy the component
npx retool-ccl deploy
Using it in Retool
- Drag the Range Slider component onto the canvas.
Define start and end values:
start: 0
end: 50Custom formatting:
(v) => {
if (v === 0) return `${v}`
if (v === 1) return "1 year"
return `${v} years`
}
Bind distribution data:
{{ query2.dataArray }}Access the selected range:
const { start, end } = customRangeSlider1.selectedRange
-
Switch scales if your data is skewed:
- Linear (default)
- Logarithmic
- Square root
Quick checklist
- Use a published version for production
- Test locally with
npx retool-ccl dev - Deploy and pin the version in your Retool app
- For multi-instance setups, use
npx retool-ccl sync
What's next
A few improvements I'm exploring:
- Auto-generated histograms from simple arrays
- More control over spacing and styling
- Optional statistics like mean and median
- Additional scale types
- General cleanup and refinements
Get involved
I built this to make filtering inside Retool more accurate, especially with uneven distributions. It's fully open source, and I'd love feedback, ideas or pull requests.
If you try it, let me know how it works for you.
Happy building!
Resources
Interested in learning more about this component? Check out the full component library and documentation.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Ghofrane Baaziz
Ghofrane Baaziz | Sciencx (2025-11-24T13:24:21+00:00) I built a custom range slider for Retool with a histogram built in. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/11/24/i-built-a-custom-range-slider-for-retool-with-a-histogram-built-in/
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