Add an option for rows in `data_editor` checkbox columns where the checkbox is completely hidden.

[eskildsf]

Checklist

• I have searched the existing issues for similar issues.
• I added a very descriptive title to this issue.
• I have provided sufficient information below to help reproduce this issue.

Summary

Note from maintainer: this is expected behaviour. Currently, if None is provided the checkbox still appears on hover allowing the value to be updated to true/false. Changed this to an enhancement request enabling the user to customize this behaviour.

Hello

Consider data which can take on values True, False or None. When the st.column_config.CheckboxColumn is specified for the column representing this data then True results in a ticked checkbox, False in a un-ticked checkbox and None results in no checkbox at all. However, when hovering the cell with the None value, a checkbox appears and it accepts input.

This is quite strange to end-users since input fields don't typically appear on hover.

Reproducible Code Example

import streamlit as st

data = st.data_editor(
  [
    {"Title": "Row 1", "Checkbox": True}, # Renders as ticked checkbox
    {"Title": "Row 2", "Checkbox": False}, # Renders as un-ticked checkbox
    {"Title": "Row 3", "Checkbox": None}, # Renders without checkbox. Checkbox appears on hover.
  ],
  column_config={
    "Title": st.column_config.TextColumn(None),
    "Checkbox": st.column_config.CheckboxColumn(None),
  },
)

Steps To Reproduce

No response

Expected Behavior

If a None value is supplied don't show a checkbox at all, even when hovering the cell.

I should note that I find it very useful to be able to only show checkboxes in specific rows in data_editor tables.

Current Behavior

No response

Is this a regression?

• Yes, this used to work in a previous version.

Debug info

• Streamlit version: 1.56.0
• Python version: 3.13.7
• Operating System: Ubuntu
• Browser: Chrome

Additional Information

No response

[github-actions]

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[github-actions]

This is a bug in st.data_editor's CheckboxColumn handling of None/null values. When a column uses st.column_config.CheckboxColumn and the data contains None, the cell renders as empty (no checkbox visible), but hovering over the cell causes a checkbox to appear and accept input. The user expects that None cells should remain non-interactive (no checkbox on hover).

Root cause analysis: In CheckboxColumn.ts, the getCell method calls toSafeBoolean(data) which converts None/null to null, then creates a BooleanCell with data: null and isMissingValue: true. However, the cell's readonly property is still false (when isEditable is true). The underlying @glideapps/glide-data-grid library renders BooleanCell(data: null) as an empty cell but shows a checkbox on hover when the cell is editable. The custom renderer explicitly skips placeholder rendering for checkbox cells with missing values, deferring to glide-data-grid's default behavior which produces this hover effect. A potential fix would be to make the cell readonly when data is null, or to override the hover rendering for null boolean cells.

Related Issues

• #6792 - 3-way checkbox: Requests a tri-state checkbox (True/False/None-Indeterminate) for st.checkbox. While that issue targets the standalone widget, both issues deal with how None should be represented in checkbox-style UI — this data_editor bug is essentially the visual manifestation of incomplete tri-state support in CheckboxColumn.
• #8319 - Select/Deselect All for CheckboxColumn: Related to CheckboxColumn behavior in st.data_editor. A "select all" feature would need to handle the None state correctly, making this bug's resolution relevant to that enhancement.

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[sfc-gh-lwilby]

Thanks for reporting this! We've reproduced the bug — hovering over a CheckboxColumn cell with a None value causes a checkbox to appear, even though it should remain empty and non-interactive. We'll fix this.