This example class shows a way of editing only the selected rows in a Vaadin table. This improves rendering performance on large tables.

TableEditableBySelection.java

import java.util.Collection;

import com.vaadin.data.Container;
import com.vaadin.data.util.BeanItemContainer;
import com.vaadin.ui.Component;
import com.vaadin.ui.DefaultFieldFactory;
import com.vaadin.ui.Field;
import com.vaadin.ui.Table;

@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class EditableTable extends Table {

    private Table table = this;

    public EditableTable() {
        table.setTableFieldFactory(new DefaultFieldFactory() {
            @Override
            public Field<?> createField(Container container, Object itemId, Object propertyId, Component uiContext) {

                // If the itemId isn't the currently selected item in the table, don't generate a field
                // i.e. it's not editable
                if (!table.isMultiSelect() && !itemId.equals(table.getValue())) {
                    return null;
                } else if (table.isMultiSelect()) {
                    if (!((Collection<?>) table.getValue()).contains(itemId)) {
                        return null;
                    }
                }

                // Create editable field
                Field field = super.createField(container, itemId, propertyId, uiContext);

                return field;
            }
        });

        // If row selected force refresh (to re-exectue field factory)
        table.addValueChangeListener(new ValueChangeListener() {
            @Override
            public void valueChange(com.vaadin.data.Property.ValueChangeEvent event) {
                forceRefreshRowCache();
            }
        });

        table.setContainerDataSource(createContainer());

        table.setSelectable(true);

        table.setMultiSelect(true);

        // This enables the use of FieldFactories
        table.setEditable(true);

        table.setSizeFull();

    }

    /**
     * Required for appropriate refresh behavior. see: http://dev.vaadin.com/ticket/14684
     * Unfortunately this patch requires subclassing :(
     */
    public void forceRefreshRowCache() {
        boolean wasEnabled = disableContentRefreshing();
        enableContentRefreshing(true);
        refreshRowCache();
        enableContentRefreshing(wasEnabled);
    }

    /**
     * Add fake data.
     */
    private Container createContainer() {
        BeanItemContainer<BlackBeans> container = new BeanItemContainer<>(BlackBeans.class);

        for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Bob " + i, 10.1 + i));
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Harry " + i, 14.8 + i));
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Margaret " + i, 0.0 + i));
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Glenda " + i, 22.1 + i));
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Boris " + i, 0.1 + i));
            container.addBean(new BlackBeans("Jessica " + i, 24.1 + i));
        }

        return container;
    }

    /**
     * Class for bean item container.
     */
    public class BlackBeans {
        private String name;
        private double value;

        public BlackBeans(String string, double d) {
            setName(string);
            setValue(d);
        }

        public String getName() {
            return name;
        }

        public void setName(String name) {
            this.name = name;
        }

        public double getValue() {
            return value;
        }

        public void setValue(double value) {
            this.value = value;
        }
    }
}