Preamble

When displaying a table which scrolls along the x-axis, it can sometimes be useful to the end user for the left most column to be fixed in place, if it shows grouping, index or similar information. This is basically the same idea as 'freeze columns' in Excel. This can be achieved with the FixedColumns plug-in for DataTables, as shown below.

Note that FixedColumns is suitable only for use with the scrolling features in DataTables. If you want to achieve a similar effect without scrolling enabled, please checkout FixedHeader, also for DataTables.

Live example

Initialisation code

$(document).ready( function () {
	var oTable = $('#example').dataTable( {
		"sScrollX": "100%",
		"sScrollXInner": "150%",
		"bScrollCollapse": true
	} );
	new FixedColumns( oTable );
} );

Documentation

• Usage
• API / parameters

Basic examples

• Basic demo of FixedColumns with zero initialisation
• Fix the left and right columns in place
• Index column attached to side of the table
• Index column, but with Y scrolling and no pagination
• Two columns fixed in place
• Fix the right column in place
• Speeding up row height matching with CSS
• jQuery UI themed table with FixedColumns

Advanced examples

• Using ROWSPAN with FixedColumns
• Server-side processing with FixedColumns
• Individual column filtering
• Setting the fixed column width and resizing the table
• Setting the fixed column width with relative sizing
• Row grouping by grouping like rows in the fixed column
• Row grouping by inserting a grouping row
FixedColumns and DataTables © Allan Jardine 2011.