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.
FixedColumns is initialised using the constructor new $.fn.dataTable.FixedColumns(); - shown below.
| First name | Last name | Position | Office | Age | Start date | Salary | Extn. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiger | Nixon | System Architect | Edinburgh | 61 | 2011/04/25 | $320,800 | 5421 | t.nixon@datatables.net |
| Garrett | Winters | Accountant | Tokyo | 63 | 2011/07/25 | $170,750 | 8422 | g.winters@datatables.net |
| Ashton | Cox | Junior Technical Author | San Francisco | 66 | 2009/01/12 | $86,000 | 1562 | a.cox@datatables.net |
| Cedric | Kelly | Senior Javascript Developer | Edinburgh | 22 | 2012/03/29 | $433,060 | 6224 | c.kelly@datatables.net |
| Airi | Satou | Accountant | Tokyo | 33 | 2008/11/28 | $162,700 | 5407 | a.satou@datatables.net |
| Brielle | Williamson | Integration Specialist | New York | 61 | 2012/12/02 | $372,000 | 4804 | b.williamson@datatables.net |
| Herrod | Chandler | Sales Assistant | San Francisco | 59 | 2012/08/06 | $137,500 | 9608 | h.chandler@datatables.net |
| Rhona | Davidson | Integration Specialist | Tokyo | 55 | 2010/10/14 | $327,900 | 6200 | r.davidson@datatables.net |
| Colleen | Hurst | Javascript Developer | San Francisco | 39 | 2009/09/15 | $205,500 | 2360 | c.hurst@datatables.net |
| Sonya | Frost | Software Engineer | Edinburgh | 23 | 2008/12/13 | $103,600 | 1667 | s.frost@datatables.net |
| Jena | Gaines | Office Manager | London | 30 | 2008/12/19 | $90,560 | 3814 | j.gaines@datatables.net |
| Quinn | Flynn | Support Lead | Edinburgh | 22 | 2013/03/03 | $342,000 | 9497 | q.flynn@datatables.net |
| Charde | Marshall | Regional Director | San Francisco | 36 | 2008/10/16 | $470,600 | 6741 | c.marshall@datatables.net |
| Haley | Kennedy | Senior Marketing Designer | London | 43 | 2012/12/18 | $313,500 | 3597 | h.kennedy@datatables.net |
| Tatyana | Fitzpatrick | Regional Director | London | 19 | 2010/03/17 | $385,750 | 1965 | t.fitzpatrick@datatables.net |
| Michael | Silva | Marketing Designer | London | 66 | 2012/11/27 | $198,500 | 1581 | m.silva@datatables.net |
| Paul | Byrd | Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | New York | 64 | 2010/06/09 | $725,000 | 3059 | p.byrd@datatables.net |
| Gloria | Little | Systems Administrator | New York | 59 | 2009/04/10 | $237,500 | 1721 | g.little@datatables.net |
| Bradley | Greer | Software Engineer | London | 41 | 2012/10/13 | $132,000 | 2558 | b.greer@datatables.net |
| Dai | Rios | Personnel Lead | Edinburgh | 35 | 2012/09/26 | $217,500 | 2290 | d.rios@datatables.net |
| Jenette | Caldwell | Development Lead | New York | 30 | 2011/09/03 | $345,000 | 1937 | j.caldwell@datatables.net |
| Yuri | Berry | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | New York | 40 | 2009/06/25 | $675,000 | 6154 | y.berry@datatables.net |
| Caesar | Vance | Pre-Sales Support | New York | 21 | 2011/12/12 | $106,450 | 8330 | c.vance@datatables.net |
| Doris | Wilder | Sales Assistant | Sidney | 23 | 2010/09/20 | $85,600 | 3023 | d.wilder@datatables.net |
| Angelica | Ramos | Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | London | 47 | 2009/10/09 | $1,200,000 | 5797 | a.ramos@datatables.net |
| Gavin | Joyce | Developer | Edinburgh | 42 | 2010/12/22 | $92,575 | 8822 | g.joyce@datatables.net |
| Jennifer | Chang | Regional Director | Singapore | 28 | 2010/11/14 | $357,650 | 9239 | j.chang@datatables.net |
| Brenden | Wagner | Software Engineer | San Francisco | 28 | 2011/06/07 | $206,850 | 1314 | b.wagner@datatables.net |
| Fiona | Green | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | San Francisco | 48 | 2010/03/11 | $850,000 | 2947 | f.green@datatables.net |
| Shou | Itou | Regional Marketing | Tokyo | 20 | 2011/08/14 | $163,000 | 8899 | s.itou@datatables.net |
| Michelle | House | Integration Specialist | Sidney | 37 | 2011/06/02 | $95,400 | 2769 | m.house@datatables.net |
| Suki | Burks | Developer | London | 53 | 2009/10/22 | $114,500 | 6832 | s.burks@datatables.net |
| Prescott | Bartlett | Technical Author | London | 27 | 2011/05/07 | $145,000 | 3606 | p.bartlett@datatables.net |
| Gavin | Cortez | Team Leader | San Francisco | 22 | 2008/10/26 | $235,500 | 2860 | g.cortez@datatables.net |
| Martena | Mccray | Post-Sales support | Edinburgh | 46 | 2011/03/09 | $324,050 | 8240 | m.mccray@datatables.net |
| Unity | Butler | Marketing Designer | San Francisco | 47 | 2009/12/09 | $85,675 | 5384 | u.butler@datatables.net |
| Howard | Hatfield | Office Manager | San Francisco | 51 | 2008/12/16 | $164,500 | 7031 | h.hatfield@datatables.net |
| Hope | Fuentes | Secretary | San Francisco | 41 | 2010/02/12 | $109,850 | 6318 | h.fuentes@datatables.net |
| Vivian | Harrell | Financial Controller | San Francisco | 62 | 2009/02/14 | $452,500 | 9422 | v.harrell@datatables.net |
| Timothy | Mooney | Office Manager | London | 37 | 2008/12/11 | $136,200 | 7580 | t.mooney@datatables.net |
| Jackson | Bradshaw | Director | New York | 65 | 2008/09/26 | $645,750 | 1042 | j.bradshaw@datatables.net |
| Olivia | Liang | Support Engineer | Singapore | 64 | 2011/02/03 | $234,500 | 2120 | o.liang@datatables.net |
| Bruno | Nash | Software Engineer | London | 38 | 2011/05/03 | $163,500 | 6222 | b.nash@datatables.net |
| Sakura | Yamamoto | Support Engineer | Tokyo | 37 | 2009/08/19 | $139,575 | 9383 | s.yamamoto@datatables.net |
| Thor | Walton | Developer | New York | 61 | 2013/08/11 | $98,540 | 8327 | t.walton@datatables.net |
| Finn | Camacho | Support Engineer | San Francisco | 47 | 2009/07/07 | $87,500 | 2927 | f.camacho@datatables.net |
| Serge | Baldwin | Data Coordinator | Singapore | 64 | 2012/04/09 | $138,575 | 8352 | s.baldwin@datatables.net |
| Zenaida | Frank | Software Engineer | New York | 63 | 2010/01/04 | $125,250 | 7439 | z.frank@datatables.net |
| Zorita | Serrano | Software Engineer | San Francisco | 56 | 2012/06/01 | $115,000 | 4389 | z.serrano@datatables.net |
| Jennifer | Acosta | Junior Javascript Developer | Edinburgh | 43 | 2013/02/01 | $75,650 | 3431 | j.acosta@datatables.net |
| Cara | Stevens | Sales Assistant | New York | 46 | 2011/12/06 | $145,600 | 3990 | c.stevens@datatables.net |
| Hermione | Butler | Regional Director | London | 47 | 2011/03/21 | $356,250 | 1016 | h.butler@datatables.net |
| Lael | Greer | Systems Administrator | London | 21 | 2009/02/27 | $103,500 | 6733 | l.greer@datatables.net |
| Jonas | Alexander | Developer | San Francisco | 30 | 2010/07/14 | $86,500 | 8196 | j.alexander@datatables.net |
| Shad | Decker | Regional Director | Edinburgh | 51 | 2008/11/13 | $183,000 | 6373 | s.decker@datatables.net |
| Michael | Bruce | Javascript Developer | Singapore | 29 | 2011/06/27 | $183,000 | 5384 | m.bruce@datatables.net |
| Donna | Snider | Customer Support | New York | 27 | 2011/01/25 | $112,000 | 4226 | d.snider@datatables.net |
The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:
$(document).ready(function() { var table = $('#example').DataTable( { scrollY: "300px", scrollX: true, scrollCollapse: true, paging: false } ); new $.fn.dataTable.FixedColumns( table ); } );In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:
The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:
This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:
/* Ensure that the demo table scrolls */ th, td { white-space: nowrap; } div.dataTables_wrapper { width: 800px; margin: 0 auto; }The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:
This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.
The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.