How do I create an HTML table with a fixed/frozen left column and a scrollable body?

Question

I need a simple solution. I know it\'s similar to some other questions, like:

• HTML table with fixed headers and a fixed column?
• How can I lock the fir

Answer 1

Here is another modification of the most popular answer, but with handling of variable length of text in the first column labels: http://jsfiddle.net/ozx56n41/

Basically, I'm using the second column for creating row height, like was mentioned. But my fiddle actually works unlike most mentioned above.

HTML:

<div id="outerdiv">
    <div id="innerdiv">
        <table>
            <tr>
                <td class="headcol"><div>This is a long label</div></td>
                <td class="hiddenheadcol"><div>This is a long label</div></td>
                <td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td>
                <td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td class="headcol"><div>Short label</div></td>
                <td class="hiddenheadcol"><div>Short label</div></td>
                <td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td>
                <td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </div>
</div>

CSS:

body {
    font: 16px Calibri;
}
#outerdiv {
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    left: 0;
    right: 0;
    width: 100%;
    border-top: 1px solid grey;
}
#innerdiv {
    overflow-x: scroll;
    margin-left: 100px;
    overflow-y: visible;
    padding-bottom: 1px;
}
table {
    border-collapse:separate;
}
td {
    margin: 0;
    border: 1px solid grey;
    border-top-width: 0;
    border-left-width: 0px;
    padding: 10px;
}
td.headcol {
    /* Frozen 1st column */
    position: absolute;
    left: 0;
    top: auto;
    border-bottom-width: 1px;
    padding: 0;
    border-left-width: 1px;
}
td.hiddenheadcol {
    /* Hidden 2nd column to create height */
    max-width: 0;
    visibility: hidden;
    padding: 0;
}
td.headcol div {
    /* Text container in the 1st column */
    width: 100px;
    max-width: 100px;
    background: lightblue;
    padding: 10px;
    box-sizing: border-box;
}
td.hiddenheadcol div {
    /* Text container in the 2nd column */
    width: 100px;
    max-width: 100px;
    background: red;
    padding: 10px;
}
td.long {
    background:yellow;
    letter-spacing:1em;
}

Answer 2

I just made the right-most sticky column of a table sticky.

th:last-of-type {
 position: sticky;
 right: 0;
 width: 120px;
 background: #f7f7f7;
}


td:last-of-type {
 position: sticky;
 right: 0;
 background: #f7f7f7;
 width: 120px;
}

I believe if you'll do {position: sticky; left: 0;}, you'll get the desired result.

Answer 3

If you don't want to touch your current table too much you can make a fake pinned column in front of the table.

The example shows one way of doing it without JS

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border-spacing: 0;
  border: 1px solid #ffffd;
  min-width: 600px;
}

.labels {
  display:flex;
  flex-direction: column
}

.overflow {
  overflow-x: scroll;
  min width: 400px;
  flex: 1;
}

.label {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  white-space:nowrap;
  padding: 10px;
  flex: 1;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #ffffd;
  border-right: 2px solid #ffffd;
}

.label:last-of-type {
  overflow-x: scroll;
  border-bottom: 0;
}

td {
  border: 1px solid #ffffd;
  padding: 10px;
}

.flex {
  display:flex;
  max-width: 600px;
  padding: 0;
  border: 5px solid #ffffd;
}

<div class="flex">
  <div class="labels">
    <span class="label">Label 1</span>
    <span class="label">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</span>
    <span class="label">Lorem ipsum dolor.</span>
  </div>
  <div class="overflow">
    <table>
      <tr>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
        <td class="long">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipisicing</td>
      </tr>
  </table>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 4

Eamon Nerbonne, I changed some css in your code and it's better now(the scroll bar starts from the first row)

http://jsfiddle.net/At8L8/

I just add two line :

.div : padding-left:5em;
.headcol : background-color : #fff;

Answer 5

If you want a table where only the columns scroll horizontally, you can position: absolute the first column (and specify its width explicitly), and then wrap the entire table in an overflow-x: scroll block. Don't bother trying this in IE7, however...

Relevant HTML & CSS:

table {
  border-collapse: separate;
  border-spacing: 0;
  border-top: 1px solid grey;
}

td, th {
  margin: 0;
  border: 1px solid grey;
  white-space: nowrap;
  border-top-width: 0px;
}

div {
  width: 500px;
  overflow-x: scroll;
  margin-left: 5em;
  overflow-y: visible;
  padding: 0;
}

.headcol {
  position: absolute;
  width: 5em;
  left: 0;
  top: auto;
  border-top-width: 1px;
  /*only relevant for first row*/
  margin-top: -1px;
  /*compensate for top border*/
}

.headcol:before {
  content: 'Row ';
}

.long {
  background: yellow;
  letter-spacing: 1em;
}

<div>
<table>
        <tr><th class="headcol">1</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
        <tr><th class="headcol">2</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
        <tr><th class="headcol">3</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
        <tr><th class="headcol">4</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
        <tr><th class="headcol">5</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
        <tr><th class="headcol">6</th><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td><td class="long">QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM</td></tr>
</table>
</div>

Fiddle

Answer 6

Style the left column with position: fixed. (You'll presumably want to use top and left styles to control where exactly it occurs.)