Sticky Columns (Old Method)

Note: Sticky columns are now supported using a sticky argument in colDef() and colGroup(), so use that if possible. See Sticky Columns for examples.

Basic sticky columns

You can make a single left or right column sticky using the position: sticky CSS property.

Note that position: sticky is supported by Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, but not IE11. IE11 does fail gracefully though – the columns just don’t stick.

background: #fff and z-index: 1 are added to properly hide scrolling content.

reactable(
  MASS::Cars93,
  columns = list(
    Manufacturer = colDef(
      style = list(position = "sticky", left = 0, background = "#fff", zIndex = 1),
      headerStyle = list(position = "sticky", left = 0, background = "#fff", zIndex = 1)
    ),
    Make = colDef(
      style = list(position = "sticky", right = 0, background = "#fff", zIndex = 1),
      headerStyle = list(position = "sticky", right = 0, background = "#fff", zIndex = 1)
    )
  ),
  defaultColDef = colDef(minWidth = 150)
)

Adding a border style and reducing some of the repetition:

sticky_style <- function(left = TRUE) {
  style <- list(position = "sticky", background = "#fff", zIndex = 1)
  if (left) {
    style <- c(style, list(left = 0, borderRight = "1px solid #eee"))
  } else {
    style <- c(style, list(right = 0, borderLeft = "1px solid #eee"))
  }
  style
}

reactable(
  MASS::Cars93,
  columns = list(
    Manufacturer = colDef(
      style = sticky_style(),
      headerStyle = sticky_style()
    ),
    Make = colDef(
      style = sticky_style(left = FALSE),
      headerStyle = sticky_style(left = FALSE)
    )
  ),
  defaultColDef = colDef(minWidth = 150)
)

Multiple sticky columns

To make multiple columns sticky, you have to set the left or right positions of the columns to where they’ll stick. In this case, you’ll need to know the column widths – columns are 100px wide by default, so the 2nd column from left needs left: 100px;, the 3rd column from left needs left: 200px;, etc.

reactable(
  MASS::Cars93,
  columns = list(
    Manufacturer = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-1",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-1"
    ),
    Model = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-2",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-2"
    ),
    Type = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-3",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-3"
    ),
    Make = colDef(
      class = "sticky right-col-1",
      headerClass = "sticky right-col-1"
    )
  ),
  wrap = FALSE
)

.sticky {
  position: sticky !important;
  background: #fff;
  z-index: 1;
}

.left-col-1 {
  left: 0;
}

.left-col-2 {
  left: 100px;
}

.left-col-3 {
  left: 200px;
  border-right: 1px solid #eee !important;
}

.right-col-1 {
  right: 0;
  border-left: 1px solid #eee !important;
}

Sticky headers and footers

Sticky columns should work fine with sticky headers and footers:

reactable(
  MASS::Cars93[1:20, ],
  pagination = FALSE,
  height = 400,
  wrap = FALSE,
  columns = list(
    Manufacturer = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-1",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-1",
      footerClass = "sticky left-col-1"
    ),
    Model = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-2",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-2",
      footerClass = "sticky left-col-2"
    ),
    Type = colDef(
      class = "sticky left-col-3",
      headerClass = "sticky left-col-3",
      footerClass = "sticky left-col-3"
    ),
    Make = colDef(
      class = "sticky right-col-1",
      headerClass = "sticky right-col-1",
      footerClass = "sticky right-col-1"
    )
  ),
  defaultColDef = colDef(footer = "Footer")
)