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

css, html, html-table

Solution

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

Problem

Original source

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