Complex headers (using colspan / rowspan) can be used to group columns of similar information in DataTables, creating a very powerful
visual effect.
In addition to the basic behaviour, DataTables can also take colspan and rowspans into account when working with hidden columns. The
colspan and rowspan attributes for each cell are automatically calculated and rendered on the page for you. This allows the columns.visible option and column().visible() method to take into account
rowspan / colspan cells, drawing the header correctly.
Note that each column must have at least one unique cell (i.e. a cell without colspan) so DataTables can use that cell to detect the column and use
it to apply ordering.
The example below shows a header spanning multiple cells over the contact information, with one of the columns that the span covers being hidden.
| Name | HR Information | Contact | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Salary | Office | Extn. | ||
| Name | Position | Salary | Office | Extn. | |
| Tiger Nixon | System Architect | $320,800 | Edinburgh | 5421 | [email protected] |
| Garrett Winters | Accountant | $170,750 | Tokyo | 8422 | [email protected] |
| Ashton Cox | Junior Technical Author | $86,000 | San Francisco | 1562 | [email protected] |
| Cedric Kelly | Senior Javascript Developer | $433,060 | Edinburgh | 6224 | [email protected] |
| Airi Satou | Accountant | $162,700 | Tokyo | 5407 | [email protected] |
| Brielle Williamson | Integration Specialist | $372,000 | New York | 4804 | [email protected] |
| Herrod Chandler | Sales Assistant | $137,500 | San Francisco | 9608 | [email protected] |
| Rhona Davidson | Integration Specialist | $327,900 | Tokyo | 6200 | [email protected] |
| Colleen Hurst | Javascript Developer | $205,500 | San Francisco | 2360 | [email protected] |
| Sonya Frost | Software Engineer | $103,600 | Edinburgh | 1667 | [email protected] |
| Jena Gaines | Office Manager | $90,560 | London | 3814 | [email protected] |
| Quinn Flynn | Support Lead | $342,000 | Edinburgh | 9497 | [email protected] |
| Charde Marshall | Regional Director | $470,600 | San Francisco | 6741 | [email protected] |
| Haley Kennedy | Senior Marketing Designer | $313,500 | London | 3597 | [email protected] |
| Tatyana Fitzpatrick | Regional Director | $385,750 | London | 1965 | [email protected] |
| Michael Silva | Marketing Designer | $198,500 | London | 1581 | [email protected] |
| Paul Byrd | Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | $725,000 | New York | 3059 | [email protected] |
| Gloria Little | Systems Administrator | $237,500 | New York | 1721 | [email protected] |
| Bradley Greer | Software Engineer | $132,000 | London | 2558 | [email protected] |
| Dai Rios | Personnel Lead | $217,500 | Edinburgh | 2290 | [email protected] |
| Jenette Caldwell | Development Lead | $345,000 | New York | 1937 | [email protected] |
| Yuri Berry | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | $675,000 | New York | 6154 | [email protected] |
| Caesar Vance | Pre-Sales Support | $106,450 | New York | 8330 | [email protected] |
| Doris Wilder | Sales Assistant | $85,600 | Sidney | 3023 | [email protected] |
| Angelica Ramos | Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | $1,200,000 | London | 5797 | [email protected] |
| Gavin Joyce | Developer | $92,575 | Edinburgh | 8822 | [email protected] |
| Jennifer Chang | Regional Director | $357,650 | Singapore | 9239 | [email protected] |
| Brenden Wagner | Software Engineer | $206,850 | San Francisco | 1314 | [email protected] |
| Fiona Green | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | $850,000 | San Francisco | 2947 | [email protected] |
| Shou Itou | Regional Marketing | $163,000 | Tokyo | 8899 | [email protected] |
| Michelle House | Integration Specialist | $95,400 | Sidney | 2769 | [email protected] |
| Suki Burks | Developer | $114,500 | London | 6832 | [email protected] |
| Prescott Bartlett | Technical Author | $145,000 | London | 3606 | [email protected] |
| Gavin Cortez | Team Leader | $235,500 | San Francisco | 2860 | [email protected] |
| Martena Mccray | Post-Sales support | $324,050 | Edinburgh | 8240 | [email protected] |
| Unity Butler | Marketing Designer | $85,675 | San Francisco | 5384 | [email protected] |
| Howard Hatfield | Office Manager | $164,500 | San Francisco | 7031 | [email protected] |
| Hope Fuentes | Secretary | $109,850 | San Francisco | 6318 | [email protected] |
| Vivian Harrell | Financial Controller | $452,500 | San Francisco | 9422 | [email protected] |
| Timothy Mooney | Office Manager | $136,200 | London | 7580 | [email protected] |
| Jackson Bradshaw | Director | $645,750 | New York | 1042 | [email protected] |
| Olivia Liang | Support Engineer | $234,500 | Singapore | 2120 | [email protected] |
| Bruno Nash | Software Engineer | $163,500 | London | 6222 | [email protected] |
| Sakura Yamamoto | Support Engineer | $139,575 | Tokyo | 9383 | [email protected] |
| Thor Walton | Developer | $98,540 | New York | 8327 | [email protected] |
| Finn Camacho | Support Engineer | $87,500 | San Francisco | 2927 | [email protected] |
| Serge Baldwin | Data Coordinator | $138,575 | Singapore | 8352 | [email protected] |
| Zenaida Frank | Software Engineer | $125,250 | New York | 7439 | [email protected] |
| Zorita Serrano | Software Engineer | $115,000 | San Francisco | 4389 | [email protected] |
| Jennifer Acosta | Junior Javascript Developer | $75,650 | Edinburgh | 3431 | [email protected] |
| Cara Stevens | Sales Assistant | $145,600 | New York | 3990 | [email protected] |
| Hermione Butler | Regional Director | $356,250 | London | 1016 | [email protected] |
| Lael Greer | Systems Administrator | $103,500 | London | 6733 | [email protected] |
| Jonas Alexander | Developer | $86,500 | San Francisco | 8196 | [email protected] |
| Shad Decker | Regional Director | $183,000 | Edinburgh | 6373 | [email protected] |
| Michael Bruce | Javascript Developer | $183,000 | Singapore | 5384 | [email protected] |
| Donna Snider | Customer Support | $112,000 | New York | 4226 | [email protected] |
The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#example').DataTable( {
"columnDefs": [ {
"visible": false,
"targets": -1
} ]
} );
} );
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:
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.