Please Make Your Table Headings Sticky

2024-02-23

I often stumble upon large data sets or table layouts across the web. When these tables contain hundreds of rows of content, things become problematic once you start to scroll…

This should be a header

Look at that table header disappear! Now, if I scroll all the way down to item #300 (for example) will I remember what each column’s data is associated with? If this is my first time looking at this table - probably not. Luckily we can fix this (no pun intended!) with a tiny amount of CSS.

Check it out:

Pretty awesome, right? It might look like magic but it’s actually very easy to implement. You only need to add 2 CSS properties on your thead:

position: sticky;
top: 0;

That’s it! Best of all, sticky has ~96% global support which means this isn’t some “bleeding-edge” property and can safely support a ton of browsers. Not to mention the improved experience for your end-users!

You can view a live demo of this table on the CodePen example pen.

If you found this interesting, feel free to check out my other table-focused post: Making Tables Responsive With Minimal CSS