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Freeze Table Header and Columns

By , 31 May 2004
 

Introduction

I was developing a web based application that needed a datagrid/table that can freeze its header and columns, and also have a complex that consists of merged cells. I have searched on the internet but I still can't find the one that I wanted. So, I decided to build it by my self, and thank god I made it :). And now I want to share the code with the world. This article describe how to build a table with freeze capability using built-in ASP.Net controls and some HTML tags.

Using the code

To build the freeze-able table we need to use the DIV, TABLE tag, ASP.Net Panel and PlaceHolder control and of course some javascript and CSS. You can see the layout in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The layout to position the tag and controls.
Object Name Description
divScrollbar We will use this to show horizontal scrollbar. So we can show the hidden area of tblPart2 using JavaScript and give the impression that we freeze the columns in tblPart1. This will be accomplished using JavaScript.
ASP Panel control Optional. This will be used only if you want to be able to show or hide the entire objects.
divItems This DIV will be used for vertical scrollbar so we can give impression to the user that the header is frozen. We will do this using CSS.
TABLE tag To synchronize the position of tblPart1 and tblPart2.
tblPart1 This table will be container of the freezing columns. We will generate the rows later.
divPart2 This DIV is use to clip the view of tblPart2
tblPart2 This table is like tblPart1, but some of it's columns is hidden by divPart2. This table will be scrolled horizontally by divScroller. The header and rows will be generated later.
PlaceHolder1 Act as the container for the generated rows for tblPart1.
PlaceHolder2 Act as the container for the generated header and rows for tblPart2.
Table 1. Functional description of the objects

To freeze the header we can use the following CSS code:

tr.head
{
 position:relative; top: expression(document.all["divItems"].scrollTop-1); 
}

Building the horizontal scrollbar

To mimic IE scrollbar we can place a DIV tag inside a DIV tag. And resize both of them at run-time using JavaScript, this is done in ResizeTables() function.

 function ResizeTables()
 {         
  if (document.readyState)
  {  
       
   if (!document.all['divItems']) return;
   divItems.style.width = document.body.clientWidth-17;
   divItems.style.left = 0;        
       
   divPart2.style.width = document.body.clientWidth-155; 
   scroll1.style.width = divItems.style.width;
   scroll1.style.width = divItems.style.width;
   if(screen.width > 800)
    spacing1.style.width = tblPart2.offsetWidth+ tblPart1.offsetWidth;
   else
    spacing1.style.width = tblPart2.offsetWidth+ tblPart1.offsetWidth;          
           
   var AvailableHeight;
   AvailableHeight = 500;                
   divItems.style.height  = AvailableHeight;           
      
   divPart2.style.width = divItems.offsetWidth - tblPart1.offsetWidth-2;  
   
   if (parseInt(divPart2.style.width) + 
      tblPart1.offsetWidth < document.body.clientWidth )
   {  
    if (screen.width > 800)
    {              
     if(parseInt(divItems.style.height) < divPart2.offsetHeight)
     {                                                   
      divPart2.style.width = divItems.offsetWidth  -tblPart1.offsetWidth-19;
     }
    }
    else
    {
     if(parseInt(divItems.style.height) > divPart2.offsetHeight)
     {                         
      divPart2.style.width = divItems.offsetWidth -tblPart1.offsetWidth-2;
     }            
     else
     {
      divPart2.style.width = divItems.offsetWidth -tblPart1.offsetWidth-19;
     }           
    }

   }
  }
 }
 
 function OnScroll(sc)
 {  
  document.getElementById("divPart2").scrollLeft = sc.scrollLeft; 
 }         
 window.onload = ResizeTables;
 window.onresize = ResizeTables;

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

About the Author

irwansyah
Web Developer
Indonesia Indonesia
Member
Irwansyah is a web developer currently using ASP.Net. Irwansyah main interests lie in developing business application framework.
 
Irwansyah intends to work overseas one day and explore the world till the end of the world.

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Comments and Discussions

 
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GeneralMy vote of 5membermanoj kumar choubey7 Feb '12 - 19:33 
nice
GeneralMy vote of 1membershankar4sai8 Nov '10 - 22:12 
a
GeneralMy vote of 2membershankar4sai8 Nov '10 - 22:12 
a
GeneralDownload link Not workingmembercaresoft23 Nov '09 - 19:05 
Can u please reupload the source file.
GeneralVisit this article on freeze header/column - http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/FreezeHeader.aspmemberTittle Joseph10 May '06 - 23:01 
Custom control to freeze header/column in datagrid in easiest way just changing single attribute value.
 
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/FreezeHeader.asp[^]
 
---------
Tittle
GeneralRe: Visit this article on freeze header/column - http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/FreezeHeader.aspmembersquattyarun16 Jun '08 - 7:26 
Great article, But It doesn't work for larger Grid control and also if grid contains combo box. Can you work on this also?? I am trying to sort it out from my side...
 
Arun Singh
Noida.

GeneralExcellantmembernimesh1231 Feb '06 - 10:03 
Excellant article, very helpful Thanks
GeneralNot working for mememberhasnainlakhani23 Jun '05 - 23:13 
Hi,
 
I am not getting any errors, getting the columns name, company, contact title.. nothing else. Let me know what exactly needs to be done to make it run
 
Hasnain
GeneralRe: Not working for mememberlinxuan27 Feb '06 - 21:03 
I do not know how to add my data to the example,can you help me ?
Generaldoesn't work for memembernewby7 Oct '04 - 5:56 
1) dt.Rows.Count returns 0 rows. Dataset returns all the rows but doesn't fill datatable for some reason. Example displays blank page.
2) Do you have example code using C#?
3) Do you have same example code using Datagrid instead of Datatable?
 
Thanks
 
newby

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