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This site contains the legacy documentation for DataTables v1.9 and earlier for reference only.
DataTables 1.9 was End Of Life in 2014. Do not use it for new work.
The current release of DataTables can always be found on DataTables.net.
DataTables scrolling and jQuery UI tabs

Preamble

This example shows how DataTables with scrolling can be used together with jQuery UI tabs (or indeed any other method whereby the table is in a hidden (display:none) element when it is initialised). The reason this requires special consideration, is that when DataTables is initialised and it is in a hidden element, the browser doesn't have any measurements with which to give DataTables, and this will require in the misalignment of columns when scrolling is enabled.

The method to get around this is to call the fnAdjustColumnSizing API function. This function will calculate the column widths that are needed based on the current data and then redraw the table - which is exactly what is needed when the table becomes visible for the first time. For this we use the 'show' method provided by jQuery UI tables. We check to see if the DataTable has been created or not (note the extra selector for 'div.dataTables_scrollBody', this is added when the DataTable is initialised). If the table has been initialised, we re-size it. An optimisation could be added to re-size only of the first showing of the table.

Live example

Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version Grade
Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version Grade
Trident Internet Explorer 4.0 Win 95+ 4 X
Trident Internet Explorer 5.0 Win 95+ 5 C
Trident Internet Explorer 5.5 Win 95+ 5.5 A
Trident Internet Explorer 6 Win 98+ 6 A
Trident Internet Explorer 7 Win XP SP2+ 7 A
Trident AOL browser (AOL desktop) Win XP 6 A
Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version Grade
Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version Grade
Gecko Firefox 1.0 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1.7 A
Gecko Firefox 1.5 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1.8 A
Gecko Firefox 2.0 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1.8 A
Gecko Firefox 3.0 Win 2k+ / OSX.3+ 1.9 A
Gecko Camino 1.0 OSX.2+ 1.8 A
Gecko Camino 1.5 OSX.3+ 1.8 A
Gecko Netscape 7.2 Win 95+ / Mac OS 8.6-9.2 1.7 A
Gecko Netscape Browser 8 Win 98SE+ 1.7 A
Gecko Netscape Navigator 9 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1.8 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.0 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.1 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.1 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.2 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.2 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.3 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.3 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.4 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.4 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.5 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.5 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.6 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1.6 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.7 Win 98+ / OSX.1+ 1.7 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.8 Win 98+ / OSX.1+ 1.8 A
Gecko Seamonkey 1.1 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1.8 A
Gecko Epiphany 2.20 Gnome 1.8 A

Initialisation code

$(document).ready(function() {
	$("#tabs").tabs( {
		"show": function(event, ui) {
			var table = $.fn.dataTable.fnTables(true);
			if ( table.length > 0 ) {
				$(table).dataTable().fnAdjustColumnSizing();
			}
		}
	} );
	
	$('table.display').dataTable( {
		"sScrollY": "200px",
		"bScrollCollapse": true,
		"bPaginate": false,
		"bJQueryUI": true,
		"aoColumnDefs": [
			{ "sWidth": "10%", "aTargets": [ -1 ] }
		]
	} );
} );

Other examples