Column Pinning (Lit) Guide

Examples

Want to skip to the implementation? Check out these Lit examples:

Lit Setup

import { LitElement, html } from 'lit'
import { customElement, state } from 'lit/decorators.js'
import { TableController, tableFeatures, columnPinningFeature } from '@tanstack/lit-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnPinningFeature })

@customElement('my-table')
class MyTable extends LitElement {
  @state()
  private data = defaultData

  private tableController = new TableController(this)

  protected render() {
    const table = this.tableController.table({
      features,
      columns,
      data: this.data,
    })

    return html`...`
  }
}

import { LitElement, html } from 'lit'
import { customElement, state } from 'lit/decorators.js'
import { TableController, tableFeatures, columnPinningFeature } from '@tanstack/lit-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnPinningFeature })

@customElement('my-table')
class MyTable extends LitElement {
  @state()
  private data = defaultData

  private tableController = new TableController(this)

  protected render() {
    const table = this.tableController.table({
      features,
      columns,
      data: this.data,
    })

    return html`...`
  }
}

TanStack Table offers state and APIs helpful for implementing column pinning features in your table UI. You can implement column pinning in multiple ways. You can either split pinned columns into their own separate tables, or you can keep all columns in the same table, but use the pinning state to order the columns correctly and use sticky CSS to pin the columns to the left or right.

How Column Pinning Affects Column Order

There are 3 table features that can reorder columns, which happen in the following order:

Column Pinning - If pinning, columns are split into left, center (unpinned), and right pinned columns.
Manual Column Ordering - A manually specified column order is applied.
Grouping - If grouping is enabled, a grouping state is active, and tableOptions.groupedColumnMode is set to 'reorder' | 'remove', then the grouped columns are reordered to the start of the column flow.

The only way to change the order of the pinned columns is in the columnPinning.left and columnPinning.right state itself. columnOrder state will only affect the order of the unpinned ("center") columns.

Column Pinning State

Managing the columnPinning state is optional, and usually not necessary unless you are adding persistent state features. TanStack Table will already keep track of the column pinning state for you. Manage the columnPinning state just like any other table state if you need to.

In v9, the recommended way to own a state slice is with an external atom passed to the table's atoms option. External atoms give you fine-grained subscriptions anywhere in your app, and other code can read or write the pinning state without going through the component that owns the table.

import { createAtom } from '@tanstack/store'
import { TableController, tableFeatures, columnPinningFeature } from '@tanstack/lit-table'
import type { ColumnPinningState } from '@tanstack/lit-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnPinningFeature })

// create a stable atom at module scope (or in a shared store module)
const columnPinningAtom = createAtom<ColumnPinningState>({
  left: [],
  right: [],
})

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  atoms: {
    columnPinning: columnPinningAtom,
  },
  //...
})

// read columnPinningAtom.get() (or subscribe to columnPinningAtom) wherever you need the value

import { createAtom } from '@tanstack/store'
import { TableController, tableFeatures, columnPinningFeature } from '@tanstack/lit-table'
import type { ColumnPinningState } from '@tanstack/lit-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnPinningFeature })

// create a stable atom at module scope (or in a shared store module)
const columnPinningAtom = createAtom<ColumnPinningState>({
  left: [],
  right: [],
})

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  atoms: {
    columnPinning: columnPinningAtom,
  },
  //...
})

// read columnPinningAtom.get() (or subscribe to columnPinningAtom) wherever you need the value

Alternatively, the v8-style state.columnPinning plus onColumnPinningChange pattern is still supported. It can be convenient for simple integrations or when migrating v8 code, but it is less fine-grained than external atoms. See the Table State Guide for a deeper comparison.

@state()
private columnPinning: ColumnPinningState = {
  left: [],
  right: [],
}

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  state: {
    columnPinning: this.columnPinning,
    //...
  },
  onColumnPinningChange: (updater) => {
    this.columnPinning = typeof updater === 'function' ? updater(this.columnPinning) : updater
  },
  //...
})

@state()
private columnPinning: ColumnPinningState = {
  left: [],
  right: [],
}

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  state: {
    columnPinning: this.columnPinning,
    //...
  },
  onColumnPinningChange: (updater) => {
    this.columnPinning = typeof updater === 'function' ? updater(this.columnPinning) : updater
  },
  //...
})

Pin Columns by Default

A very common use case is to pin some columns by default. You can do this by either initializing the columnPinning state with the pinned columnIds, or by using the initialState table option

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  initialState: {
    columnPinning: {
      left: ['expand-column'],
      right: ['actions-column'],
    },
    //...
  },
  //...
})

const table = this.tableController.table({
  features,
  //...
  initialState: {
    columnPinning: {
      left: ['expand-column'],
      right: ['actions-column'],
    },
    //...
  },
  //...
})

Useful Column Pinning APIs

Note: These APIs are available when using columnPinningFeature.

There are a handful of useful Column API methods to help you implement column pinning features:

column.getCanPin: Use to determine if a column can be pinned.
column.pin: Use to pin a column to the left or right. Or use to unpin a column.
column.getIsPinned: Use to determine where a column is pinned.
column.getPinnedIndex: Use to read the column's index within its pinned column group.
column.getStart: Use to provide the correct left CSS value for a pinned column.
column.getAfter: Use to provide the correct right CSS value for a pinned column.
column.getIsLastColumn: Use to determine if a column is the last column in its pinned group. Useful for adding a box-shadow.
column.getIsFirstColumn: Use to determine if a column is the first column in its pinned group. Useful for adding a box-shadow.

Use table.setColumnPinning to update the pinning state directly. Use table.resetColumnPinning to reset to initialState.columnPinning, or pass true to clear both pinned column arrays.

table.setColumnPinning({
  left: ['firstName'],
  right: ['actions'],
})

table.resetColumnPinning()
table.resetColumnPinning(true)

table.setColumnPinning({
  left: ['firstName'],
  right: ['actions'],
})

table.resetColumnPinning()
table.resetColumnPinning(true)

The table instance exposes pinned column and header helpers for each region:

table.getLeftLeafColumns()
table.getCenterLeafColumns()
table.getRightLeafColumns()

table.getLeftVisibleLeafColumns()
table.getCenterVisibleLeafColumns()
table.getRightVisibleLeafColumns()

table.getLeftHeaderGroups()
table.getCenterHeaderGroups()
table.getRightHeaderGroups()

table.getLeftFooterGroups()
table.getCenterFooterGroups()
table.getRightFooterGroups()

table.getLeftFlatHeaders()
table.getCenterFlatHeaders()
table.getRightFlatHeaders()

table.getLeftLeafHeaders()
table.getCenterLeafHeaders()
table.getRightLeafHeaders()

table.getLeftLeafColumns()
table.getCenterLeafColumns()
table.getRightLeafColumns()

table.getLeftVisibleLeafColumns()
table.getCenterVisibleLeafColumns()
table.getRightVisibleLeafColumns()

table.getLeftHeaderGroups()
table.getCenterHeaderGroups()
table.getRightHeaderGroups()

table.getLeftFooterGroups()
table.getCenterFooterGroups()
table.getRightFooterGroups()

table.getLeftFlatHeaders()
table.getCenterFlatHeaders()
table.getRightFlatHeaders()

table.getLeftLeafHeaders()
table.getCenterLeafHeaders()
table.getRightLeafHeaders()

You can also request pinned leaf columns by region with table.getPinnedLeafColumns(position) and visible pinned leaf columns with table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns(position).

table.getPinnedLeafColumns('left')
table.getPinnedLeafColumns('center')
table.getPinnedLeafColumns('right')

table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('left')
table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('center')
table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('right')

table.getPinnedLeafColumns('left')
table.getPinnedLeafColumns('center')
table.getPinnedLeafColumns('right')

table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('left')
table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('center')
table.getPinnedVisibleLeafColumns('right')

Use table.getIsSomeColumnsPinned() to check if any columns are pinned, or pass 'left' or 'right' to check one pinned side.

Split Table Column Pinning

If you are just using sticky CSS to pin columns, you can for the most part, just render the table as you normally would with the table.getHeaderGroups and row.getVisibleCells methods.

However, if you are splitting up pinned columns into their own separate tables, you can make use of the table.getLeftHeaderGroups, table.getCenterHeaderGroups, table.getRightHeaderGroups, row.getLeftVisibleCells, row.getCenterVisibleCells, and row.getRightVisibleCells methods to only render the columns that are relevant to the current table.

Column Pinning (Lit) Guide

Examples#

Lit Setup#