TanStack
Table
Feature Guides

Column Ordering (Alpine) Guide

Examples

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

Read your reactive inputs such as data through a getter (for example backing them with Alpine.reactive) when creating the table, so the table sees updates.

Column Ordering Setup

Here's how you set up your table to use column ordering features. Adding the column ordering feature enables the related APIs.

ts
import {
  createTable,
  tableFeatures,
  columnOrderingFeature,
} from '@tanstack/alpine-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnOrderingFeature })

const table = createTable({
  features,
  columns,
  get data() {
    return local.data
  },
})

Column Ordering (Alpine) Guide

By default, columns are ordered in the order they are defined in the columns array. However, you can manually specify the column order using the columnOrder state. Other features like column pinning and grouping can also affect the column order.

What Affects Column Order

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

  1. Column Pinning - If pinning, columns are split into start, center (unpinned), and end pinned columns.
  2. Manual Column Ordering - A manually specified column order is applied.
  3. 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.

Note: columnOrder state will only affect unpinned columns if used in conjunction with column pinning.

Column Order State

If you don't provide a columnOrder state, TanStack Table will just use the order of the columns in the columns array. However, you can provide an array of string column ids to the columnOrder state to specify the order of the columns.

Default Column Order

If all you need to do is specify the initial column order, you can just specify the columnOrder state in the initialState table option.

ts
const features = tableFeatures({ columnOrderingFeature })

const table = createTable({
  features,
  //...
  initialState: {
    columnOrder: ['columnId1', 'columnId2', 'columnId3'],
  },
  //...
})

Note: If you are using the state table option to also specify the columnOrder state, the initialState will have no effect. Only specify particular states in either initialState or state, not both.

Managing Column Order State

If you need to dynamically change the column order, or set the column order after the table has been initialized, you can manage the columnOrder state just like any other table state.

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 column order without going through the component that owns the table. @tanstack/store is already a dependency of @tanstack/alpine-table, so createAtom is available.

ts
import { createAtom } from '@tanstack/store'
import {
  createTable,
  tableFeatures,
  columnOrderingFeature,
} from '@tanstack/alpine-table'
import type { ColumnOrderState } from '@tanstack/alpine-table'

const features = tableFeatures({ columnOrderingFeature })

const columnOrderAtom = createAtom<ColumnOrderState>([
  'columnId1',
  'columnId2',
  'columnId3',
])

// subscribe wherever it is needed
columnOrderAtom.subscribe(() => {
  // react to column order changes
})

const table = createTable({
  features,
  //...
  atoms: {
    columnOrder: columnOrderAtom,
  },
  //...
})

Alternatively, the v8-style state.columnOrder plus onColumnOrderChange pattern is still supported by owning the slice in Alpine.reactive. 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.

ts
const features = tableFeatures({ columnOrderingFeature })

const local = Alpine.reactive({
  columnOrder: ['columnId1', 'columnId2', 'columnId3'] as ColumnOrderState,
})
//...
const table = createTable({
  features,
  //...
  state: {
    get columnOrder() {
      return local.columnOrder // connect the reactive slice back down to the table
    },
    //...
  },
  onColumnOrderChange: (updater) => {
    local.columnOrder =
      typeof updater === 'function' ? updater(local.columnOrder) : updater
  },
  //...
})

Reordering Columns

If the table has UI that allows the user to reorder columns, hook the drop event of your drag-and-drop solution up to table.setColumnOrder. For example, with native browser drag events on the header cells. Keep the drag state in Alpine.reactive so the markup can react to it:

ts
const local = Alpine.reactive({ movingColumnId: null as string | null })

// move the dragged column in front of the column it was dropped on
function handleDrop(targetColumnId: string) {
  const fromId = local.movingColumnId
  if (!fromId || fromId === targetColumnId) return
  table.setColumnOrder((prevColumnOrder) => {
    const newColumnOrder = [...prevColumnOrder]
    newColumnOrder.splice(
      newColumnOrder.indexOf(targetColumnId),
      0,
      newColumnOrder.splice(newColumnOrder.indexOf(fromId), 1)[0]!,
    )
    return newColumnOrder
  })
  local.movingColumnId = null
}

table.setColumnOrder works the same whether the table manages the columnOrder state internally, you control it with state + onColumnOrderChange, or you own it with an external atom. The official Column Ordering example calls it with a full array of leaf column ids.

Column Ordering APIs

Use table.setColumnOrder to update the column order state directly. Use table.resetColumnOrder to reset the order to initialState.columnOrder, or pass true to clear the order state.

ts
table.setColumnOrder(['lastName', 'firstName', 'age'])
table.resetColumnOrder()
table.resetColumnOrder(true)

Columns expose helpers for reading their current position after column pinning, manual ordering, and grouping have been applied.

ts
column.getIndex()
column.getIndex('start')
column.getIndex('center')
column.getIndex('end')

column.getIsFirstColumn()
column.getIsLastColumn()

These helpers are useful for styling column boundaries or building drag-and-drop targets that need to know the current rendered order.

Drag and Drop Column Reordering Suggestions (Alpine)

TanStack Table is not opinionated about which drag-and-drop solution you use. Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Consider native browser drag events (@dragstart, @dragenter, @dragend) with your own Alpine.reactive state if you want zero dependencies. This can be very lightweight, but you will need to do extra work for proper touch support on mobile. Material React Table implements TanStack Table column ordering this way with no DnD dependencies; the approach translates directly to Alpine since it is just DOM events feeding table.setColumnOrder.

  2. If you want a library, look at framework-agnostic options such as Atlassian's Pragmatic drag and drop. Check maintenance status, bundle size, and how well they handle semantic <table> markup before committing.

  3. Do NOT reach for React-only DnD libraries (including DnD Kit's @dnd-kit/* packages). They depend on React's component model and do not work with Alpine.

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Cell Spanning
Column Pinning