This set of templates ({{Scrolling table/top}}, {{Scrolling table/mid}}, {{Scrolling table/end}}) allows the production of tables that scroll horizontally when they're wider than the screen. This is especially useful in comparison tables.
Some notes:
- The scrollbar only appears if the table is actually wider than the page.
- This template allows up to 30 row headers passed as parameters to its
{{Scrolling table/top}}subtemplate, for convenience.- Extra row headers can be added using regular table syntax, between the
{{Scrolling table/top}}and the{{Scrolling table/mid}}subtemplates - Important: The {{Scrolling table/top}} subtemplate uses zero-width spaces to ensure newlines are added where appropriate. Be careful when editing them.
- Extra row headers can be added using regular table syntax, between the
Usage example
The following code:
{{Scrolling table/top |first = top header 1
|left header 1
|left header 2
|...
|left header 30
}}
|-
!left header 31 (extra)
{{Scrolling table/mid}}
|-
! top header 2 !! top header 3 !! top header 4 !! top header 5 !! top header 6 !! top header 7 !! top header 8 !! top header 9 !! top header 10 !! top header 11 !! top header 12 !! top header 13 !! top header 14 !! top header 15 !! top header 16 !! top header 17 !! top header 18 !! top header 19 !! top header 20
|-
| Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum
|-
| Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum
|-
| ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ... || ...
|-
| Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum
|-
| Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum || Lorem ipsum
{{Scrolling table/end}}produces the table below:
| left header 31 (extra) |
|---|
| top header 2 | top header 3 | top header 4 | top header 5 | top header 6 | top header 7 | top header 8 | top header 9 | top header 10 | top header 11 | top header 12 | top header 13 | top header 14 | top header 15 | top header 16 | top header 17 | top header 18 | top header 19 | top header 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum |
| Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum |
| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum |
| Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum | Lorem ipsum |
Implementation notes (how it works)
The way these templates work is by creating two tables:
- one table to house the row headers in the leftmost side, which a
styleattribute set tofloat: left, so that it will occupy only the necessary horizontal width to fit its contents, letting the browser place additional content to its right; and - a second table, wrapped in a
<div>(a block element, which will occupy all the available horizontal space) with two key properties in itsstyleattribute:overflow-x: auto, to make the content scroll in the horizontal direction if its width surpasses the available space left over by the first table; andwhite-space: nowrap, to prevent content in cells from wrapping over, and thus keep them aligned with the rows on the left (which assumes the row headers are also rendered on a single line).