DataTable sorting: make one column stay fixed

Question

I'm using jQuery DataTables plugin. Sorting works fine, but is there a way to make one column stay always the same no matter what sorting is applied?

For example, the first column are just simple order numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... And when I sort by date, or anything else, the first column stays in the same order: 1, 2, 3..?

Is there a way to do this? So, I am not trying to disable sorting by first column, but make the first column stay the same when sorting is applied by another columns.

Answer 1

Came across this question while looking for solution for the same problem. Here is a solution as contained in the docs.

$(document).ready(function() {
var t = $('#example').DataTable( {
    "columnDefs": [ {
        "searchable": false,
        "orderable": false,
        "targets": 0
    } ],
    "order": [[ 1, 'asc' ]]
} );

t.on( 'order.dt search.dt', function () {
    t.column(0, {search:'applied', order:'applied'}).nodes().each( function (cell, i) {
        cell.innerHTML = i+1;
    } );
} ).draw();

} );

Basically the index column is re-numbered whenever an order or search event is fired. searchable and orderable are set to false since they have no effect on the index column (It will still be re-numbered anyways).

Answer 2

You can do that by using orderFixed option which defines ordering that will be always applied to the table.

For example, to always sort the first column in ascending order:

$('#example').dataTable( {
    "orderFixed": [ 0, 'asc' ]
} );