Disable sorting for a particular column in jQuery DataTables

Question

This is what you're looking for:

$('#example').dataTable( {
      "aoColumnDefs": [
          { 'bSortable': false, 'aTargets': [ 1 ] }
       ]
});

As of DataTables 1.10.5 it is now possible to define initialisation options using HTML5 data-* attributes.

-from DataTables example - HTML5 data-* attributes - table options

So you can use data-orderable="false" on the th of the column you don't want to be sortable. For example, the second column "Avatar" in the table below will not be sortable:

<table id="example" class="display" width="100%" data-page-length="25">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th data-orderable="false">Avatar</th>
            <th>Start date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>Tiger Nixon</td>
            <td><img src="https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8edcff60cdcca2ad650758fa524d4990?s=64&amp;d=identicon&amp;r=PG" alt="" style="width: 64px; height: 64px; visibility: visible;"></td>
            <td>2011/04/25</td>
            <td>$320,800</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Garrett Winters</td>
            <td><img src="https://www.gravatar.com/avatar/98fe9834dcca2ad650758fa524d4990?s=64&amp;d=identicon&amp;r=PG" alt="" style="width: 64px; height: 64px; visibility: visible;"></td>
            <td>2011/07/25</td>
            <td>$170,750</td>
        </tr>
        ...[ETC]...
    </tbody>
</table>

See a working example at https://jsfiddle.net/jhfrench/6yxvxt7L/.

To make a first column sorting disable, try with the below code in datatables jquery. The null represents the sorting enable here.

$('#example').dataTable( {
  "aoColumns": [
  { "bSortable": false },
  null,
  null,
  null
  ]
} );

Disable Sorting on a Column in jQuery Datatables

Using Datatables 1.9.4 I've disabled the sorting for the first column with this code:

/* Table initialisation */
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#rules').dataTable({
        "sDom" : "<'row'<'span6'l><'span6'f>r>t<'row'<'span6'i><'span6'p>>",
        "sPaginationType" : "bootstrap",
        "oLanguage" : {
            "sLengthMenu" : "_MENU_ records per page"
        },
        // Disable sorting on the first column
        "aoColumnDefs" : [ {
            'bSortable' : false,
            'aTargets' : [ 0 ]
        } ]
    });
});

EDIT:

You can disable even by using the no-sort class on your <th>,

and use this initialization code:

// Disable sorting on the no-sort class
"aoColumnDefs" : [ {
    "bSortable" : false,
    "aTargets" : [ "no-sort" ]
} ]

EDIT 2

In this example I'm using Datables with Bootstrap, following an old blog post. Now there is one link with updated material about styling Datatables with bootstrap.