Template:Sticky header

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This template makes a table's column headers stick to the top of the screen as the table's data is scrolled in and out of view. It's used on tall tables that have column headers that might be difficult to remember as you scroll through the data. If you want a table to be both top-sticky and side-sticky see {{sticky table start}}.

Usage

Include this template by adding {{sticky header}} or its redirect {{sticky-header}} above a table. Add one of the following classes to the table start wikitext.

Classes for table start wikitext: {| class="class1 class2".

Class	Summary
sticky-header	Make the first header row top sticky.
sticky-header-multi	Requires sortable table. Make multiple header rows top sticky. Avoid use with the sorttop class that becomes sticky after sorting. Avoid making headers sticky that aren't for the entire table (ex. section header rows). Avoid making excessively tall header rows sticky that might block too much data on short screens (ex. mobile landscape). class=unsortable can be added to all columns if necessary. See below: #Multi-row header that can't be visibly sortable

Single sticky header row

The sticky-header class is used to make the first header row top sticky. Sortable is not required. sorttop and sortbottom are not a problem with single header rows.

Caption

Color	A	B	C
Max	10	11	12
Red	1	2	3
Lime	4	5	6
Gold	7	8	9
Blue	10	11	12
Total	22	26	30

{{sticky header}}
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header"
|+ Caption
|-
! Color !! A !! B
! class="unsortable" | C
|- class=sorttop
| '''Max''' || 10 || 11 || 12
|-
| Red || 1 || 2 || 3
|-
| Lime || 4 || 5 || 6
|-
| Gold || 7 || 8 || 9
|-
| Blue || 10 || 11 || 12
|- class=sortbottom
| '''Total''' || 22 || 26 || 30
|}

Multiple sticky header rows

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T6740

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T355492

The sticky-header-multi class is used to make multiple header rows top sticky. Sortable table is required since sortable is currently the only way to move consecutive rows of column headers to the <thead> element. If some or all columns should not be sortable, then class=unsortable can be put in the header cell with the sorting icon. Table top will still be sticky. See Help:Sortable tables. If JavaScript is disabled, then sortable and this solution won't work.

Sorttop versus sortbottom

Avoid using the sorttop class since sortable moves those rows into the <thead> element after sorting, which makes them top sticky too. A solution might be to move them to the bottom and use the sortbottom class instead.

Caption

Color	Data
	A	B	C
Red	1	2	3
Lime	4	5	6
Gold	7	8	9
Blue	10	11	12
Max	10	11	12
Total	22	26	30

{{sticky header}}
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header-multi"
|+ Caption
|-
! rowspan=2 | Color
! colspan=3 | Data
|-
! A !! B
! class="unsortable" | C
|-
| Red || 1 || 2 || 3
|-
| Lime || 4 || 5 || 6
|-
| Gold || 7 || 8 || 9
|-
| Blue || 10 || 11 || 12
|- class=sortbottom
| '''Max''' || 10 || 11 || 12
|- class=sortbottom
| '''Total''' || 22 || 26 || 30
|}

Row starts off at top and moves to bottom after sorting

This table excerpt is adapted from List of countries by tariff rate. sortbottom is used instead of sorttop for the "World" row. So the World row does not become sticky after sorting. After sorting it moves to the bottom with the regional rows.

Country/Territory/Region/Group	WB		WTO		UNCTAD
	Tariff rate, applied, weighted mean, all products	Year	Simple average applied MFN tariff, all products	Year	Import tariff rates on non-agricultural and non-fuel products	Year
WORLD	2.59%	2017
Aruba	0%	2021			10.80%	2021
Afghanistan	0%	2018	6.5%	2018	0%	2018
Angola	0%	2021	10.9%	2021	0%	2021
Anguilla					13.14%	2021
Low & middle income economies (WB)	4.28%	2017
Low-income economies (WB)	9.79%	2017
Middle-income economies (WB)	—
Upper middle income economies (WB)	3.70%	2017
High-income economies (WB)	2.02%	2017
European Union	1.39%	2021	5.2%	2021	1.49%	2021

Header rows not for whole table

Consecutive rows of column headers are top sticky, so avoid adding a row of headers right under the column headers that don't apply to the entire table such as a section header meant to visually separate the table.

A solution might be to move each section to a column or separate tables, which also avoids accessibility issues per MOS:COLHEAD.

Another solution might be to add a blank row of data cells (| colspan=4 |) between the last column header row and the first section header row so the latter is not included in the consecutive header rows.

Caption

Color	Data
	A	B	C
Section 1
Red	1	2	3
Lime	4	5	6
Section 2
Gold	7	8	9
Blue	10	11	12

{{sticky header}}
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header-multi"
|+ Caption
|-
! rowspan=2 | Color
! colspan=3 | Data
|-
! A !! B !! C
|-
| colspan=4 |
|-
! colspan=4 | Section 1
|-
| Red || 1 || 2 || 3
|-
| Lime || 4 || 5 || 6
|-
! colspan=4 | Section 2
|-
| Gold || 7 || 8 || 9
|-
| Blue || 10 || 11 || 12
|}

Excessively tall header rows

Avoid excessively tall header rows that might block too much or all data when sticky on a small mobile screen, especially in landscape orientation. Some solutions might be to move some of the header text to the table caption, more concise header text, remove line-breaks (<br>) in the headers, or split the table up into smaller tables to reduce headers.

Header group 1
Header group 2		Header group 3
Header 1	Header 2	Header 3	Header 4
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data
data	data	data	data

Multi-row header that can't be visibly sortable

This table is adapted from here: AptX#Variants. It uses class=sortable in order to have a sticky multi-row header, but all columns individually use class=unsortable.

None of the columns can be sortable because the type of info and data within any single column varies greatly, and there is no point in ordering it alphabetically or numerically. Plus sorting any column removes the rowspans in the first column which gives the overall order of the table.

aptX variants

		SBC (for reference)	aptX	aptX LL	aptX HD	aptX Adaptive			Audio CD (for reference)
						@ 279 kbit/s	@ 420 kbit/s	@ up to ~1.2 Mbit/s
misc.	Launch	?	< 2009	2012	2016	2018		2021	1980s
	Trademark	–	Qualcomm (until August 2015: CSR, until July 2010: APT Licensing Ltd., until March 2005: Solid State Logic)						–
	Related patents	EP 0400755B1  (expired)	EP 0398973B1  (revoked)	aptX, US 9398620B1  (expired)	aptX	?			–
	Free implementations	FFmpeg, libsbc	FFmpeg, libopenaptx	FFmpeg, libopenaptx	FFmpeg, libopenaptx	N/A			–
	Proprietary implementations	Multiple	Qualcomm libaptX	None	Qualcomm libaptXHD	?			–
	Chip	–	CSR8635	CSR8670	CSR8675	QCC5100			–
Audio Encoding	Word depth	?	16-bit	16-bit	16-bit 24-bit	24-bit		16-bit	16-bit
	Sampling rate	44.1 kHz 48 kHz	44.1 kHz 48 kHz	44.1 kHz 48 kHz	44.1 kHz 48 kHz	44.1 kHz 48 kHz 96 kHz		44.1 kHz	44.1 kHz
	Bit rate	345 kbit/s (@ 48 kHz)	352 kbit/s (@ 44.1 kHz) 384 kbit/s (@ 48 kHz)	352 kbit/s (@ 48 kHz)	576 kbit/s (24 bits @ 48 kHz)	279 kbit/s	420 kbit/s	~140 kbit/s to 1.2 mbit/s (content dependent)	1411 kbit/s (@ 44.1 kHz)
		Constant	Constant	Constant	Constant	Variable		Variable	Constant
	Codec latency	?	1.8 – 2.0 ms	?	1.8 – 2.0 ms	1.4 – 2.0 ms		?	–
	Hardware transmitter latency	?	?	≈ 40 ms (using dedicated antenna)	?	≈ 80 ms		?	–
	Software transmitter latency (most phones)	200 – 500 ms depending on the transmitting device							–
	Backwards compatible with	–	SBC	SBC, aptX	SBC, aptX	SBC, aptX, aptX HD		?	?
Sound quality	THD+N @ 1 kHz		−67 dB or −85 dB?	−85 dB	-80 dB or −90 dB?	−90 dB	−100 dB	−96 dB	−96 dB
	Multi-tone @ 1 kHz		−100 dB	?	−100 dB	−90 dB	−100 dB	?
	Multi-tone @ 10 kHz		−65 dB	?	−90 dB	−85 dB	−95 dB	?
	Crosstalk		−120 dB	?	−155 dB	−90 dB	−200 dB	?
	SNR @ 1 kHz		93 dB	93 dB	129 dB	130 dB	135 dB	−96 dB	−96 dB
	PEAQ ODG		−0.18 or −0.08?	?	0.05 or 0.04?	−0.06	0.045	?
	Frequency response over Bluetooth		20 Hz – 22.7 kHz	20 Hz – 22.7 kHz	20 Hz – 22.7 kHz	20 Hz – 22.7 kHz		20 Hz – 22 kHz	20 Hz – 22 kHz

Known issues

See page of narrow sticky tables for testing in cell phones, etc.. As of Aug 9, 2025 {{Sticky header}} is not working in iPhone SE 2020 with the latest iOS (18.6) in the latest versions of Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera.

Tested in browsers on Windows 10, Windows 11, iOS 18 (iphone SE 2020), iOS 17 (iPhone 14 Pro Max), and Android 14 (Samsung Galaxy S21).

• Avoid wrapping a sticky table in an element that has an overflow style or it won't stick to the top of the page and the headers will be pushed down some in certain circumstances. Example of what not to do: <div style="overflow: auto;"></div>. Avoid setting overflow, overflow-y, or overflow-x to "auto", "scroll", or "hidden".
• When {{Anchor}} (or a similar anchor mechanism; see WP:ANCHOR) is used to link to a part of a top-sticky table, the link's target is moved to the top of the page behind the top-sticky elements. The target can be partially or fully covered depending on the height of the target and the top-sticky elements.
• When tables are wider than the content area on small screens (<=639px, normally portrait orientation) or in the Timeless skin, they are designed with their own horizontal scroll. However, on Android phones with sticky headers, this functionality can fail due to a complex interaction involving hardware, browser rendering, and how overflow is handled. This causes tables to overflow and creates a page-level scroll, which messes up the page layout. On some Android devices, like the Galaxy S20 FE 5G and Galaxy S21 5G, sticky headers won't work until the user zooms out, which causes readability issues, while on others, like the Galaxy F14 5G (rebranded M14), they work correctly despite the scroll issue. This differs from iPhones, which handle both aspects correctly. Due to these inconsistencies, sticky headers are disabled on smaller screens per accessibility guidelines. To enable them, see User:Jroberson108/StickyTableHeadersFix.
• On Safari 14.1.2, a top-sticky thead (sticky-header-multi class) is flush to the top of the page, but a sticky row (sticky-header class) is not with a gap above it. This is most likely a layout bug in how Safari 14 calculates sticky positioning for rows relative to the table's edge, not the viewport top. This is not an issue in Safari 16.6.1.

See also

• Help:Table/Advanced § Tables with sticky headers
• {{sticky table start}} - allows sticky rows and columns inside a scrollable area.
• {{shy}} – Can be used to help narrow columns by adding a soft hyphen to a word to allow it to wrap.

More template styles for tables:

• {{sort under}} - moves the sorting arrows under the headers.
• {{row hover highlight}} - adds row hover highlighting, and option for white background.
• {{static row numbers}} - adds a column of row numbers to a table.
• {{table alignment}} - aligns the cells in a column, or a whole table.

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Sticky header/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (edit | diff) and testcases (edit) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.