Table column as fixed

Question

I am building a data table where one of the requirements is:

As a user, I want to set a column as fixed

As in the following example, from https://uxdesign.cc/design-better-data-tables-4ecc99d23356

I am looking for

• best practices for setting the column as fixed. What is the most common interaction
• symbol/sign that the column in fixed

Answer 1

I haven't seen examples where freezing or fixing columns (or headers) is done as an action, because generally it is some sort of setting (e.g. Microsoft Excel) that you don't want the user to be changing constantly.

Having said that, because you can only apply this sensibly to a specific part of a table (it isn't the column that is frozen, but rather setting the scrolling point of a view of the table), it is difficult to position a button where you want to apply this function because it can be anywhere in a table.

If there is a reason for implementing the feature this way, it would be good to explain the rationale and this might help with the community coming up with some suggestions.