How to make the horizontal scrollbar visible in DT::datatable

Question

Using R shiny & DT package, I am creating certain tables. The number of columns vary as per user input & is not fixed. I have included the following code snippet to include a horizontal scrollbar so that when the number of columns is large, the user can scroll through the columns that are not directly visible.

server.R:

output$results <- DT::renderDataTable({
    DT::datatable(data = datasetInput(),
                  options = list(scrollX = TRUE,...)
                  )
  })
<code reduced for brevity>

Using the above code, the Horizontal scrollbar is not visible at first but appears when I click on a row and hit right arrow on my keyboard. Is there any way the scroll bar becomes visible as soon as the table is fired up, no matter how many columns I have, and I can drag the scrollbar using the mouse pointer?

Update:

I tried the code in the answer below and this is what I see - no horizontal scrollbar.

Answer 1

I don't think you can (or should) force a scrollbar easily if you don't need one, but the above code works fine for me, it shows a scrollbar when the page initializes. Maybe the problem is with the data or something else.

Here's a minimal example that has a horizontal scrollbar on page load

runApp(shinyApp(
  ui = fluidPage(
    DT::dataTableOutput("results", width = 300)
  ),
  server = function(input, output, session) {
    output$results <- DT::renderDataTable(
      mtcars,
      options = list(scrollX = TRUE)
    )
  }
))

Answer 2

I would have done this way also:

datasetInput1 <- reactive({
      infile <- input$file1
      if(is.null(infile))
        return(NULL) 
      else
        m <- read.csv(infile$datapath, header = input$header)
        return ( DT::datatable(m, extensions = 'Scroller', options = list(deferRender = F, dom = 't',
                                                                      columnDefs = list(list(className = 'dt-center',
                                                                                             targets = 5)),
                                                                     scrollY = 300, scroller = TRUE, scrollX = T,
                                                                     pageLength = 5))
               )
    })

Answer 3

Datatables for beginners can be so hard while using on server side. You can implement the datatables on server-side with almost no hustle, You should consider using the DataTables Quick. I found these to ease my day to day work, which I think every programmer out here will want. Note: Don't use it on the production as it may harm your data in some way.

Answer 4

Try this:

DT::datatable(sta, options = list(
  pageLength=50, scrollX='400px'), filter = 'top')