jQuery dataTables - left align sort icon

You can change css as:

table.dataTable thead .sorting, table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc, table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc, table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc_disabled, table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc_disabled{
    background-position: left center;
}

following is css for make arrow and heading more attractive.(not required)

table.dataTable thead .sorting, table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc, table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc, table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc_disabled, table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc_disabled{
    background-position: 5px center;
}
table.dataTable thead th, table.dataTable thead td {
    padding: 10px 18px 10px 28px;           
}

No, that is not possible to appear right after the text, since the arrows in fact are background images in CSS classes attached dynamically to the <th>'s. But you can change the position from far right to left :

table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_asc.png") no-repeat center left;
}
table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_desc.png") no-repeat center left;
}
table.dataTable thead .sorting {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_both.png") no-repeat center left;
}

demo -> http://jsfiddle.net/ttcz5odt/

---

Update - how to place arrow icons directly after text.

Gave it some extra thoughts - with a little "hack" it is indeed possible. The trick is to disable the <th> backgrounds and continuously inject / remove <span>'s with the original dataTables backgrounds instead.

CSS (besides disabling the original) :

span.arrow-hack {
  margin-left: 5px;
}
span.asc {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_asc.png") no-repeat center right;
}
span.desc {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_desc.png") no-repeat center right;
}
span.sort {
  background: url("http://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.0/images/sort_both.png") no-repeat center right;
}

script :

var spanSorting = '<span class="arrow-hack sort">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>',
    spanAsc = '<span class="arrow-hack asc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>',
    spanDesc = '<span class="arrow-hack desc">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>';

$("#example").on('click', 'th', function() {
    $("#example thead th").each(function(i, th) {
        $(th).find('.arrow-hack').remove();
        var html = $(th).html(),
            cls = $(th).attr('class');
        switch (cls) {
            case 'sorting_asc' : 
                $(th).html(html+spanAsc); break;
            case 'sorting_desc' : 
                $(th).html(html+spanDesc); break;
            default : 
                $(th).html(html+spanSorting); break;
        }
    });     
});    

update the arrow icons :

$("#example th").first().click().click();

Now it looks like what we wanted! :

demo -> http://jsfiddle.net/dmn4q141/

I have managed to do this by applying the following styles (better if applied as last css include file definition)

/**
 * Datatables Sorting icons on left
 */

table.dataTable thead > tr > th {
    padding-left: 30px !important;
    padding-right: initial !important;
}

table.dataTable thead .sorting:after,
table.dataTable thead .sorting_asc:after,
table.dataTable thead .sorting_desc:after {
    left: 8px !important;
    right: auto !important;
}