See Dev Resources page.

Initialize

In your HTML:

<script>
    $(document).ready(function () {
        $("#my-table").DataTable({
            // Config options.
            orderCellsTop: true,

            // Enable plugins.
            fixedHeader: true,

            initComplete: function () {
                foo(this)
            }
        });
    });

</script>

In initComplete function, you can put calls which add to the table, such as adding a search bar.

Alternatively, you can do it like this:

const table = $("#my-table").DataTable()
foo(table)

Note that depending on the approach, you use a different reference to the table.

With table declared, you can do table.column(0) for example.

And in initComplete, you can pass this which gives you the same access in the other function.

But to pass a column instead, I found I had to do this.api() otherwise I would get an error that a method does not exist.

e.g.

const bazzCol = this.api().column(0)
bar(bazzCol)

Load data

Ajax JSON file

See ajax.json()

JS:

const table = $('#example').DataTable( {
  ajax: "data.json"
} );
 
table.on( 'xhr', function () {
  const json = table.ajax.json();
  alert( json.data.length +' row(s) were loaded' );
} );

See also Ajax Sourced Data and POST data under examples in the docs.

  • Script tag. 
      <script>
  $(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').DataTable( {
      ajax: 'data.json'
    });
  });
  </script>

Set up the table outline with no data.

<table id="example" class="display" style="width:100%">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Position</th>
            <th>Office</th>
            <th>Extn.</th>
            <th>Start date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tfoot>
        <tr>
            <th>Name</th>
            <th>Position</th>
            <th>Office</th>
            <th>Extn.</th>
            <th>Start date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
    </tfoot>
</table>

Data in a JSON file:

data.json ```json { "data": [ [ "Tiger Nixon", "System Architect", "Edinburgh", "5421", "2011/04/25", "$320,800" ], [ "Garrett Winters", "Accountant", "Tokyo", "8422", "2011/07/25", "$170,750" ], [ "Ashton Cox", "Junior Technical Author", "San Francisco", "1562", "2009/01/12", "$86,000" ], [ "Cedric Kelly", "Senior Javascript Developer", "Edinburgh", "6224", "2012/03/29", "$433,060" ], [ "Airi Satou", "Accountant", "Tokyo", "5407", "2008/11/28", "$162,700" ], [ "Brielle Williamson", "Integration Specialist", "New York", "4804", "2012/12/02", "$372,000" ], [ "Herrod Chandler", "Sales Assistant", "San Francisco", "9608", "2012/08/06", "$137,500" ], [ "Rhona Davidson", "Integration Specialist", "Tokyo", "6200", "2010/10/14", "$327,900" ], [ "Colleen Hurst", "Javascript Developer", "San Francisco", "2360", "2009/09/15", "$205,500" ], [ "Sonya Frost", "Software Engineer", "Edinburgh", "1667", "2008/12/13", "$103,600" ], [ "Jena Gaines", "Office Manager", "London", "3814", "2008/12/19", "$90,560" ], [ "Quinn Flynn", "Support Lead", "Edinburgh", "9497", "2013/03/03", "$342,000" ], [ "Charde Marshall", "Regional Director", "San Francisco", "6741", "2008/10/16", "$470,600" ], [ "Haley Kennedy", "Senior Marketing Designer", "London", "3597", "2012/12/18", "$313,500" ], [ "Tatyana Fitzpatrick", "Regional Director", "London", "1965", "2010/03/17", "$385,750" ], [ "Michael Silva", "Marketing Designer", "London", "1581", "2012/11/27", "$198,500" ], [ "Paul Byrd", "Chief Financial Officer (CFO)", "New York", "3059", "2010/06/09", "$725,000" ], [ "Gloria Little", "Systems Administrator", "New York", "1721", "2009/04/10", "$237,500" ], [ "Bradley Greer", "Software Engineer", "London", "2558", "2012/10/13", "$132,000" ], [ "Dai Rios", "Personnel Lead", "Edinburgh", "2290", "2012/09/26", "$217,500" ], [ "Jenette Caldwell", "Development Lead", "New York", "1937", "2011/09/03", "$345,000" ], [ "Yuri Berry", "Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)", "New York", "6154", "2009/06/25", "$675,000" ], [ "Caesar Vance", "Pre-Sales Support", "New York", "8330", "2011/12/12", "$106,450" ], [ "Doris Wilder", "Sales Assistant", "Sydney", "3023", "2010/09/20", "$85,600" ], [ "Angelica Ramos", "Chief Executive Officer (CEO)", "London", "5797", "2009/10/09", "$1,200,000" ], [ "Gavin Joyce", "Developer", "Edinburgh", "8822", "2010/12/22", "$92,575" ], [ "Jennifer Chang", "Regional Director", "Singapore", "9239", "2010/11/14", "$357,650" ], [ "Brenden Wagner", "Software Engineer", "San Francisco", "1314", "2011/06/07", "$206,850" ], [ "Fiona Green", "Chief Operating Officer (COO)", "San Francisco", "2947", "2010/03/11", "$850,000" ], [ "Shou Itou", "Regional Marketing", "Tokyo", "8899", "2011/08/14", "$163,000" ], [ "Michelle House", "Integration Specialist", "Sydney", "2769", "2011/06/02", "$95,400" ], [ "Suki Burks", "Developer", "London", "6832", "2009/10/22", "$114,500" ], [ "Prescott Bartlett", "Technical Author", "London", "3606", "2011/05/07", "$145,000" ], [ "Gavin Cortez", "Team Leader", "San Francisco", "2860", "2008/10/26", "$235,500" ], [ "Martena Mccray", "Post-Sales support", "Edinburgh", "8240", "2011/03/09", "$324,050" ], [ "Unity Butler", "Marketing Designer", "San Francisco", "5384", "2009/12/09", "$85,675" ], [ "Howard Hatfield", "Office Manager", "San Francisco", "7031", "2008/12/16", "$164,500" ], [ "Hope Fuentes", "Secretary", "San Francisco", "6318", "2010/02/12", "$109,850" ], [ "Vivian Harrell", "Financial Controller", "San Francisco", "9422", "2009/02/14", "$452,500" ], [ "Timothy Mooney", "Office Manager", "London", "7580", "2008/12/11", "$136,200" ], [ "Jackson Bradshaw", "Director", "New York", "1042", "2008/09/26", "$645,750" ], [ "Olivia Liang", "Support Engineer", "Singapore", "2120", "2011/02/03", "$234,500" ], [ "Bruno Nash", "Software Engineer", "London", "6222", "2011/05/03", "$163,500" ], [ "Sakura Yamamoto", "Support Engineer", "Tokyo", "9383", "2009/08/19", "$139,575" ], [ "Thor Walton", "Developer", "New York", "8327", "2013/08/11", "$98,540" ], [ "Finn Camacho", "Support Engineer", "San Francisco", "2927", "2009/07/07", "$87,500" ], [ "Serge Baldwin", "Data Coordinator", "Singapore", "8352", "2012/04/09", "$138,575" ], [ "Zenaida Frank", "Software Engineer", "New York", "7439", "2010/01/04", "$125,250" ], [ "Zorita Serrano", "Software Engineer", "San Francisco", "4389", "2012/06/01", "$115,000" ], [ "Jennifer Acosta", "Junior Javascript Developer", "Edinburgh", "3431", "2013/02/01", "$75,650" ], [ "Cara Stevens", "Sales Assistant", "New York", "3990", "2011/12/06", "$145,600" ], [ "Hermione Butler", "Regional Director", "London", "1016", "2011/03/21", "$356,250" ], [ "Lael Greer", "Systems Administrator", "London", "6733", "2009/02/27", "$103,500" ], [ "Jonas Alexander", "Developer", "San Francisco", "8196", "2010/07/14", "$86,500" ], [ "Shad Decker", "Regional Director", "Edinburgh", "6373", "2008/11/13", "$183,000" ], [ "Michael Bruce", "Javascript Developer", "Singapore", "5384", "2011/06/27", "$183,000" ], [ "Donna Snider", "Customer Support", "New York", "4226", "2011/01/25", "$112,000" ] ] } ```

Column types

This is supposed to be automatic, but that might not be true for dirty data.

$("#my-table").DataTable({
  columnDefs: [
    { "type": "num-fmt", "targets": 3 },
    { "type": "date", "targets": 5 },
  ]
});

Method

If doing a POST to an API, you can do this:

$('#example').DataTable( {
  ajax: {
    url: "api/data.json",
    type: "POST"
  },
});

Headers

If you need to add headers such as for a token, see the underlying ajax function’s options.

$.ajax({
  url: "api/data.json",
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Basic ${btoa('myuser:mypwd')}`,
    'Order-Num': 123
  },
});

So then you can do:

$('#example').DataTable( {
  ajax: {
    url: "api/data.json",
    headers: {
      'Authorization': `Basic ${btoa('myuser:mypwd')}`,
      'Order-Num': 123
    },
  },
});

Column lookup

See Column selector in the docs.

All data

const table = $('#example').DataTable();
const allData = table.columns().data();

Get column by index

Using a zero-based index.

const table = $('#example').DataTable();
const data = table.column(0).data();

Get column my name

const table = $('#example').DataTable( {
    columns: [
        { name: 'first-name' },
        { name: 'last-name' },
        { name: 'position' },
        { name: 'location' },
        { name: 'salary' }
    ]
} );

table.column( 'salary:name' ).data();

Unique values in a column

const values = column.data().unique().sort()

value.each( function (d, j) {
    select.append(`<option value="${d}">${d}</option>`)
});

See column().search() API.

Escape string

Use this function to escape a regex pattern.

escapeRegex

Example from the docs.

const val = $.fn.dataTable.util.escapeRegex(
    $(this).val()
);

column.search( val ? `^${val}$` : "", true, false )
    .draw();

Plugin structure

Search functions to be attached here:

$.fn.dataTable.ext.search

Use 5 inputs:

( settings, searchData, index, rowData, counter )

e.g. From the Search docs.

$.fn.dataTable.ext.search.push(
    function( settings, searchData, index, rowData, counter ) {
        var min = parseInt( $('#min').val(), 10 );
        var max = parseInt( $('#max').val(), 10 );
        var age = parseFloat( searchData[3] ) || 0; // using the data from the 4th column

        if ( ( isNaN( min ) && isNaN( max ) ) ||
             ( isNaN( min ) && age <= max ) ||
             ( min <= age   && isNaN( max ) ) ||
             ( min <= age   && age <= max ) )
        {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
);