Preamble

This example is almost identical to individual column example and provides the same functionality, but using <select> menus rather than input elements. The API plug-in function fnGetColumnData from Benedikt Forchhammer provides much of the logic processing required, and integration with a table is almost trivial.

One possible interaction chance would be to make use of fnGetColumnData's ability to get filtered data, so you could have the possible filtering values in the select menus to update to only those in the table, rather than all values.

Live example

Initialisation code

(function($) {
/*
 * Function: fnGetColumnData
 * Purpose:  Return an array of table values from a particular column.
 * Returns:  array string: 1d data array 
 * Inputs:   object:oSettings - dataTable settings object. This is always the last argument past to the function
 *           int:iColumn - the id of the column to extract the data from
 *           bool:bUnique - optional - if set to false duplicated values are not filtered out
 *           bool:bFiltered - optional - if set to false all the table data is used (not only the filtered)
 *           bool:bIgnoreEmpty - optional - if set to false empty values are not filtered from the result array
 * Author:   Benedikt Forchhammer <b.forchhammer /AT\ mind2.de>
 */
$.fn.dataTableExt.oApi.fnGetColumnData = function ( oSettings, iColumn, bUnique, bFiltered, bIgnoreEmpty ) {
	// check that we have a column id
	if ( typeof iColumn == "undefined" ) return new Array();
	
	// by default we only wany unique data
	if ( typeof bUnique == "undefined" ) bUnique = true;
	
	// by default we do want to only look at filtered data
	if ( typeof bFiltered == "undefined" ) bFiltered = true;
	
	// by default we do not wany to include empty values
	if ( typeof bIgnoreEmpty == "undefined" ) bIgnoreEmpty = true;
	
	// list of rows which we're going to loop through
	var aiRows;
	
	// use only filtered rows
	if (bFiltered == true) aiRows = oSettings.aiDisplay; 
	// use all rows
	else aiRows = oSettings.aiDisplayMaster; // all row numbers

	// set up data array	
	var asResultData = new Array();
	
	for (var i=0,c=aiRows.length; i<c; i++) {
		iRow = aiRows[i];
		var aData = this.fnGetData(iRow);
		var sValue = aData[iColumn];
		
		// ignore empty values?
		if (bIgnoreEmpty == true && sValue.length == 0) continue;

		// ignore unique values?
		else if (bUnique == true && jQuery.inArray(sValue, asResultData) > -1) continue;
		
		// else push the value onto the result data array
		else asResultData.push(sValue);
	}
	
	return asResultData;
}}(jQuery));


function fnCreateSelect( aData )
{
	var r='<select><option value=""></option>', i, iLen=aData.length;
	for ( i=0 ; i<iLen ; i++ )
	{
		r += '<option value="'+aData[i]+'">'+aData[i]+'</option>';
	}
	return r+'</select>';
}


$(document).ready(function() {
	/* Initialise the DataTable */
	var oTable = $('#example').dataTable( {
		"oLanguage": {
			"sSearch": "Search all columns:"
		}
	} );
	
	/* Add a select menu for each TH element in the table footer */
	$("tfoot th").each( function ( i ) {
		this.innerHTML = fnCreateSelect( oTable.fnGetColumnData(i) );
		$('select', this).change( function () {
			oTable.fnFilter( $(this).val(), i );
		} );
	} );
} );

Other examples

Basic initialisation

• Zero configuration
• Feature enablement
• Sorting data
• Multi-column sorting
• Multiple tables
• Hidden columns
• DOM positioning
• State saving
• Alternative pagination styles
• Scrolling: Horizontal / Vertical / Both / Themed
• Change language information (internationalisation)
• ThemeRoller themes (Smoothness)

Advanced initialisation

• Events (pre initialisation)
• Events (post initialisation)
• Column rendering
• Sorting without HTML tags
• Multiple table controls (sDom)
• Defining length menu options
• Custom toolbar (element) around table
• Row highlighting with CSS
• Column grouping through col/row spans
• Row grouping
• Row callback
• Footer callback
• Change language information from a file (internationalisation)

Data sources

• DOM
• Javascript array
• Ajax source
• Server side processing

Server-side processing

• Obtain server-side data
• Add extra HTTP variables
• Use HTTP POST
• Custom column ordering (in callback data)
• Pipelining data (reduce Ajax calls for paging)
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)

API

• Dynamically add a new row
• Individual column filtering (using "input" elements)
• Individual column filtering (using "select" elements)
• Highlight rows and columns
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• User selectable rows (single row) and delete rows
• Editable rows (with jEditable)
• Submit form with elements in table
• Index column (static number column)
• Show and hide columns dynamically
• API function use in initialisation object (callback)
• DataTables scrolling and tabs
• Regular expression filtering

Plug-ins

• Add custom API functions
• Sorting and type detection
• Custom pagination controls
• Range filtering / custom filtering
• Live DOM sorting
• Automatic HTML type detection

Please refer to the DataTables documentation for full information about its API properties and methods.