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This site contains the legacy documentation for DataTables v1.9 and earlier for reference only.
DataTables 1.9 was End Of Life in 2014. Do not use it for new work.
The current release of DataTables can always be found on DataTables.net.
DataTables filtering API example

Preamble

Filtering a table is one of the most common user interactions with a DataTables table, and DataTables provides a number of methods for you to control this interaction. There is a global filter, and a filter for each individual column. The global filter acts on each column.

Each filter (global or column) can be marked as a regular expression (allowing you to create very complex interactions) and as a smart filter or not. When smart filtering is enabled on a particular filter, DataTables will modify the user input string to a complex regular expression which can make filtering more intuitive.

This example allows you to "play" with the various filtering options that DataTables provides.

Live example

Target Filter text Treat as regex Use smart filter
Global filtering
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Column 4
Column 5
Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version CSS grade
Trident Internet Explorer 4.0 Win 95+ 4 X
Trident Internet Explorer 5.0 Win 95+ 5 C
Trident Internet Explorer 5.5 Win 95+ 5,5 A
Trident Internet Explorer 6 Win 98+ 6 A
Trident Internet Explorer 7 Win XP SP2+ 7 A
Trident AOL browser (AOL desktop) Win XP 6 A
Gecko Firefox 1.0 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1,7 A
Gecko Firefox 1.5 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1,8 A
Gecko Firefox 2.0 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1,8 A
Gecko Firefox 3.0 Win 2k+ / OSX.3+ 1,9 A
Gecko Camino 1.0 OSX.2+ 1,8 A
Gecko Camino 1.5 OSX.3+ 1,8 A
Gecko Netscape 7.2 Win 95+ / Mac OS 8.6-9.2 1.7 A
Gecko Netscape Browser 8 Win 98SE+ 1,7 A
Gecko Netscape Navigator 9 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1,8 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.0 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.1 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,1 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.2 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,2 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.3 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,3 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.4 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,4 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.5 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,5 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.6 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ 1,6 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.7 Win 98+ / OSX.1+ 1,7 A
Gecko Mozilla 1.8 Win 98+ / OSX.1+ 1,8 A
Gecko Seamonkey 1.1 Win 98+ / OSX.2+ 1,8 A
Gecko Epiphany 2.20 Gnome 1,8 A
Webkit Safari 1.2 OSX.3 125,5 A
Webkit Safari 1.3 OSX.3 312,8 A
Webkit Safari 2.0 OSX.4+ 419,3 A
Webkit Safari 3.0 OSX.4+ 522,1 A
Webkit OmniWeb 5.5 OSX.4+ 420 A
Webkit iPod Touch / iPhone iPod 420,1 A
Webkit S60 S60 413 A
Presto Opera 7.0 Win 95+ / OSX.1+ - A
Presto Opera 7.5 Win 95+ / OSX.2+ - A
Presto Opera 8.0 Win 95+ / OSX.2+ - A
Presto Opera 8.5 Win 95+ / OSX.2+ - A
Presto Opera 9.0 Win 95+ / OSX.3+ - A
Presto Opera 9.2 Win 88+ / OSX.3+ - A
Presto Opera 9.5 Win 88+ / OSX.3+ - A
Presto Opera for Wii Wii - A
Presto Nokia N800 N800 - A
Presto Nintendo DS browser Nintendo DS 8,5 C/A1
KHTML Konqureror 3.1 KDE 3.1 3,1 C
KHTML Konqureror 3.3 KDE 3.3 3,3 A
KHTML Konqureror 3.5 KDE 3.5 3,5 A
Tasman Internet Explorer 4.5 Mac OS 8-9 - X
Tasman Internet Explorer 5.1 Mac OS 7.6-9 1 C
Tasman Internet Explorer 5.2 Mac OS 8-X 1 C
Misc NetFront 3.1 Embedded devices - C
Misc NetFront 3.4 Embedded devices - A
Misc Dillo 0.8 Embedded devices - X
Misc Links Text only - X
Misc Lynx Text only - X
Misc IE Mobile Windows Mobile 6 - C
Misc PSP browser PSP - C
Other browsers All others - - U
Rendering engine Browser Platform(s) Engine version CSS grade

Initialisation code

function fnFilterGlobal ()
{
	$('#example').dataTable().fnFilter( 
		$("#global_filter").val(),
		null, 
		$("#global_regex")[0].checked, 
		$("#global_smart")[0].checked
	);
}

function fnFilterColumn ( i )
{
	$('#example').dataTable().fnFilter( 
		$("#col"+(i+1)+"_filter").val(),
		i, 
		$("#col"+(i+1)+"_regex")[0].checked, 
		$("#col"+(i+1)+"_smart")[0].checked
	);
}

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#example').dataTable();
	
	$("#global_filter").keyup( fnFilterGlobal );
	$("#global_regex").click( fnFilterGlobal );
	$("#global_smart").click( fnFilterGlobal );
	
	$("#col1_filter").keyup( function() { fnFilterColumn( 0 ); } );
	$("#col1_regex").click(  function() { fnFilterColumn( 0 ); } );
	$("#col1_smart").click(  function() { fnFilterColumn( 0 ); } );
	
	// ... etc for the other four columns
} );

Other examples