DataTables example Search API (regular expressions)

Searching 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 are APIs for the global search (search()DT) and for each individual column (column().search()DT).

Note also that you must call the draw()DT method after performing the search, in order for the results to be displayed.

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

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

Target Search text Treat as regex Use smart search
Global search
Column - Name
Column - Position
Column - Office
Column - Age
Column - Start date
Column - Salary
NamePositionOfficeAgeStart dateSalary
NamePositionOfficeAgeStart dateSalary
Airi Satou Accountant Tokyo 33 2008/11/28 $162,700
Angelica Ramos Chief Executive Officer (CEO) London 47 2009/10/09 $1,200,000
Ashton Cox Junior Technical Author San Francisco 66 2009/01/12 $86,000
Bradley Greer Software Engineer London 41 2012/10/13 $132,000
Brenden Wagner Software Engineer San Francisco 28 2011/06/07 $206,850
Brielle Williamson Integration Specialist New York 61 2012/12/02 $372,000
Bruno Nash Software Engineer London 38 2011/05/03 $163,500
Caesar Vance Pre-Sales Support New York 21 2011/12/12 $106,450
Cara Stevens Sales Assistant New York 46 2011/12/06 $145,600
Cedric Kelly Senior Javascript Developer Edinburgh 22 2012/03/29 $433,060
Showing 1 to 10 of 57 entries

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
function filterGlobal () {
    $('#example').DataTable().search(
        $('#global_filter').val(),
        $('#global_regex').prop('checked'),
        $('#global_smart').prop('checked')
    ).draw();
}
 
function filterColumn ( i ) {
    $('#example').DataTable().column( i ).search(
        $('#col'+i+'_filter').val(),
        $('#col'+i+'_regex').prop('checked'),
        $('#col'+i+'_smart').prop('checked')
    ).draw();
}
 
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').dataTable();
 
    $('input.global_filter').on( 'keyup click', function () {
        filterGlobal();
    } );
 
    $('input.column_filter').on( 'keyup click', function () {
        filterColumn( $(this).parents('tr').attr('data-column') );
    } );
} );

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example: