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()) and for each individual column (column().search()).

Note also that you must call the draw() 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.

Name	Position	Office	Age	Start date	Salary
Tiger Nixon	System Architect	Edinburgh	61	2011-04-25	$320,800
Garrett Winters	Accountant	Tokyo	63	2011-07-25	$170,750
Ashton Cox	Junior Technical Author	San Francisco	66	2009-01-12	$86,000
Cedric Kelly	Senior Javascript Developer	Edinburgh	22	2012-03-29	$433,060
Airi Satou	Accountant	Tokyo	33	2008-11-28	$162,700
Brielle Williamson	Integration Specialist	New York	61	2012-12-02	$372,000
Herrod Chandler	Sales Assistant	San Francisco	59	2012-08-06	$137,500
Rhona Davidson	Integration Specialist	Tokyo	55	2010-10-14	$327,900
Colleen Hurst	Javascript Developer	San Francisco	39	2009-09-15	$205,500
Sonya Frost	Software Engineer	Edinburgh	23	2008-12-13	$103,600
Jena Gaines	Office Manager	London	30	2008-12-19	$90,560
Quinn Flynn	Support Lead	Edinburgh	22	2013-03-03	$342,000
Charde Marshall	Regional Director	San Francisco	36	2008-10-16	$470,600
Haley Kennedy	Senior Marketing Designer	London	43	2012-12-18	$313,500
Tatyana Fitzpatrick	Regional Director	London	19	2010-03-17	$385,750
Michael Silva	Marketing Designer	London	66	2012-11-27	$198,500
Paul Byrd	Chief Financial Officer (CFO)	New York	64	2010-06-09	$725,000
Gloria Little	Systems Administrator	New York	59	2009-04-10	$237,500
Bradley Greer	Software Engineer	London	41	2012-10-13	$132,000
Dai Rios	Personnel Lead	Edinburgh	35	2012-09-26	$217,500
Jenette Caldwell	Development Lead	New York	30	2011-09-03	$345,000
Yuri Berry	Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)	New York	40	2009-06-25	$675,000
Caesar Vance	Pre-Sales Support	New York	21	2011-12-12	$106,450
Doris Wilder	Sales Assistant	Sydney	23	2010-09-20	$85,600
Angelica Ramos	Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	London	47	2009-10-09	$1,200,000
Gavin Joyce	Developer	Edinburgh	42	2010-12-22	$92,575
Jennifer Chang	Regional Director	Singapore	28	2010-11-14	$357,650
Brenden Wagner	Software Engineer	San Francisco	28	2011-06-07	$206,850
Fiona Green	Chief Operating Officer (COO)	San Francisco	48	2010-03-11	$850,000
Shou Itou	Regional Marketing	Tokyo	20	2011-08-14	$163,000
Michelle House	Integration Specialist	Sydney	37	2011-06-02	$95,400
Suki Burks	Developer	London	53	2009-10-22	$114,500
Prescott Bartlett	Technical Author	London	27	2011-05-07	$145,000
Gavin Cortez	Team Leader	San Francisco	22	2008-10-26	$235,500
Martena Mccray	Post-Sales support	Edinburgh	46	2011-03-09	$324,050
Unity Butler	Marketing Designer	San Francisco	47	2009-12-09	$85,675
Howard Hatfield	Office Manager	San Francisco	51	2008-12-16	$164,500
Hope Fuentes	Secretary	San Francisco	41	2010-02-12	$109,850
Vivian Harrell	Financial Controller	San Francisco	62	2009-02-14	$452,500
Timothy Mooney	Office Manager	London	37	2008-12-11	$136,200
Jackson Bradshaw	Director	New York	65	2008-09-26	$645,750
Olivia Liang	Support Engineer	Singapore	64	2011-02-03	$234,500
Bruno Nash	Software Engineer	London	38	2011-05-03	$163,500
Sakura Yamamoto	Support Engineer	Tokyo	37	2009-08-19	$139,575
Thor Walton	Developer	New York	61	2013-08-11	$98,540
Finn Camacho	Support Engineer	San Francisco	47	2009-07-07	$87,500
Serge Baldwin	Data Coordinator	Singapore	64	2012-04-09	$138,575
Zenaida Frank	Software Engineer	New York	63	2010-01-04	$125,250
Zorita Serrano	Software Engineer	San Francisco	56	2012-06-01	$115,000
Jennifer Acosta	Junior Javascript Developer	Edinburgh	43	2013-02-01	$75,650
Cara Stevens	Sales Assistant	New York	46	2011-12-06	$145,600
Hermione Butler	Regional Director	London	47	2011-03-21	$356,250
Lael Greer	Systems Administrator	London	21	2009-02-27	$103,500
Jonas Alexander	Developer	San Francisco	30	2010-07-14	$86,500
Shad Decker	Regional Director	Edinburgh	51	2008-11-13	$183,000
Michael Bruce	Javascript Developer	Singapore	29	2011-06-27	$183,000
Donna Snider	Customer Support	New York	27	2011-01-25	$112,000
Name	Position	Office	Age	Start date	Salary

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

function filterGlobal(table) {
	table
		.search(
			$('#global_filter').val(),
			$('#global_regex').prop('checked'),
			$('#global_smart').prop('checked')
		)
		.draw();
}

function filterColumn(table, i) {
	table
		.column(i)
		.search(
			$('#col' + i + '_filter').val(),
			$('#col' + i + '_regex').prop('checked'),
			$('#col' + i + '_smart').prop('checked')
		)
		.draw();
}

var table = $('#example').DataTable();

$('input.global_filter').on('keyup click', function () {
	filterGlobal(table);
});

$('input.column_filter').on('keyup click', function () {
	filterColumn(table, $(this).parents('tr').attr('data-column'));
});

function filterGlobal(table) {
	let filter = document.querySelector('#global_filter');
	let regex = document.querySelector('#global_regex');
	let smart = document.querySelector('#global_smart');

	table.search(filter.value, regex.checked, smart.checked).draw();
}

function filterColumn(table, i) {
	let filter = document.querySelector('#col' + i + '_filter');
	let regex = document.querySelector('#col' + i + '_regex');
	let smart = document.querySelector('#col' + i + '_smart');

	table.column(i).search(filter.value, regex.checked, smart.checked).draw();
}

let table = new DataTable('#example');

document.querySelectorAll('input.global_filter').forEach((el) => {
	el.addEventListener(el.type === 'text' ? 'keyup' : 'change', () =>
		filterGlobal(table)
	);
});

document.querySelectorAll('input.column_filter').forEach((el) => {
	let tr = el.closest('tr');
	let columnIndex = tr.getAttribute('data-column');

	el.addEventListener(el.type === 'text' ? 'keyup' : 'change', () =>
		filterColumn(table, columnIndex)
	);
});

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

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.

Target	Search text	Treat as regex	Use smart search
Global search
Column - Name
Column - Position
Column - Office
Column - Age
Column - Start date
Column - Salary

Search API (regular expressions)

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