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.

Target Search text Treat as regex Use smart search
Global search
Column - Name
Column - Position
Column - Office
Column - Age
Column - Start date
Column - Salary
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
  • Javascript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Ajax
  • Server-side script
  • Comments

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.

      Other examples