column().name()

Yani

I'm looking for a way to grab the name of a column.

The column().name() function seems perfect but isn't available until DataTables 2.0.0:
https://datatables.net/reference/api/column().name()

Does anybody know of a way to do this in 1.6.5?

Yani

Seems like using column().header() is the easiest workaround for this.

bindrid

I have, in the past, declared my columns ahead of my data table so I could have full access to the information it contains.

Yani

I don't think that would have been usable in my case. When adding new rows, I'm selecting a specific column to be edited, but with colReorder the index was kind of useless.

bindrid

did you know about the $("#example").DataTable().column( 'salary:name' ).data(); ?

https://datatables.net/reference/type/column-selector

Yani

Yes. I already selected the column, but needed the name.

allan

The new column().name() method won't be available until v2 ships (unlikely to happen this year).

If you wanted then before then, you could easily use them as plug-in API method. This is the code in DataTables core for them.

Allan

allan

I haven't tested it, but this should do it:

$.fn.dataTable.Api.registerPlural( 'columns().names()', 'column().name()', function ( setter ) {
    return this.iterator( 'column', function ( settings, column ) {
        var col = settings.aoColumns[column];

        if ( setter !== undefined ) {
            col.sName = setter;
            return this;
        }
        else {
            return col.sName;
        }
    }, 1 );
} );

Yani

Perfect! Thanks a lot Allan.