Answers

• rein Posts: 12Questions: 3Answers: 0

  March 2018 edited March 2018

  Hi! Please try this and let me know if it worked for you:

  $("#button").on("click",function(){
      var searchVal =  $("#category").val();
      column.search(searchVal).draw();
   });
  
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018 edited March 2018

  Many thanks, I tried your code, but how would I tell it to target column 5?
• rein Posts: 12Questions: 3Answers: 0

  March 2018

  Sorry, forgot about the column. Try table.columns( 5 ).search( searchVal ).draw();
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  Thanks very much for your help, it's appreciated. I managed to figure it out in the end, there was a problem with my code. I have implemented some filters to work with server side and that was at fault. They're working now although not perfectly. They are ordinary ajax/php dropdowns and datatables performs a column search based on the selection. Can see them here
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  Can anybody point me in the direction of more accurate searching in columns using server side? Currently it brings back results that aren't an exact match. I understand I need regex searching but are there any examples of code I would need to implement it?
• colin Posts: 15,240Questions: 1Answers: 2,599

  March 2018

  Hi Karlie,

  This is a basic server-side example here. As it's a server-side script, you can implement it to do whatever you choose, it just needs to return the data in the format that DataTables is expecting.

  Cheers,

  Colin
• allan Posts: 63,695Questions: 1Answers: 10,500 Site admin

  March 2018

  Just to add to what Colin said, the demo server-side processing script for DataTables uses a wildcard search - %searchTerm% to match in SQL. You can remove the % signs if you only want an exact match. You don't need regex for that with server-side processing.

  Allan
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  Thanks Colin & Allan
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018 edited March 2018

  Hi sorry to be a pain guys, but I'm just not getting this! I have the following dropdowns to search certain columns:
  ```

  <

  div class="col-3">
  <?php

  $connect = mysqli_connect("localhost", "db_user", "db_password", "db_name");
  $country = '';
  $query = "SELECT DISTINCT size FROM stones ORDER BY size ASC";
  $result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
  while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
  {
  $size .= '<option value="'.$row["size"].'">'.$row["size"].'</option>';
  }

  <?php > Select Size <?php echo $size; ?> ``` Then this in the JS ``` // Size Search $('#size').on( 'change', function () { table .columns( 8 ) .search( this.value ) .draw(); } ); ``` I just can't see from any documentation how I can search for the exact match. If I search for 1.1mm it returns all 1.1mm results (good!) and also 11.1mm (bad!) ?>

  If you have a moment to shed some light then that would be great, I think I'm just being incredibly slow.
• allan Posts: 63,695Questions: 1Answers: 10,500 Site admin

  March 2018

  You are using server-side processing (from above - is that correct?). If so the search process is entirely up to yourself and it isn't documented. Only the client / server communication is documented to allow implementation on any server-side platform.

  Our suggestion above is that you remove the wildcards from your SQL search term (again assuming you are using server-side processing).

  Allan
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  I am using server side. The JS column search function is being passed a value which it's using to search the column, but it seems to me it isn't searching for an exact match. I don't think I'm using wildcards in my sql term. It is

  $query = "SELECT DISTINCT size FROM stones ORDER BY size ASC";
  

  which is then put into a select

  $result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
  while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
  {
   $size .= '<option value="'.$row["size"].'">'.$row["size"].'</option>';
  }
  <select name="size" id="size" class="action">
      <option value="">Select Size</option>
      <?php echo $size; ?>
     </select>
  

  On change that select ID triggers the column search using the chosen select value
• allan Posts: 63,695Questions: 1Answers: 10,500 Site admin

  March 2018

  No - that doesn't look like you are using wildcards, but it also doesn't look like a complex enough SQL statement to actually implement server-side processing. It also doesn't actually include any WHERE condition!

  Can you link to the page showing the issue please?

  Allan
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  http://stuartday.co.uk/dtgem/stonelist/index.php

  If you click on Size Search and choose 1.1mm
• allan Posts: 63,695Questions: 1Answers: 10,500 Site admin

  March 2018 Answer ✓

  Thanks. What is the code inside table.stones.php? Are you using the Editor PHP libraries? If so you'd need to modify this line:

  $query->where( $this->_ssp_field( $http, $i ), '%'.$search.'%', 'like' );
  

  to be:

  $query->where( $this->_ssp_field( $http, $i ), $search, 'like' );
  

  to stop it from doing a wildcard search.

  Allan
• karlie Posts: 83Questions: 17Answers: 0

  March 2018

  Wow, thanks a million, that worked, altering line 1543 in Editor.php. Would never have figured that out!