fnGetColumnIndex
Get the column index by searching the column titles
- Author: Michael Ross
Maintenance of web-sites can often cause unexpected headaches, particularly if the hardcoded index of an array (the columns in a DataTables instance) needs to change due to an added or removed column. This plug-in function will match a given string to the title of a column in the table and return the column index, helping to overcome this problem.
Use
This plug-in can be obtained and used in multiple different ways.
Browser
This plug-in is available on the DataTables CDN:
The plug-in will then automatically register itself against a global DataTables instance. This file can also be used if you are using an AMD loader such as Require.js.
Note that if you are using multiple plug-ins, it can be beneficial in terms of performance to combine the plug-ins into a single file and host it on your own server, rather than making multiple requests to the DataTables CDN.
NPM
The plug-ins are all available on NPM (which can also be used with Yarn or any other Javascript package manager) as part of the datatables.net-plugins
package. To use this plug-in, first install the plug-ins package:
npm install datatables.net-plugins
ES modules
Then, if you are using ES modules, import datatables.net
, any other DataTables extensions you need, and the plug-in:
import DataTable from 'datatables.net';
import 'datatables.net-plugins/api/fnGetColumnIndex.mjs';
CommonJS
If you are using a CommonJS loader for Node (e.g. with older versions of Webpack, or non-module Node code) use the following method to require
the plug-in:
var $ = require('jquery');
var DataTable = require('datatables.net');
require('datatables.net-plugins/api/fnGetColumnIndex.js');
Example
var table = $('#example').dataTable();
table.fnGetColumnIndex( 'Browser' );
Version control
If you have any ideas for how this plug-in can be improved, or spot anything that is in error, it is available on GitHub and pull requests are very welcome!
- This plug-in: fnGetColumnIndex.js
- Full DataTables plug-ins repository: DataTables/Plugins