columns().visible()

Since: DataTables 1.10

Get / set the visibility of the selected columns.

Description

Showing and hiding columns in a DataTable can be quite handy, particularly when showing tables with a large information density. This method allows the visibility of columns to be changed on-the-fly, or the visibility state of the columns to be read.

Types

function columns().visible()

Description:: Get the visibility of the selected columns.
Returns:: DataTables.Api

API instance with the result set containing a boolean value for each column the selector matched. The boolean values indicate: true if the column is visible, false if it is not.

function columns().visible( show [, redrawCalculations ] )

Description:

Set the visibility of the selected columns.

Parameters:

	Name	Type	Optional
1	`show`	`boolean`	No
	Specify if the columns should be visible (`true`) or not (`false`).
2	`redrawCalculations`	`boolean`	Yes - default:true
	Indicate if DataTables should recalculate the column layout (`true` - default) or not (`false`). Typically this would be left as the default value, but it can be useful to disable when using the method in a loop - so the calculations are performed on every call as they can hamper performance.

Returns:

DataTables.Api

DataTables API instance with selected columns in the result set.

Examples

Set column visibility for two columns:

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

// Hide two columns
table.columns( [1,2] ).visible( false );

alert( 'Table\'s column visibility are set to: '+table.columns().visible().join(', ') );

Hide all columns with a class of '.detail':

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

table.columns( '.detail' ).visible( false );

Hide multiple columns using redrawCalculations to improve performance:

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

table.columns( [ 0, 1, 2, 3 ] ).visible( false, false );
table.columns.adjust().draw( false ); // adjust column sizing and redraw

The following options are directly related and may also be useful in your application development.

API

column().visible()