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row().child()

Since: DataTables 1.10

Get / set the child rows of the selected main table row.

Description

DataTables has the ability to show child rows for each row (termed a "parent row" in this documentation to distinguish from the child rows). This child rows are attached to each parent row, and can be used, for example, to provide extra information about the parent row, or an editing form. The child rows will always be placed immediately after a parent row (if the child rows are designated to be visible, using the row().child.show() method), regardless of ordering, search terms applied to the table etc. If a parent row is not available in the DataTables' current view, the child rows will not be visible either.

The contents of the child rows are entirely independent of the main table (other than their position in the document). Ordering, searching etc applied to the table has no effect on the order of the child rows. Each child row is typically contains a single cell, which has a colspan attribute set to span the full table width, so the content of the cell covers the full table width. However, it is also possible to pass in a tr element which has multiple cells (one for each column in the table) to show the child row data in the same column structure as the main table.

A parent row can have one or more child rows attached to it at a time. However, child rows are treated as one entity by the API, which is to say that they can either all be shown, or all hidden.

Additionally, a child row can persist after they have been hidden, allowing them to quickly and easily be shown again in future if required. The act of hiding a row is performed using row().child.hide(). A Child row can also be destroyed (hidden and its allocated memory released) using row().child.remove() or this method with false as the only parameter, if the child row is no longer required.

Note that this method does not automatically make the added child row visible when creating a child row. Use the row().child().show() chained method (or row().child.show() as required).

Types

function row().child()

Description:

Get the child row(s) that have been set for a parent row

Returns:

jQuery object with the child rows for the parent row in its result set, or undefined if there are no child rows set for the parent yet.

Since: 1.10.1

function row().child( showRemove )

Description:

Show or remove and destroy the child rows for the selected row.

Parameters:
Returns:

DataTables API instance

function row().child( data [, className ] )

Description:

Set the data to show in the child row(s). Note that calling this method will replace any child rows which are already attached to the parent row.

Parameters:
Returns:

DataTables API instance

Examples

Show / hide a row based on its current state, adding the row content as needed.:

var table = new DataTable('#myTable');

$('#example tbody').on('click', 'td.details-control', function () {
	var tr = $(this).parents('tr');
	var row = table.row(tr);

	if (row.child.isShown()) {
		// This row is already open - close it
		row.child.hide();
		tr.removeClass('shown');
	}
	else {
		// Open this row (the format() function would return the data to be shown)
		row.child(format(row.data())).show();
		tr.addClass('shown');
	}
});

Create multiple child rows for a single row in the table - the first visible row.:

var table = new DataTable('#myTable');

table
	.row(':eq(0)')
	.child(['First child row', 'Second child row', 'Third child row'])
	.show();

Add a child row to all rows, passing in a jQuery created tr element and show all child rows:

var table = new DataTable('#myTable');

table.rows().every(function () {
	this.child(
		$(
			'<tr>' +
				'<td>' +
				rowIdx +
				'.1</td>' +
				'<td>' +
				rowIdx +
				'.2</td>' +
				'<td>' +
				rowIdx +
				'.3</td>' +
				'<td>' +
				rowIdx +
				'.4</td>' +
				'</tr>'
		)
	).show();
});