table()

Select a table based on a selector from the API's context.

Description

The DataTables API can operate on multiple tables at a single time - the tables in the "context". As a quick example new DataTable('.dataTable').search('Fred').draw(); will filter all tables which were found by the class dataTable.

The context of an API instance defines which DataTable tables the API will operate on and this method provides one way to control what tables are in that context.

This ability to operate on multiple tables can be particularly useful if you have many tables on a single page, but you might also wish to reduce the table's in the API's context to operate on just one, or some other subset of the tables.

If you are working with single table API instances only, then this method will be of limited use to you! It is really only appropriate when working with multiple tables. Additionally, please note that there is no option that this selector can perform over using jQuery directly on the DOM to select tables. It is mainly provided for convenience and completeness of the API.

Note that if the selector used matches more than one table in API's context, the returned API instance's context will be truncated to the first matched table.

Type

Examples

var tables = new DataTable('.dataTable');

tables
	.table(1)
	.order([3, 'asc'])
	.draw();

var tables = new DataTable('.dataTable');

tables
	.table('#admin')
	.search('Important')
	.draw();

// Note that:
//   $('#admin').DataTable().search('Important').draw();
// would also have achieved the same effect

Related

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