Answers

• colin Posts: 15,240Questions: 1Answers: 2,599

  August 2019

  Hi @djkong7 ,

  You use column().header() for the <th> nodes,

  Cheers,

  Colin
• djkong7 Posts: 22Questions: 3Answers: 0

  August 2019

  I would agree with your answer but, I don't believe that it answers the question.

  What I'm really trying to get at is that I have a table similar to:

  <table id="my-table">
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Name</th>
        <th>Position</th>
        <th>Office</th>
        <th>Age</th>
        <th>Start date</th>
        <th>Salary</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Name"/></th>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Position"/></th>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Office"/></th>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Age"/></th>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Start date"/></th>
        <th><input type="text" placeholder="Salary"/></th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
   
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>Tiger Nixon</td>
        <td>System Architect</td>
        <td>Edinburgh</td>
        <td>61</td>
        <td>2011/04/25</td>
        <td>$3,120</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
   
  <script>
    var table = $('#my-table').DataTable({
      "orderCellsTop": true
    })
  </script>
  

  column(0).header() will only return

  <th>Name</th>
  

  but not

  <th>Name</th>
  <th><input type="text" placeholder="Name"/></th>
  

  The documentation says that column().nodes() should return both the <th> and <td> nodes but, I can't seem to find the <th> nodes.
• kthorngren Posts: 21,344Questions: 26Answers: 4,954

  August 2019 Answer ✓

  The developers (@allan and @colin) can confirm but I don't think it is expected that column().nodes() will return the header rows. I see what you are saying about th in the docs. But reading this in the doc implies to me that it is expected to return table row nodes.

  Please note that the order of the nodes in the returned array and which rows the nodes are obtained from (searched rows, visible rows etc) is controlled by the selector-modifier option of the columns() selector used to get the selected columns.

  Like you noted column().header() will only return the header with the ordering listener.

  My suggestion would be to use standard jQuery to get the nodes of the second header.

  Kevin
• djkong7 Posts: 22Questions: 3Answers: 0

  August 2019

  @kthorngren
  If @allan or @colin confirm your understanding of the documentation is correct, I will mark your answer as correct.
• allan Posts: 63,535Questions: 1Answers: 10,475 Site admin

  August 2019

  I'll post a fuller reply later (on mobile atm) bit what is expected from that method is that it will return th and td cells from inside the tbody for the column. If you want the header cell use column().header().

  Allan
• allan Posts: 63,535Questions: 1Answers: 10,475 Site admin

  August 2019

  Hi,

  I've just committed a small change to the docs that clarifies that the nodes returned by this method come from the table body (its important to recall that both td and th cells are valid in both the header and body rows.

  Allan
• djkong7 Posts: 22Questions: 3Answers: 0

  August 2019

  Thank you everyone for the replies and for the update to the docs.