Answers

• allan Posts: 64,230Questions: 1Answers: 10,599 Site admin

  March 25 Answer ✓

  Not a bug. cells() is a top level selector, so the fact that you have called column() beforehand is meaningless.

  Instead, use cells() with a row and column selector:

  table.cells('*', 0)
  

  Get's the cells from all rows and column index 0. Updated example.

  is whether I should rely on column(0) always returning the first column in the table

  Yes. Regardless of column visibility, column(0) will return the first column in the table. See the docs here.

  Allan
• jladbury Posts: 43Questions: 12Answers: 0

  March 26

  Thanks Allan. May I suggest you add a comment to the docs at https://datatables.net/reference/api/columns()? Not that they are wrong, but I was slightly led up the garden by the sentences

  . . . its chained methods providing the ability to get work with the column, such as getting its data or toggling its visibility.

  and

  Returns:
  DataTables.ApiDataTables API instance with selected columns in the result set.
• allan Posts: 64,230Questions: 1Answers: 10,599 Site admin

  March 26 edited March 26

  Thanks for the feedback. Its really important that I get feedback so I can improve the docs.

  its chained methods providing the ability to get work with the column, such as getting its data or toggling its visibility.

  I think that is correct though is it not? columns([0, 1]).data(), or columns(1).visible(false) for example?

  The same is true of the second statement, that is correct. What I perhaps need to be clearer on is that the selector methods (.cells(), .rows(), .columns()) are top level and don't take into account what has previously been selected. For example:

  table.cells().rows().column(0).visible(false);
  

  would do exactly the same as:

  table.column(0).visible(false);
  

  Allan
• jladbury Posts: 43Questions: 12Answers: 0

  March 26

  Hi Allan, I agree! Thanks for taking the feedback.
• allan Posts: 64,230Questions: 1Answers: 10,599 Site admin

  March 27 Answer ✓

  I've added:

  This method is a top level selector. That means that, regardless of what might have already been selected by the API instance in the call chain, this method will always return the selected [...], without consideration for what might have been selected previously.

  in this commit to the top level selectors, which will hopefully help clarify things.

  Allan
• jladbury Posts: 43Questions: 12Answers: 0

  March 27

  Perfect!