Example Fiddle

I have an html table:

_A_B_C_D_
|0|1|0|1|
|0|1|0|0|
|1|0|0|1|

I want to filter non-zero columns. Using jQuery dataTables (not a hard requirement, just what I am currently using) I execute the following filter:

// value is the column index, true simply informs the filter method to use regex
dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", value, true); 

However, filtering multiple columns creates an AND filter. Thus:

dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", 0 /*A*/, true); 
dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", 3 /*D*/, true); 

would create the following

_A_B_C_D_
|1|0|0|1|

I need OR behavior though which would create the following table:

_A_B_C_D_
|0|1|0|1|
|1|0|0|1|

Where Column A is non-zero OR Column D is non-zero. I cannot think of any way to implement this with my current structure.

How can I filter table columns using OR logic as apposed to AND?

Example Fiddle

I have an html table:

_A_B_C_D_
|0|1|0|1|
|0|1|0|0|
|1|0|0|1|

I want to filter non-zero columns. Using jQuery dataTables (not a hard requirement, just what I am currently using) I execute the following filter:

// value is the column index, true simply informs the filter method to use regex
dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", value, true); 

However, filtering multiple columns creates an AND filter. Thus:

dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", 0 /*A*/, true); 
dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", 3 /*D*/, true); 

would create the following

_A_B_C_D_
|1|0|0|1|

I need OR behavior though which would create the following table:

_A_B_C_D_
|0|1|0|1|
|1|0|0|1|

Where Column A is non-zero OR Column D is non-zero. I cannot think of any way to implement this with my current structure.

How can I filter table columns using OR logic as apposed to AND?

• javascript
• jquery
• datatables
• filtering

• The doc says you can pass null as the second parameter to filter all columns, I haven't tried it though. dataTable.fnFilter("[^0]", null, true); Won't work if you need to be specific about which columns are ORed. – James Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:00
• Yeah, I was hoping I could find a way to send an array of indeces instead of a single index or global. – Joe Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:09
• You can roll your own filtering functions too: link – James Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:14

2 Answers 2

Using your fiddle as a model I updated it to provide the functionality that I believe you want.

I extend the dataTables filtering on each click of a checkbox:

$.fn.dataTableExt.afnFiltering.push(
    function (settings, data, index) {
        var s = [0, 3, 5]; // columns to filter
        for (var i=0; i < s.length; i++) {
            if (data[s[i]] != 0) return true;
        }
        return false;
    }
);

Fully integrated into fiddle: link

Just in case you might need that functionality wrapped up into some user-interface, you may go and check out this DataTables plug-in, in addition to conventional 'AND'-logic you may apply 'OR'-filtering.