javascript - Datatables api - use array to show columns

Question

Basically I have a table with headers like such:

First Name	Last Name	Age
John	Doe	100
Jane	Doe	99

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65844010/datatables-api-use-array-to-show-columns

Answer 1

You can't use text to hide columns because thats not the way datatables work, they use index instead of text.

Just replace your th text by index. To find the th index you can loop the thead th and get the text compare with your array and if it matches push the index to another array.

Here is a working example with 6 columns and hidding 4 of them. The selectColumns array will contain the th text.

var table = $('#datatable').DataTable();
table
  .order( [ 3, 'asc' ] ).page.len( 25 )
  .columns.adjust()
  .draw();

let selectedColumns = ['Product', 'Function', 'Company', 'Substance'];
let selectedColumnsIds = [];
$('thead th').each((i, el) => {
    let th = $(`thead th:nth-of-type(${i+1}`);
  selectedColumns.forEach((col) => {
    if(th.text() == col) {
        selectedColumnsIds.push(i);
    }
  })
})

selectedColumnsIds.forEach((col) => {
    table
    .column(col).visible(false).draw();
})

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.1.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.23/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>
<link href="https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.23/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css" rel="stylesheet"/>

<table id="datatable" class="display" style="width:100%">
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>Product</th>
                <th>Position</th>
                <th>Function</th>
                <th>Company</th>
                <th>Start date</th>
                <th>Substance</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>$320,800</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Garrett Winters</td>
                <td>Accountant</td>
                <td>Tokyo</td>
                <td>63</td>
                <td>2011/07/25</td>
                <td>$170,750</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Ashton Cox</td>
                <td>Junior Technical Author</td>
                <td>San Francisco</td>
                <td>66</td>
                <td>2009/01/12</td>
                <td>$86,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Cedric Kelly</td>
                <td>Senior Javascript Developer</td>
                <td>Edinburgh</td>
                <td>22</td>
                <td>2012/03/29</td>
                <td>$433,060</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Airi Satou</td>
                <td>Accountant</td>
                <td>Tokyo</td>
                <td>33</td>
                <td>2008/11/28</td>
                <td>$162,700</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Brielle Williamson</td>
                <td>Integration Specialist</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>61</td>
                <td>2012/12/02</td>
                <td>$372,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Herrod Chandler</td>
                <td>Sales Assistant</td>
                <td>San Francisco</td>
                <td>59</td>
                <td>2012/08/06</td>
                <td>$137,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Rhona Davidson</td>
                <td>Integration Specialist</td>
                <td>Tokyo</td>
                <td>55</td>
                <td>2010/10/14</td>
                <td>$327,900</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Colleen Hurst</td>
                <td>Javascript Developer</td>
                <td>San Francisco</td>
                <td>39</td>
                <td>2009/09/15</td>
                <td>$205,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Sonya Frost</td>
                <td>Software Engineer</td>
                <td>Edinburgh</td>
                <td>23</td>
                <td>2008/12/13</td>
                <td>$103,600</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Jena Gaines</td>
                <td>Office Manager</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>30</td>
                <td>2008/12/19</td>
                <td>$90,560</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Quinn Flynn</td>
                <td>Support Lead</td>
                <td>Edinburgh</td>
                <td>22</td>
                <td>2013/03/03</td>
                <td>$342,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Charde Marshall</td>
                <td>Regional Director</td>
                <td>San Francisco</td>
                <td>36</td>
                <td>2008/10/16</td>
                <td>$470,600</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Haley Kennedy</td>
                <td>Senior Marketing Designer</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>43</td>
                <td>2012/12/18</td>
                <td>$313,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Tatyana Fitzpatrick</td>
                <td>Regional Director</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>19</td>
                <td>2010/03/17</td>
                <td>$385,750</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Michael Silva</td>
                <td>Marketing Designer</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>66</td>
                <td>2012/11/27</td>
                <td>$198,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Paul Byrd</td>
                <td>Chief Financial Officer (CFO)</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>64</td>
                <td>2010/06/09</td>
                <td>$725,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Gloria Little</td>
                <td>Systems Administrator</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>59</td>
                <td>2009/04/10</td>
                <td>$237,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Bradley Greer</td>
                <td>Software Engineer</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>41</td>
                <td>2012/10/13</td>
                <td>$132,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Dai Rios</td>
                <td>Personnel Lead</td>
                <td>Edinburgh</td>
                <td>35</td>
                <td>2012/09/26</td>
                <td>$217,500</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Jenette Caldwell</td>
                <td>Development Lead</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>30</td>
                <td>2011/09/03</td>
                <td>$345,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Yuri Berry</td>
                <td>Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>40</td>
                <td>2009/06/25</td>
                <td>$675,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Caesar Vance</td>
                <td>Pre-Sales Support</td>
                <td>New York</td>
                <td>21</td>
                <td>2011/12/12</td>
                <td>$106,450</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Doris Wilder</td>
                <td>Sales Assistant</td>
                <td>Sydney</td>
                <td>23</td>
                <td>2010/09/20</td>
                <td>$85,600</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Angelica Ramos</td>
                <td>Chief Executive Officer (CEO)</td>
                <td>London</td>
                <td>47</td>
                <td>2009/10/09</td>
                <td>$1,200,000</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Gavin Joyce</td>
                <td>Developer</td>
                <td>Edinburgh</td>
                <td>42</td>
                <td>2010/12/22</td>
                <td>$92,575</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Jennifer Chang</td>
                <td>Regional Director</td>
                <td>Singapore</td>
                <td>28</td>
                <td>2010/11/14</td>
                <td>$357,650</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Brenden Wagner</td>
                <td>Software Engineer</td>
                <td>San Francisco</td>
                <td>28</td>
                <td>2011/06/07</td>
                <td>$206,850</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>Fiona Green</td>
                <td>Chief Operating Officer (COO)</td>
                <td&