Hide column in a datatable with an if

Question

I'm new to jquery and datatable but learning quickly.

I want to hide specifics columns according to the value of a variable that I'll test with an if. But I don't know where to put said if and the code to hide the columns.

HTML:

<table id="table_id" class="table table-striped table-bordered table hover" width="100%" cellspacing="0" >
<thead>
<tr>
    <th>Have</th>
    <th>A</th>
    <th>Good</th>
    <th>Day</th>
</tr>
</thead>

Jquery:

$(document).ready( function () {
 $('#table_id').DataTable({
   "processing": true,
   "order": [[ 3, "desc" ]],
    "ajax": {
        "url": "somewhere.php",
        "type": "POST"
    },
    "columns": [
        { "data": "Have" },
        { "data": "A" },
        { "data": "Good" },
        { "data": "Day" } 
    ]
 });
} );

Pseudo code for the if

 if($_POST('something') =="hey"){
  hide column 1 and 2;}

Answer 1

HTML-sourced or JavaScript-sourced data

Use initComplete option to define a callback fired once table has been initialized. Use columns().visible() API method to hide selected columns based on your condition.

For example:

var table = $('#example').DataTable({
    initComplete: function(settings){
        var api = new $.fn.dataTable.Api( settings );

        // Replace with your actual condition
        var showColumn = Math.round(Math.random()) ? true : false;

        api.columns([4, 5]).visible(showColumn);
    }
});

See this example for code and demonstration.

Ajax-sourced data

Handle xhr event fired when an Ajax request is completed. Use columns().visible() API method to hide selected columns based on your condition.

For example:

$('#example').on('xhr.dt', function ( e, settings, json, xhr ) {
    var api = new $.fn.dataTable.Api( settings );

    // Replace with your actual condition
    var showColumn = Math.round(Math.random()) ? true : false;

    api.columns([4, 5]).visible(showColumn);
});

var table = $('#example').DataTable({
    ajax: 'https://gyrocode.github.io/files/jquery-datatables/arrays.json'
});

In the above example, json variable holds response from the server which you can use to define your condition for showing/hiding columns.

Also please note that xhr event handler has to be defined BEFORE you call DataTable().

See this example for code and demonstration.