Question

I am using a jquery script called datatables, this adds a lot of functions to your tables like searching and filtering etc and enables you to skin the tables with the jquery ui. I am trying to replicate the following example on my website so that I can filter columns.
http://www.datatables.net/release-datatables/examples/api/multi_filter_select.html
The problem I am having now, is when I use the following script on my website it strips away the jquery ui on all the other tables.

For example on one of the other tables I have this set in the of the page :

      $(document).ready( function() {

        $('#mailinglistmanager').dataTable( {

            "bJQueryUI": true,

            "bInfo": true,

            "bAutoWidth": true,

            "bFilter": false,

            "bLengthChange": true,

            "bPaginate": true,

            "bProcessing": true,

             "bSort": true,

              "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",

               "aaSorting": [[ 6, "desc" ]],

                "iDisplayLength": 100,

                "bLengthChange": false   

        } );

        });

     </script>

this and the other tables seem to work fine until I add the code below, then what happens is the other tables are stripped of the jquery ui and only the table defined below is skinned then, and all the other tables are then unskinned.

            (function($) {
    /*
     * Function: fnGetColumnData
     * Purpose:  Return an array of table values from a particular column.
     * Returns:  array string: 1d data array 
     * Inputs:   object:oSettings - dataTable settings object. This is always the last argument past to the function
     *           int:iColumn - the id of the column to extract the data from
     *           bool:bUnique - optional - if set to false duplicated values are not filtered out
     *           bool:bFiltered - optional - if set to false all the table data is used (not only the filtered)
     *           bool:bIgnoreEmpty - optional - if set to false empty values are not filtered from the result array
     * Author:   Benedikt Forchhammer <b.forchhammer /AT\ mind2.de>
     */
    $.fn.dataTableExt.oApi.fnGetColumnData = function ( oSettings, iColumn, bUnique, bFiltered, bIgnoreEmpty ) {
        // check that we have a column id
        if ( typeof iColumn == "undefined" ) return new Array();

        // by default we only wany unique data
        if ( typeof bUnique == "undefined" ) bUnique = true;

        // by default we do want to only look at filtered data
        if ( typeof bFiltered == "undefined" ) bFiltered = true;

        // by default we do not wany to include empty values
        if ( typeof bIgnoreEmpty == "undefined" ) bIgnoreEmpty = true;

        // list of rows which we're going to loop through
        var aiRows;

        // use only filtered rows
        if (bFiltered == true) aiRows = oSettings.aiDisplay; 
        // use all rows
        else aiRows = oSettings.aiDisplayMaster; // all row numbers

        // set up data array    
        var asResultData = new Array();

        for (var i=0,c=aiRows.length; i<c; i++) {
            iRow = aiRows[i];
            var aData = this.fnGetData(iRow);
            var sValue = aData[iColumn];

            // ignore empty values?
            if (bIgnoreEmpty == true && sValue.length == 0) continue;

            // ignore unique values?
            else if (bUnique == true && jQuery.inArray(sValue, asResultData) > -1) continue;

            // else push the value onto the result data array
            else asResultData.push(sValue);
        }

        return asResultData;
    }}(jQuery));


    function fnCreateSelect( aData )
    {
        var r='<select><option value=""></option>', i, iLen=aData.length;
        for ( i=0 ; i<iLen ; i++ )
        {
            r += '<option value="'+aData[i]+'">'+aData[i]+'</option>';
        }
        return r+'</select>';
    }


    $(document).ready(function() {
        /* Initialise the DataTable */
        var oTable = $('#dashboard').dataTable( {
           "bJQueryUI": true,

                    "bInfo": true,

                    "bAutoWidth": true,

                    "bFilter": true,

                    "bLengthChange": true,

                    "bPaginate": true,

                    "bProcessing": true,

                     "bSort": true,

                      "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",

                       "aaSorting": [[ 9, "desc" ]],

                        "iDisplayLength": 5,

                        "bLengthChange": false   
        } );

        /* Add a select menu for each TH element in the table footer */
        $("tfoot th").each( function ( i ) {
            this.innerHTML = fnCreateSelect( oTable.fnGetColumnData(i) );
            $('select', this).change( function () {
                oTable.fnFilter( $(this).val(), i );
            } );
        } );
    } );

Answer 1

Your jQuery selector for fnCreateSelect selects the th elements in every tfoot for every table. Since all other tables are apparently affected, try changing $("tfoot th") to $("#dashboard tfoot th") to select only the tfoot for that table.