Question

I am using the jquery plugin DataTables for table sorting and manipulation. In a server-side call, my data returns an integer (0 or 1). If I were making a simple call in php this would be simple but I am trying to display “individual” or “family” based on the 0 or 1 returned from the server.

I am certain this needs to be done in the actual Datatables function:

$('#example').datables();

Is it possible to display a string in the presence of an integer in datatables?

Note: manipulting in the php script itself is not a valid solution here as the call is built dynamically from the start.

Answer 1

Yup, it can be done relatively easily. I imagine this is on a row-by-row basis, so your best best is to use the fnRowCallback in your initialization. Something like this (just a sample; I don’t know your full details):

"fnRowCallback": function( nRow, aData, iDisplayIndex, iDisplayIndexFull ) {

  /* Create some variables mainly for legibility. */
  var family = aData['familyStatus']; // if using 3D with mDataProp
  // var family = aData[2]; // if using 2D array with index

  var famColumn = 2; // you could do this inline if you really want; I find a variable easier to keep track of
  var visibleString = "individual";

  if (family) { // adjust accordingly if condition isn't properly tested this way (ie. if the truthiness of your "1" isn't panning out
    visibleString = "family"; // default is individual, but if family is true then update the variable
  }
  $('td:eq('+famColumn+')', nRow).text(visibleString);

  return nRow;
}