how to exclude last column in jQuery DataTable

Question

This is NOT a duplicate of the other question. Stop flagging this!

I am not using table tools

I am using jquery datatables 1.10.*. And also using the buttons for csv, xls, pdf and print options but without table tools.

var uTable = $('#tbl_id').DataTable({
  "aLengthMenu": [[10, 20, 50, 100, -1], [10, 20, 50, 100, "All"]],
  "iDisplayLength": 10,
  "sAjaxSource": "ajax.php?do=listUsers",
  "stateSave": true,
  "columnDefs": [{ 
      "targets": -1, 
      "orderable": false
  }],
  buttons: [
    'excelHtml5',
    'csvHtml5',
    'pdfHtml5',
    {
      extend: 'print'
    }
  ]
});

Reference Library

Basically, i want to remove last column from the datatable when print or export. Or any way to manage columns from print or export.

This example column selector is not working in my code. Hard to get this why this issue is generated.

Hendrika

Hello brother, i am not using table tools. – Hendrika

@rory-mccrossan, will you please remove the duplicate mark from this question. Because i am not using table tools. and this is mentioned in my question. – Hendrika

Answer 1

I too was stuck in a similar situation where my DataTable's last column contained buttons and I do not want it to show in exports.

Here's the working code:

{
  extend: 'csvHtml5',
  text: '<i class="fa fa-file-text-o"></i> CSV',
  titleAttr: 'CSV',
  title: 'Insurance Companies',
  exportOptions: {
    columns: ':not(:last-child)',
  }
}

Instable

This worked perfectly for me, if you have more than one export option simply copy and edit { extend: 'excelHtml5', ... } – Hornbook

Great Solution :- ) – Radial

Answer 2

The closest way I found in the docs is to use customize() function in buttons section like this:

buttons: [{
  extend: 'print',
  customize: function(win) {}
}]

(It doesn't work on StackOverflow because of a security reason so you can see it in bin)

$(document).ready(function() {
  $('#example').DataTable( {
    dom: 'Bfrtip',
    buttons: [
      {
        extend: 'print',
        exportOptions: {
          columns: ':visible'
        },
        customize: function(win) {
          $(win.document.body).find( 'table' ).find('td:last-child, th:last-child').remove();
        }
      },
      'colvis'
    ],
    columnDefs: [ {
      targets: -1,
      visible: false
    } ]
  } );
} );

<link href="https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.10/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.1.1/css/buttons.dataTables.min.css"  rel="stylesheet"/>
<link href="https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.10/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.0.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.10/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.1.1/js/dataTables.buttons.min.js"></script>
<script src="//cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.1.1/js/buttons.print.min.js"></script>  
<script src="//cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.1.1/js/buttons.colVis.min.js"></script>
<table id="example" class="display" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Position</th>
      <th>Office</th>
      <th>Age</th>
      <th>Start date</th>
      <th>Salary</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tfoot>
    <tr>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Position</th>
      <th>Office</th>
      <th>Age</th>
      <th>Start date</th>
      <th>Salary</th>
    </tr>
  </tfoot>
  <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>Sidney</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>San Francisco</td>
      <td>48</td>
      <td>2010/03/11</td>
      <td>$850,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Shou Itou</td>
      <td>Regional Marketing</td>
      <td>Tokyo</td>
      <td>20</td>
      <td>2011/08/14</td>
      <td>$163,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Michelle House</td>
      <td>Integration Specialist</td>
      <td>Sidney</td>
      <td>37</td>
      <td>2011/06/02</td>
      <td>$95,400</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Suki Burks</td>
      <td>Developer</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>53</td>
      <td>2009/10/22</td>
      <td>$114,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Prescott Bartlett</td>
      <td>Technical Author</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>27</td>
      <td>2011/05/07</td>
      <td>$145,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Gavin Cortez</td>
      <td>Team Leader</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>22</td>
      <td>2008/10/26</td>
      <td>$235,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Martena Mccray</td>
      <td>Post-Sales support</td>
      <td>Edinburgh</td>
      <td>46</td>
      <td>2011/03/09</td>
      <td>$324,050</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Unity Butler</td>
      <td>Marketing Designer</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>47</td>
      <td>2009/12/09</td>
      <td>$85,675</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Howard Hatfield</td>
      <td>Office Manager</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>51</td>
      <td>2008/12/16</td>
      <td>$164,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Hope Fuentes</td>
      <td>Secretary</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>41</td>
      <td>2010/02/12</td>
      <td>$109,850</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Vivian Harrell</td>
      <td>Financial Controller</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>62</td>
      <td>2009/02/14</td>
      <td>$452,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Timothy Mooney</td>
      <td>Office Manager</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>37</td>
      <td>2008/12/11</td>
      <td>$136,200</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Jackson Bradshaw</td>
      <td>Director</td>
      <td>New York</td>
      <td>65</td>
      <td>2008/09/26</td>
      <td>$645,750</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Olivia Liang</td>
      <td>Support Engineer</td>
      <td>Singapore</td>
      <td>64</td>
      <td>2011/02/03</td>
      <td>$234,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Bruno Nash</td>
      <td>Software Engineer</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>38</td>
      <td>2011/05/03</td>
      <td>$163,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Sakura Yamamoto</td>
      <td>Support Engineer</td>
      <td>Tokyo</td>
      <td>37</td>
      <td>2009/08/19</td>
      <td>$139,575</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Thor Walton</td>
      <td>Developer</td>
      <td>New York</td>
      <td>61</td>
      <td>2013/08/11</td>
      <td>$98,540</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Finn Camacho</td>
      <td>Support Engineer</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>47</td>
      <td>2009/07/07</td>
      <td>$87,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Serge Baldwin</td>
      <td>Data Coordinator</td>
      <td>Singapore</td>
      <td>64</td>
      <td>2012/04/09</td>
      <td>$138,575</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Zenaida Frank</td>
      <td>Software Engineer</td>
      <td>New York</td>
      <td>63</td>
      <td>2010/01/04</td>
      <td>$125,250</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Zorita Serrano</td>
      <td>Software Engineer</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>56</td>
      <td>2012/06/01</td>
      <td>$115,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Jennifer Acosta</td>
      <td>Junior Javascript Developer</td>
      <td>Edinburgh</td>
      <td>43</td>
      <td>2013/02/01</td>
      <td>$75,650</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Cara Stevens</td>
      <td>Sales Assistant</td>
      <td>New York</td>
      <td>46</td>
      <td>2011/12/06</td>
      <td>$145,600</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Hermione Butler</td>
      <td>Regional Director</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>47</td>
      <td>2011/03/21</td>
      <td>$356,250</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Lael Greer</td>
      <td>Systems Administrator</td>
      <td>London</td>
      <td>21</td>
      <td>2009/02/27</td>
      <td>$103,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Jonas Alexander</td>
      <td>Developer</td>
      <td>San Francisco</td>
      <td>30</td>
      <td>2010/07/14</td>
      <td>$86,500</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Shad Decker</td>
      <td>Regional Director</td>
      <td>Edinburgh</td>
      <td>51</td>
      <td>2008/11/13</td>
      <td>$183,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Michael Bruce</td>
      <td>Javascript Developer</td>
      <td>Singapore</td>
      <td>29</td>
      <td>2011/06/27</td>
      <td>$183,000</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Donna Snider</td>
      <td>Customer Support</td>
      <td>New York</td>
      <td>27</td>
      <td>2011/01/25</td>
      <td>$112,000</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Barabarabarabas

Thanks #moshfeu for your answer. I am using colvis to manage column visibility. – Hendrika

Its providing column visibility options. Check this url datatables.net/reference/button/colvis – Hendrika

Interesting.. Thanks. – Barabarabarabas

@Rush.2707 My pleasure :) – Barabarabarabas

Answer 3

Since exportOptions.columns can be any kind of column selector, you can use an array of column indexes to specify which columns to include :

..
{
  extend : 'copyHtml5',
  exportOptions: {
     columns: [1, 2, 3, 4]
  }
},
..

Will only export the first 4 columns when the table is copied. So if you want to exclude the last column, pass an array with all column indexes minus the last one.

See a demo of this -> https://jsfiddle.net/qx46jpxs/

Phillipphillipe

Thanks #davidkonrad for your answer. I am using colvis to manage column visibility. – Hendrika

Answer 4

If you'd like your a solution that responds with the growth of your table, you can add a class name for the columns you do not want to be exported in the th element. In this example it'll be <th class="not-export-column">Column Name</th> then in your declaration

    $(document).ready(function() {
       $('#example').DataTable( {
          dom: 'Bfrtip',
          buttons: [
              {
          extend: 'csv',
          title: "Download",
          exportOptions: {
             columns: ":not(.not-export-column)"
          }
          }]
       } );
} );

Rhodia

There is a syntax issue in your code. Replace last two lines with this }] }); }); However code still doesn't work. – Pitterpatter

@rahim.nagori, Sorry about that. I was copying a portion of my code and messed up. Above should be similar to what I use. – Rhodia