How do you properly handle null values in DataTables?

Question

I'm trying hard to understand the DataTables documentation, and I'm looking for examples, but I just don't get how to handle null values.

In SQL, I send a JSON string back to my JS app. I discovered I had to use INCLUDE_NULL_VALUES -- so, I'm no longer missing anything in the JSON array/object.

Here's how I'm populating the table. My ary is an array of objects with data like this:

ary = [{"Effective Date":"2001-07-01","Schedule":"UR-FUPA","Description":"High Up Dude","Calculated":"No","Base Schedule":"","Factor":null}, {...}, {...}]

$("#tblSomeTable").DataTable({
    "data": ary,
    "columns": [
        {
            "data": "Effective Date"
        },
        {
            "data": "Schedule"
        },
        {
            "data": "Description"
        },
        {
            "data": "Calculated"
        },
        {
            "data": "Base Schedule"
        },
        {
            "data": "Factor"
        }
    ],
    "columnDefs": [{
        "targets": _all,
        "defaultContent": ""
    }],
    "paging": false,
    "ordering": true,
    "info": false,
    "searching": false,
});

So, how do I set the default content to an empty string if the cell has no data?

You can see above that I tried to use the "defaultContent" option to target all columns, but that is not working.

I always appreciate your help. I'm not asking you to do my work, I just need an example I can understand, and your guidance in the right direction.

mmushtaq · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-22 05:28:03Z

12

You need to specify _all as string as target option takes integer and string values.

So just update columnDefs as`

"columnDefs": [{
    "targets": '_all',
    "defaultContent": ""
}],

Your Example forked jsfiddle working demo: https://jsfiddle.net/mmushtaq/5pgp2479/

Source : columnDefs.targets

answered Feb 22, 2018 at 5:28

mmushtaq

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2 Comments

NamedArray Over a year ago

I'm marking this as the answer: (1) the quote missing around '_all was only part of my problem; (2) also, not shown, I was targeting the wrong table #id; (3) ultimately, I didn't need to specify columnDefs at all, so long as empty cells are included in the JSON object as either "" or null via for json path, INCLUDE_NULL_VALUES

amal50 Over a year ago

it solved my problem, while I have several objects in my json data and sometimes one object is null, so the sub property name is missing

Dakota Raymond · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-21 23:38:45Z

0

I don't believe there is current support for setting defaultContent in columnDefs. You would need to set it per column.

answered Feb 21, 2018 at 23:38

Dakota Raymond

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1 Comment

NamedArray Over a year ago

I tested and found that I can do it both per column, or through columnDefs. In fact, I didn't need to worry about it at all. I found that as long as the JSON object contained "null" or an empty empty string, it would render the table.

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