Edit icon

The other inline editing examples present an interface whereby you click on the cell that you want to edit and row selection options are presented in the first column for the primary editing mode of Editor.

As this example shows, any element can be used to activate the inline edit. In this particular case, a pencil icon is added to each cell, which can be clicked upon. Clicking anywhere else in the row will select the row, but clicking the icon will simply activate the inline editing mode for that cell.

This could be useful if only certain columns are to be available, thus highlighting and making clear to the users which columns are editable, or if other action controls are also to be presented for each cell.

	First name	Last name	Position	Office	Start date	Salary

Javascript
HTML
CSS
Ajax
Server-side script
Comments

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

function editIcon(data, type, row) {
	if (type === 'display') {
		return data + ' <i class="fa fa-pencil"/>';
	}
	return data;
}

var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'First name:',
			name: 'first_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Last name:',
			name: 'last_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Position:',
			name: 'position'
		},
		{
			label: 'Office:',
			name: 'office'
		},
		{
			label: 'Extension:',
			name: 'extn'
		},
		{
			label: 'Start date:',
			name: 'start_date',
			type: 'datetime'
		},
		{
			label: 'Salary:',
			name: 'salary'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

$('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	columns: [
		{
			data: null,
			orderable: false,
			render: DataTable.render.select(),
		},
		{ data: 'first_name', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'last_name', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'position', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'office', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'start_date', render: editIcon },
		{
			data: 'salary',
			render: function (data, type, row) {
				if (type === 'display') {
					var numberRenderer = DataTable.render.number(
						null,
						null,
						0,
						'$'
					).display;
					return numberRenderer(data) + ' <i class="fa fa-pencil"/>';
				}
				return data;
			}
		}
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	order: [[1, 'asc']],
	select: {
		style: 'os',
		selector: 'td:first-child'
	}
});

$('#example tbody').on('click', 'td i', function (e) {
	editor.inline($(this).parent());
});

function editIcon(data, type, row) {
	if (type === 'display') {
		return data + ' <i class="fa fa-pencil"/>';
	}
	return data;
}

var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'First name:',
			name: 'first_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Last name:',
			name: 'last_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Position:',
			name: 'position'
		},
		{
			label: 'Office:',
			name: 'office'
		},
		{
			label: 'Extension:',
			name: 'extn'
		},
		{
			label: 'Start date:',
			name: 'start_date',
			type: 'datetime'
		},
		{
			label: 'Salary:',
			name: 'salary'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

const table = new DataTable('#example', {
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	columns: [
		{
			data: null,
			orderable: false,
			render: DataTable.render.select(),
		},
		{ data: 'first_name', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'last_name', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'position', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'office', render: editIcon },
		{ data: 'start_date', render: editIcon },
		{
			data: 'salary',
			render: function (data, type, row) {
				if (type === 'display') {
					var numberRenderer = DataTable.render.number(
						null,
						null,
						0,
						'$'
					).display;
					return numberRenderer(data) + ' <i class="fa fa-pencil"/>';
				}
				return data;
			}
		}
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	order: [[1, 'asc']],
	select: {
		style: 'os',
		selector: 'td:first-child'
	}
});

table.on('click', 'tbody td i', function (e) {
	editor.inline($(this).parent());
});

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

table.dataTable td > i {
		margin-left: 0.5em;
		opacity: 0.3;
		float: right;
		cursor: pointer;
	}

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side interaction for this demo is shown below. This server uses PHP, so the PHP script is shown, however our download packages include the equivalent script for other platforms, including .NET and Node.js. Server-side scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the Editor documentation.

Edit icon

Other examples

Simple initialisation

Advanced initialisation

DataTables as an input

Dates and time

DataTables extensions

Inline editing

Bubble editing

API

Standalone

Styling

Plug-ins

DataTables