Title: Individual Column Filtering
Author: Tobias Bäthge
Published: December 1, 2022
Last modified: May 14, 2025

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Add a search field or dropdown for each column to the table head or foot row.

# Individual Column Filtering

Tables have a general search field for all table columns by default, above the table.
Depending on the table data, it can be more suitable to show a search field that
allows each column to be filtered separately.

If rows have repeating values, it can also be helpful to show a dropdown or select
element from which the visitor can choose a value. If you don’t want to show such
a dropdown in the header or footer row, check out the [Column Filter Dropdowns](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-columnfilterwidgets/)
feature module that can add these outside of the table.

## Feature description

This gives the visitor even more flexibility when interacting with the table. Here
are two examples:

### Text Inputs in the Header Row

A new second header row is inserted, with a text field for searching each column
individually.

  |  Last Name | First Name | Company | ZIP code |  
   |  Banks | Travis | Apple | 64655 |  
 |  Cain | Lawrence | IBM | 98004 |  
 |  Middleton | Dennis | Google | 80913 |  
 |  Valenzuela | Lunea | Cisco | 51606 |  
 |  Burgess | Quynn | Mozilla | 78965 |

### Dropdowns in the Footer Row

The values in the cells in the last row are then used as the default text in the
generated search input fields. Usually they should have the same content as the 
table head row cells.

  |  Last Name | First Name | Company | ZIP code |  
   |  Banks | Travis | Apple | 64655 |  
 |  Cain | Lawrence | IBM | 98004 |  
 |  Middleton | Dennis | Google | 80913 |  
 |  Valenzuela | Lunea | Cisco | 51606 |  
 |  Burgess | Quynn | Mozilla | 78965 |

[Use this feature with a TablePress Premium plan today](https://tablepress.org/pricing/?output_format=md)

## Usage instructions

To use these features with your tables, activate the “Individual Column Filtering”
feature module on the “Modules” screen of TablePress Pro or TablePress Max. Then,
configure the desired options in the “Individual Column Filtering” section on the
table’s “Edit” screen.

![Screenshot of the "Individual Column Filtering" configuration section in the TablePress
Premium versions.](https://tablepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/datatables-
column-filter.png)

The “Individual Column Filtering” configuration section in the TablePress Premium
versions.

## Configuration parameters

To configure this module’s features, you can also use these [configuration parameters](https://tablepress.org/faq/configuration-parameter-reference/)
in the “TablePress Table” [block](https://tablepress.org/faq/documentation-tablepress-table-block/),
the Elementor widget, or in the [Shortcode](https://tablepress.org/faq/documentation-shortcode-table/)
that you are using to embed the table:

  |  Module | Slug |  | Configuration parameter | Name | Description | Type | Default value |  
   |  Individual Column Filtering | datatables-column-filter |  | datatables_column_filter | Individual Column Filtering Form Element | The desired form element for the individual column filters: Empty string for none, or `input` for text fields, or `select` for dropdowns. | enum (`""` (empty string), `input`, or `select`) | `""` (empty string) |  
 |  Individual Column Filtering | datatables-column-filter |  | datatables_column_filter_position | Individual Column Filtering Position | The desired position for the individual column filters: `table_head` for the Table Header or `table_foot` for the Table Footer | enum (`table_head` or `table_foot`) | `table_head` |  
 |  Individual Column Filtering | datatables-column-filter |  | datatables_column_filter_columns | Individual Column Filtering Columns | Columns for which an individual column filtering control should be added. | string | `""` (empty string) |

The “Individual Column Filtering” feature module is part of the [**TablePress Premium plans**](https://tablepress.org/pricing/?output_format=md).

**On this page**

 1. [Feature description](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-column-filter/#feature-description)
 2.  a. [Text Inputs in the Header Row](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-column-filter/#example-input-head)
     b. [Dropdowns in the Footer Row](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-column-filter/#example-select-foot)
 3. [Usage instructions](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-column-filter/#instructions)
 4. [Configuration parameters](https://tablepress.org/modules/datatables-column-filter/#configuration)