Preamble

This example shows how you can make use of the fnSetColumnVis() API function to show and hide columns in a table dynamically, after the table has been initialised (we've also got scrolling enabled here, although that is not required for the API function to work).

Toggle column 1
Toggle column 2
Toggle column 3
Toggle column 4
Toggle column 5

Live example

Initialisation code

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#example').dataTable( {
		"sScrollY": "200px",
		"bPaginate": false
	} );
} );

function fnShowHide( iCol )
{
	/* Get the DataTables object again - this is not a recreation, just a get of the object */
	var oTable = $('#example').dataTable();
	
	var bVis = oTable.fnSettings().aoColumns[iCol].bVisible;
	oTable.fnSetColumnVis( iCol, bVis ? false : true );
}

Other examples