Exclude column from export in Datatables Buttons

Question

I have the following initialization for my datatables:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.datatable').dataTable({
       dom: 'Bfrtip',
        buttons: [
                    {
                        extend: 'copyHtml5',
                        text: 'Copy Content to Clipboard',
                        className: 'btn',
                    },
                    {
                        extend: 'excelHtml5',
                        text: 'XLS Download',
                        className: 'btn',
                        "mColumns": [ 8 ]
                    },
                    {
                        extend: 'csvHtml5',
                        text: 'CSV Download',
                        className: 'btn',
                        "mRender": function (data, type, row) {
                             console.log(data);
                        }

                    },
        ],

    });
});

I am using Datatable Buttons as tabletools is deprecated from data table and tried many options:

"mRender": function (data, type, row) {
                                 console.log(data);
                            }

Also tried:

"mColumns": [ 8 ]

I have tried applying the different parameters in various ways but there is something missing in my understanding.Kindly help.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Look for exportOptions.columns, exportOptions let you define a column-selector the same way as you would target specific columns for filtering and so on. Example, include only the third and fourth column in a PDF export :

$('#example').DataTable( {
  dom: 'Bfrtip',
  buttons: [
    {
      extend: 'pdf',
      exportOptions: {
        columns: [ 2, 3 ]
      }
    }
  ]
});

demo -> https://jsfiddle.net/r9Lqbhz4/

Other examples :

exportOptions: {
   columns: ':visible' //visible rows
}
exportOptions: {
   columns: ['.export', '.important'] //by class selector
}

And so on, see the above mentioned column-selector page,

As per comment: All visible columns except for one in particular :

exportOptions: {
   columns: ':visible:not(:eq(2))' 
}

Will include all visible columns except column #2, the third column. Be aware that the eq() column index is based on visible column indexes.