Datatables warning(table id = 'example'): cannot reinitialise data table

Jquery Problem Overview

I am working with datatables example and getting an error like this when loading page: Datatables warning(table id = 'example'): cannot reinitialise data table. To retrieve the DataTables object for this table, pass no arguments or see the docs for bRetrieve and bDestroy.

I was trying to test the fnRowCallback

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
 <head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

<title>DataTables live example</title>
<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="DataTables/media/js/jquery.js"></script>
<script class="jsbin" src="http://datatables.net/download/build/jquery.dataTables.nightly.js"></script>
<style type="text/css">
  @import "DataTables/media/css/demo_table.css";
</style>
</head>
 <body id="dt_example">
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').dataTable();
} );

$(document).ready( function() {
  $('#example').dataTable( {
   "fnRowCallback": function( nRow, aData, iDisplayIndex, iDisplayIndexFull ) {
     // Bold the grade for all 'A' grade browsers
     if ( aData[4] == "A" )
     {
       $('td:eq(4)', nRow).html( '<b>A</b>' );
     }
   }
 } );
 } );
 	</script>

<div id="container">
  <h1>Live example</h1>

  <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="display" id="example">
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>Rendering engine</th>
        <th>Browser</th>
        <th>Platform(s)</th>
        <th>Engine version</th>
        <th>CSS grade</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr class="odd gradeX">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>Internet Explorer 4.0</td>
        <td>Win 95+</td>
        <td class="center"> 4</td>
        <td class="center">X</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="even gradeC">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>Internet Explorer 5.0</td>
        <td>Win 95+</td>
        <td class="center">5</td>
        <td class="center">C</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="odd gradeA">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>Internet Explorer 5.5</td>
        <td>Win 95+</td>
        <td class="center">5.5</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="even gradeA">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>Internet Explorer 6</td>
        <td>Win 98+</td>
        <td class="center">6</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="odd gradeA">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>Internet Explorer 7</td>
        <td>Win XP SP2+</td>
        <td class="center">7</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="even gradeA">
        <td>Trident</td>
        <td>AOL browser (AOL desktop)</td>
        <td>Win XP</td>
        <td class="center">6</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="gradeA">
        <td>Gecko</td>
        <td>Firefox 1.0</td>
        <td>Win 98+ / OSX.2+</td>
        <td class="center">1.7</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
      <tr class="gradeA">
        <td>Gecko</td>
        <td>Firefox 1.5</td>
        <td>Win 98+ / OSX.2+</td>
        <td class="center">1.8</td>
        <td class="center">A</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
    <tfoot>
      <tr>
        <th>Rendering engine</th>
        <th>Browser</th>
        <th>Platform(s)</th>
        <th>Engine version</th>
        <th>CSS grade</th>
      </tr>
    </tfoot>
  </table>
</div>
</body>
</html>

What am i doing wrong in this?

Jquery Solutions

Solution 1 - Jquery

Try adding "bDestroy": true to the options object literal, e.g.

$('#dataTable').dataTable({
    ...
    ....
    "bDestroy": true
});

Source: iodocs.com

or Remove the first:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').dataTable();
} );

In your case is the best option vjk.

Solution 2 - Jquery

You can also destroy the old datatable by using the following code before creating the new datatable:

$("#example").dataTable().fnDestroy();

Solution 3 - Jquery

You are initializing datatables twice, why?

// Take this off
/*
$(document).ready(function() {
    $( '#example' ).dataTable();
} );
*/
$(document).ready( function() {
  $( '#example' ).dataTable( {
   "fnRowCallback": function( nRow, aData, iDisplayIndex, iDisplayIndexFull ) {
     // Bold the grade for all 'A' grade browsers
     if ( aData[4] == "A" )
     {
       $('td:eq(4)', nRow).html( '<b>A</b>' );
     }
   }
 } );
 } );

Solution 4 - Jquery

Add "bDestroy": true in your dataTable Like:-

   $('#example').dataTable({
    ....
    stateSave: true,
    "bDestroy": true
    });

It Will Work.

Solution 5 - Jquery

You can add destroy:true to the configuration to make sure data table already present is removed before being reinitialized.

$('#example').dataTable({
    destroy: true,
    ...
});

Solution 6 - Jquery

You have to destroy the datatable and empty the table body before binding DataTable by doing this below,

function Create() {
if ($.fn.DataTable.isDataTable('#dataTable')) {
	$('#dataTable').DataTable().destroy();
}
$('#dataTable tbody').empty();
//Here call the Datatable Bind function;}

Solution 7 - Jquery

$('#example').dataTable();

Make it a class so you can instantiate multiple table at a time

$('.example').dataTable();

Solution 8 - Jquery

This problem occurs if we initialize dataTable more than once.Then we have to remove the previous.

On the other hand we can destroy the old datatable in this way also before creating the new datatable use the following code :

$(“#example”).dataTable().fnDestroy();

There is an another scenario ,say you send more than one ajax request which response will access same table in same template then we will get error also.In this case fnDestroy method doesn’t work properly because you don’t know which response comes first or later.Then you have to set bRetrieve TRUE in data table configuration.That’s it.

This is My senario:

<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function () {

        $('#DatatableNone').dataTable({
            "bDestroy": true
        }).fnDestroy();

        $('#DatatableOne').dataTable({
            "aoColumnDefs": [{
                "bSortable": false,
                "aTargets": ["sorting_disabled"]
            }],
            "bDestroy": true
        }).fnDestroy();

});

</script>

Solution 9 - Jquery

https://datatables.net/reference/option/retrieve

$('#example').dataTable({
    retrieve: true,
    ...
});

Solution 10 - Jquery

Remove the first:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#example').dataTable();
} );

Solution 11 - Jquery

I know its an old question. This problem can be easily reproduced if you try to reinitialize the Datatable again.

For example in your function somewhere you are calling $('#example').DataTable( { searching: false} ); again.

There is easy resolving this issue. Please follow the steps

Initialize the Datatable to a variable rather than directly initializing DataTable method.
For Example Instead of calling $('#example').DataTable( { searching: false} ); try to declare it globally (or in scope of javascription that you are using) like this var table = $('#example').DataTable( { searching: false } );.
Now Whenever you are calling this method $('#example').DataTable( { searching: false} ); again then before calling it perform the following actions
if (table != undefined && table != null) { table.destroy(); table = null; }
Once you have followed the steps above then go ahead with re-initializing the table with same variable without using var keyword (as you have already defined it) i.e table = $('#example').DataTable( { searching: false } );

JSFiddle Code Also attached for any reference of same code http://jsfiddle.net/vibs2006/qxy4nwfg/

Solution 12 - Jquery

Search in your code maybe you have initialized dataTable twice. You shold have like this code:

$('#example').dataTable( {paging: false} );

Only one time in your code.

Solution 13 - Jquery

In my case the ajax call was being interfered by the data-plugin tag applied to the table. The data-plugin does background initialization and will give this error when you have it as well as yourTable.DataTable({ ... }); initialization.

From

 <table id="myTable" class="table-class" data-plugin="dataTable" data-source="data-source">

<table id="myTable" class="table-class" data-source="data-source">

Solution 14 - Jquery

When searching this topic I found the solution elsewhere but adding the answer here since I had the same problem as above together with the text "Uncaught TypeError: Cannot set property '_DT_CellIndex' of undefined". Cause was due to having one to many tags in the table body.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	vjk	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Jquery	RckLN	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Jquery	Soma Sarkar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Jquery	Nicola Peluchetti	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Jquery	Javed	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Jquery	Kent Aguilar	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Jquery	KIshorekumar SP	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Jquery	Pabsy	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Jquery	RajeshKdev	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Jquery	SUDHIR KUMAR	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Jquery	KingKongFrog	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 11 - Jquery	vibs2006	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 12 - Jquery	Zahra Badri	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 13 - Jquery	aabiro	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 14 - Jquery	Michael	View Answer on Stackoverflow