Datatables: Cannot read property 'mData' of undefined

I have an issue with Datatables. I also went through this link which didn't yield any results. I have included all the prerequisites where I'm parsing data directly into the DOM. Kindly help me to fix this issue.

Script

$(document).ready(function() {
  $('.viewCentricPage .teamCentric').dataTable({
    "bJQueryUI": true,
    "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",
    "bPaginate": false,
    "bFilter": true,
    "bSort": true,
    "aaSorting": [
      [1, "asc"]
    ],
    "aoColumnDefs": [{
      "bSortable": false,
      "aTargets": [0]
    }, {
      "bSortable": true,
      "aTargets": [1]
    }, {
      "bSortable": false,
      "aTargets": [2]
    }],
  });
});

FYI dataTables requires a well formed table. It must contain <thead> and <tbody> tags, otherwise it throws this error. Also check to make sure all your rows including header row have the same number of columns.

The following will throw error (no <thead> and <tbody> tags)

<table id="sample-table">
    <tr>
        <th>title-1</th>
        <th>title-2</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>data-1</td>
        <td>data-2</td>
    </tr>
</table>

The following will also throw an error (unequal number of columns)

<table id="sample-table">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>title-1</th>
            <th>title-2</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>data-1</td>
            <td>data-2</td>
            <td>data-3</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

For more info read more here

A common cause for Cannot read property 'fnSetData' of undefined is the mismatched number of columns, like in this erroneous code:

<thead>                 <!-- thead required -->
    <tr>                <!-- tr required -->
        <th>Rep</th>    <!-- td instead of th will also work -->
        <th>Titel</th>
                        <!-- th missing here -->
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td>Rep</td>
        <td>Titel</td>
        <td>Missing corresponding th</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>

While the following code with one <th> per <td> (number of columns must match) works:

<thead>
    <tr>
        <th>Rep</th>       <!-- 1st column -->
        <th>Titel</th>     <!-- 2nd column -->
        <th>Added th</th>  <!-- 3rd column; th added here -->
    </tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td>Rep</td>             <!-- 1st column -->
        <td>Titel</td>           <!-- 2nd column -->
        <td>th now present</td>  <!-- 3rd column -->
    </tr>
</tbody>

The error also appears when using a well-formed thead with a colspan but without a second row.

For a table with 7 colums, the following does not work and we see "Cannot read property 'mData' of undefined" in the javascript console:

<thead>
    <tr>
        <th>Rep</th>
        <th>Titel</th>
        <th colspan="5">Download</th>
    </tr>
</thead>

While this works:

<thead>
    <tr>
        <th rowspan="2">Rep</th>
        <th rowspan="2">Titel</th>
        <th colspan="5">Download</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>pdf</th>
        <th>nwc</th>
        <th>nwctxt</th>
        <th>mid</th>
        <th>xml</th>
    </tr>
</thead>

Having <thead> and <tbody> with the same numbers of <th> and <td> solved my problem.

I had this same problem using DOM data in a Rails view created via the scaffold generator. By default the view omits <th> elements for the last three columns (which contain links to show, hide, and destroy records). I found that if I added in titles for those columns in a <th> element within the <thead> that it fixed the problem.

I can't say if this is the same problem you're having since I can't see your html. If it is not the same problem, you can use the chrome debugger to figure out which column it is erroring out on by clicking on the error in the console (which will take you to the code it is failing on), then adding a conditional breakpoint (at col==undefined). When it stops you can check the variable i to see which column it is currently on which can help you figure out what is different about that column from the others. Hope that helps!