<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<dt-api group="columns">
	<name>column().index()</name>
	<summary>Get the column index of the selected column.</summary>
	<since>1.10</since>

	<type type="function">
		<signature>column().index( [type] )</signature>
		<description>Get the column index of the selected column.</description>
		<parameter type="string" name="type" default="data">
			Specify if you want to get the column data index (default) or the visible index (`dt-string visible`).
		</parameter>
		<returns type="integer">The column index for the selected column.</returns>
	</type>

	<description>
		DataTables stores the data for rows and columns in internally indexes which it can utilise for fast operation of ordering, searching etc. It can be useful at times to know what these indexes are, as they can be used for efficient selectors in the `dt-api row()`, `dt-api column()` and other API methods which use selectors.

		This method is used to retrieve the index of the selected column. By default it will return the column data index (i.e. column visibility is not taken into consideration), but by passing `dt-string visible` as the first parameter to the method, the returned indexes will be the columns' visible index, which does take into account hidden columns (for example if column 0 is hidden, all following columns would have their visible index shifted by 1).
	</description>

	<example title=""><![CDATA[
var table = $('#example').DataTable();

table.column( 0 ).visible( false );

var idx = table.column( 1 ).index( 'visible' );
alert( idx ); // will show 0
]]></example>

	<related type="api">columns().indexes()</related>
</dt-api>