Dropdown filter jquery datatables

You can also create your own select list and position it anywhere you like outside the table.

<select id="mySelect">
    <option value="">Select</option>
    <option value="1">1</option>
    ...
</select>

<script>
    $('#mySelect').on('change',function(){
        var selectedValue = $(this).val();
        oTable.fnFilter("^"+selectedValue+"$", 0, true); //Exact value, column, reg
    });
</script>

Maybe times have changed, but with no plugin and using dataTables 1.10.12and it's @api, as a person in the comments suggested, you can use the zero based index integer from an array for the corresponding table. Example code, important bits are on line 2 below. I'm searching just on the 4th column, and this is coffeescript but you get the idea.

    $('#example').DataTable initComplete: ->
                    @api().columns([3]).every ->
                            column = this
                            select = $('<select><option value="">Sort Column(All)</option></select>').appendTo($(column.header()).empty()).on('change', ->
                                    val = $.fn.dataTable.util.escapeRegex($(this).val())
                                    column.search(val ? '^'+val+'$' : '', true, false).draw()
                                    return
                            )
                            column.data().unique().sort().each (d, j) ->
                                    select.append '<option value="' + d + '">' + d + '</option>'
                                    return
                            return
                    return

If you need only on one column you could do

var indexOfMyCol = 2;//you want it on the third column
$("thead th").each( function ( i ) {
    if(i === indexOfMyCol){ 
      this.innerHTML = fnCreateSelect( oTable.fnGetColumnData(i) );
      $('select', this).change( function () {
        oTable.fnFilter( $(this).val(), i );
      } );
    }
} );