Select is an extension for DataTables that provides table item selection capabilities. In its most simple form it can be enabled on a DataTable by setting the select option to be true. This will enable Select will all of its default options - row selection which is performed using the os method (click to select a single item, cmd/ctrl to add and remove items or shift to select a range of items) - see the select.style option.

The select.style option provides the ability to control how items are selected in the table. It is a string that can be used with one of the following options:
api - Selection can only be performed via the API
single - Only a single item can be selected, any other selected items will be automatically deselected when a new item is selected
multi - Multiple items can be selected. Selection is performed by simply clicking on the items to be selected
os - Operating System (OS) style selection. This is the most comprehensive option and provides complex behaviors such as ctrl/cmd clicking to select / deselect individual items, shift clicking to select ranges and an unmodified click to select a single item.

Select has the ability to select rows, columns and / or cells in a table. Row selection is the default behavior as it is the most commonly used selection item type, but the items to be selected can be easily changed using the select.items initialization option, or after initialization using the select.items() API method.

A selected row is typically shown in a DataTable by using a highlight background colour - however, it can also be useful to use other styling options to convey the selected state of items in a table to the end user.

A common option is to use a checkbox which can be clicked on to toggle row selection, which can be particularly useful if you wish to restrict row selection activation to a particular column, so other actions can be performed on the other cells in the table (such as inline editing).

Select provides a number of buttons that can be used with the Buttons extension for DataTables. Buttons is a framework providing common options, styling and API methods for buttons that can control a DataTable.

When using Select row selection will typically be performed by the actions of an end user, but it also possible to programmatically select items in a table using the API methods presented by the library. rows().select() and rows().deselect() plus their singular counterparts along with similar columns and cells methods provide this ability.

It can be very useful to know when an end user has selected or deselected an item in a DataTable. Select provides this information through the select and deselect events. There two events are given information about the item selected in the form of what item type it is (row, column or cell) and its data index (see row().index(), column().index() and cell().index()).