Global Filter Fails When First Row Value is Undefined

[codebycarlos]

Describe the bug

If the first row of a table has an undefined value in a column, the global filter won't work on that column, regardless of valid values in subsequent rows.

Take for example:

ID	Other
	test
hello	test
world	test

Searching for hello with the global filter fails, even though it's clearly there. As soon as the order of the rows within the data is reversed, the global filters begins to work again.

Your minimal, reproducible example

https://codesandbox.io/p/sandbox/adoring-sid-ro5tmg?file=%2Fsrc%2Fmain.tsx&selection=%5B%7B%22endColumn%22%3A26%2C%22endLineNumber%22%3A56%2C%22startColumn%22%3A26%2C%22startLineNumber%22%3A56%7D%5D

Steps to reproduce

Create a table where the first row of data has an undefined value. Subsequent rows should have string values. Upon using the global filter to search for an existing value, nothing is shown.

Expected behavior

Global filter should work, regardless of row order.

How often does this bug happen?

Every time

Screenshots or Videos

0247.mp4

Platform

• OS: Windows
• Browser: Firefox

react-table version

8.8.2

TypeScript version

No response

Additional context

This may be due to the default getColumnCanGlobalFilter implementation:

table/packages/table-core/src/features/Filters.ts

Lines 190 to 196 in 134414e

	getColumnCanGlobalFilter: column => {
	const value = table
	.getCoreRowModel()
	.flatRows[0]?._getAllCellsByColumnId()
	[column.id]?.getValue()
	return typeof value === 'string' || typeof value === 'number'

It seems to check the first row's values to determine if certain columns can be globally filtered.

Terms & Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct
• I understand that if my bug cannot be reliable reproduced in a debuggable environment, it will probably not be fixed and this issue may even be closed.

[codebycarlos]

Potentially related to #4711, #4673, #4594.

[codebycarlos]

I'm not familiar with the motivation behind getColumnCanGlobalFilter. But the idea of determining column filterability based on the first row will undoubtedly be a footgun for many people using TanStack/table. Perhaps it's best that the default implementation always returns true?

[michasng]

This was certainly a footgun for me, because my local testing data didn't include undefined.

Always returning true is equally wrong by not filtering at all (as opposed to filtering out everything).
I'm assuming this can only be solved by making the autoFilterFn depend on each filtered row. It should not depend on some random row, like the first one.