# Editor example Duplicate button

This example shows how a duplicate button can be created for Editor, allowing a row to be selected and a new entry form be populated with the values from the selected row. This can allow data entry that contains common information, such as monthly salary information, invoices, etc, to be performed extremely quickly.

The duplicate button is created using the `selected` button type defined by Select as a basis (this handles the row selection for us). The button's action (`buttons.buttons.action`) then simply places the selected row(s) into an editing state.

The next step is to use `mode()` to change the editing mode from edit to create. This retains the same values in the form, but alters the action Editor will submit to the server.

The Join table example is used as a basis here to show the duplicate button working with complex nested data.

First name | Last name | Phone # | Location
--- | --- | --- | ---
First name | Last name | Phone # | Location

- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The JavaScript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`const editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../php/join.php', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'users.first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'users.last_name' }, { label: 'Phone #:', name: 'users.phone' }, { label: 'Site:', name: 'users.site', type: 'select' } ], table: '#example' }); const table = new DataTable('#example', { ajax: { url: '../php/join.php', type: 'POST' }, columns: [ { data: 'users.first_name' }, { data: 'users.last_name' }, { data: 'users.phone' }, { data: 'sites.name' } ], layout: { topStart: { buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'selected', text: 'Duplicate', action: function (e, dt, node, config) { // Start in edit mode, and then change to create editor .edit(table.rows({ selected: true }).indexes(), { title: 'Duplicate record', buttons: 'Create from existing' }) .mode('create'); } }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } }, select: true });`

In addition to the above code, the following JavaScript library files are loaded for use in this example:

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.