I am using jquery datatables in my MVC4 application. The most simple configuration of jquery datatables.
Infact, I have placed this small jquery snippet in my layout.cshtml file which will take care of all tables in my application without doing anything custom.
$(".dataTable").dataTable({
"bJQueryUI": true,
"sPaginationType": "full_numbers"
}).columnFilter();
this works perfectly when I format the table with <thead>, <tbody> and <tfoot>.
Here's the image : 
Ofcourse, not everything will work work with this basic configuration.
The problem
The payment status column contains not just some text, it contains a span and a hidden dropdown list. on click of <td>, The span gets hidden and dropdown becomes visible. on dropdown change it reverts back to a visible span and hidden dropdown.
The code :
<td class=" " paymentid="106">
<span>
Completed
</span>
<select name:"paymentstatus"="" style="display:none;" onchange="changepaymentStatus($(this).parent().attr('paymentId'),$(this).val(),10);">
<option value="0" selected="'selected'">Completed</option>
<option value="1">Pending</option>
<option value="2">Cancelled</option>
</select>
</td>

With all this mess present in the <td> element, it is not able to filter at all (for that column and sorting works incorrectly (for that column).