Finding column index using jQuery when table contains column-spanning cells

Question

Using jQuery, how can I find the column index of an arbitrary table cell in the example table below, such that cells spanning multiple columns have multiple indexes?

Answer 1

There is a more concise answer here: Get Index of a td considering the colspan using jquery

In short:

var index = 0;
$("#example2").prevAll("td").each(function() {
    index += this.colSpan;
});
console.log(index);