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

Slightly modified version is here: http://jsfiddle.net/Lijo/uGKHB/13/

//INDEX
alert ( GetNonColSpanIndex ('Type'));

function GetNonColSpanIndex(referenceHeaderCellValue) {

    var selectedCell = $("th").filter(function (i) {
        return ($.trim($(this).html()  )) == referenceHeaderCellValue;

    });

    alert(selectedCell.html());

    var allCells = $(selectedCell).parent('tr').children();
    var normalIndex = allCells.index($(selectedCell));
    var nonColSpanIndex = 0;

    allCells.each(
    function (i, item) {
        if (i == normalIndex)
            return false;

        var colspan = $(selectedCell).attr('colspan');
        colspan = colspan ? parseInt(colspan) : 1;
        nonColSpanIndex += colspan;
    }
    );

    return nonColSpanIndex;
};

​