SO fiddle

Test Fiddle mainly for SO Questions

by Nick Craver

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8.4/themes/overcast/jquery-ui.css">
<form>
    <input id="btnFilter" name="btnFilter">
</form>
<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Heading 1</th>
            <th>Heading 2</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>A</td>
            <td>X</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>ABC</td>
            <td>D</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

JavaScript

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('#btnFilter').keyup(function() {
        // I'm trying to get the value of the user input
        var myInput = $(this).val();
        // I'm trying to hide all rows inside tbody
        $('tbody tr').hide();
        // I'm trying to .show() all table rows that have a table cell with a value that begins with the input field.
        $('td').filter(function() {
            return $.text([this]).indexOf(myInput) == 0
        }).parent().show();
    });
});