JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="//ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.dataTables/1.9.4/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="//ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.dataTables/1.9.4/css/jquery.dataTables.css">
<h2>With mRender</h2>

<p><small><strong><em>Try searching for "href"</em></strong></small></p>

<table id="example">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Date</th>
            <th>String</th>
            <th>Number</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr><td><a href="#a">01/02/2013</a></td><td><a href="#a">-Z-</a></td><td><a href="#a">01</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#b">01/01/2014</a></td><td><a href="#b">-J-</a></td><td><a href="#b">50</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#c">05/05/2013</a></td><td><a href="#c">-L-</a></td><td><a href="#c">0100</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#c">05/05/2012</a></td><td><a href="#d">-A-</a></td><td><a href="#c">1</a></td></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<br/><br/><hr/>
<h2>Without mRender</h2>

<table id="example2">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Date</th>
            <th>String</th>
            <th>Number</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr><td><a href="#a">01/02/2013</a></td><td><a href="#a">-Z-</a></td><td><a href="#a">01</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#b">01/01/2014</a></td><td><a href="#b">-J-</a></td><td><a href="#b">50</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#c">05/05/2013</a></td><td><a href="#c">-L-</a></td><td><a href="#c">0100</a></td></tr>
        <tr><td><a href="#c">05/05/2012</a></td><td><a href="#d">-A-</a></td><td><a href="#c">1</a></td></tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

CSS

* {
    font-family: sans-serif;
}

JavaScript

var stripHtml = (function() {
    var tmpDiv = document.createElement("DIV");
    return function(html) {
        tmpDiv.innerHTML = html;
        return $.trim(tmpDiv.textContent || tmpDiv.innerText);
    };
})();

var mRenderFactory = function (colIndex) {
    return function (data, type, full) {
        var cache = MRenderCache.getCache(full);

        if (type === "filter" || type === "sort" || type === "type") {
            return cache.getOrElse(colIndex, data, stripHtml)
        }
        return data;
    };
};

var MRenderCache = function () {
    this.full = [];
}
MRenderCache.getCache = function (full) {
    var cache = full[full.length - 1];
    if (cache == null || !cache.MRenderCache) {
        cache = new MRenderCache();
        full.push(cache);
    }
    return cache;
}
MRenderCache.prototype.MRenderCache = true;
MRenderCache.prototype.getOrElse = function (colIndex, rawData, convert) {
    var result = this.full[colIndex];
    if (result === undefined) {
        result = convert(rawData);
        this.full[colIndex] = result;
    }
    return result;
}


$('#example').dataTable( {
    "aoColumns": [
        { "mRender": mRenderFactory(0) },
        { "mRender": mRenderFactory(1) },
        { "mRender": mRenderFactory(2) }
    ]
} );

$('#example2').dataTable( {
    "aoColumns": [ null, null, null ]
} );