Kendo UI grid with multiple values

Try the following grid settings:

var grid = $("#grid").kendoGrid({
    dataSource: {
    data: [
        { name: "John", tags: ["C#", "JavaScript", "PHP"] },
        { name: "Oliver", tags: ["UI", "SQL"] },
        { name: "Mark", tags: ["SQL", "Windows Server"] }]
    },
    columns: [{
        field: "name",
        title: "Name"
    }, {
        template: "# var t=tags.join(', '); data.tagsString=t; # #=t #",
        title: "Tags",
        field: "tags"
    }]
}).data("kendoGrid");

$("#filter").on("keydown", function() {
    grid.dataSource.filter({ 
        field: "tagsString",
        operator: "contains", 
        value: $(this).val()
    });
});

demo .

As you can see I have to use an external custom filter field. That's because the grid's default built-in column filter doesn't filter arrays, nor the dataSource's filter()methods.

So in the template I have kendo create a new property in each dataSource item called tagsString, and I set the result to be the same as shown in the tags.join(", ")" label" column . Once that property is set, I can filter using the filter()method , which will be set fieldto tagsString.