diff --git a/src/demo-app/table/table-demo.ts b/src/demo-app/table/table-demo.ts
index efecfc9e6995..691190cb73dc 100644
--- a/src/demo-app/table/table-demo.ts
+++ b/src/demo-app/table/table-demo.ts
@@ -60,7 +60,8 @@ export class TableDemo {
         default: return '';
       }
     };
-    this.matTableDataSource.filterTermAccessor = (data: UserData) => data.name;
+    this.matTableDataSource.filterPredicate =
+        (data: UserData, filter: string) => data.name.indexOf(filter) != -1;
     this.filter.valueChanges.subscribe(filter => this.matTableDataSource!.filter = filter);
   }
 
diff --git a/src/lib/table/table-data-source.ts b/src/lib/table/table-data-source.ts
index 14852a5f570f..eb215d05fc80 100644
--- a/src/lib/table/table-data-source.ts
+++ b/src/lib/table/table-data-source.ts
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ export class MatTableDataSource<T> implements DataSource<T> {
 
   /**
    * Filter term that should be used to filter out objects from the data array. To override how
-   * the filter matches data objects, provide a custom function on filterTermAccessor.
+   * data objects match to this filter string, provide a custom function for filterPredicate.
    */
   set filter(filter: string) { this._filter.next(filter); }
   get filter(): string { return this._filter.value; }
@@ -91,14 +91,24 @@ export class MatTableDataSource<T> implements DataSource<T> {
   }
 
   /**
-   * Transforms data objects into a filter term that will be used to check against the filter if
-   * a filter is set. By default, the function will iterate over the values of the data object
-   * and convert them to a lowercase string.
-   * @param data Data object to convert to a string that checked for containing the filter term.
+   * Checks if a data object matches the data source's filter string. By default, each data object
+   * is converted to a string of its properties and returns true if the filter has
+   * at least one occurrence in that string. By default, the filter string has its whitespace
+   * trimmed and the match is case-insensitive. May be overriden for a custom implementation of
+   * filter matching.
+   * @param data Data object used to check against the filter.
+   * @param filter Filter string that has been set on the data source.
+   * @returns Whether the filter matches against the data
    */
-  filterTermAccessor: ((data: T) => string) = (data: T): string => {
+  filterPredicate: ((data: T, filter: string) => boolean) = (data: T, filter: string): boolean => {
+    // Transform the data into a lowercase string of all property values.
     const accumulator = (currentTerm, key) => currentTerm + data[key];
-    return Object.keys(data).reduce(accumulator, '').toLowerCase();
+    const dataStr = Object.keys(data).reduce(accumulator, '').toLowerCase();
+
+    // Transform the filter by converting it to lowercase and removing whitespace.
+    const transformedFilter = filter.trim().toLowerCase();
+
+    return dataStr.indexOf(transformedFilter) != -1;
   }
 
   constructor(initialData: T[] = []) {
@@ -141,9 +151,8 @@ export class MatTableDataSource<T> implements DataSource<T> {
     // If there is a filter string, filter out data that does not contain it.
     // Each data object is converted to a string using the function defined by filterTermAccessor.
     // May be overriden for customization.
-    const filteredData = !this.filter ? data : data.filter(obj => {
-      return this.filterTermAccessor(obj).indexOf(this.filter) != -1;
-    });
+    const filteredData =
+        !this.filter ? data : data.filter(obj => this.filterPredicate(obj, this.filter));
 
     if (this.paginator) { this._updatePaginator(filteredData.length); }
 
diff --git a/src/lib/table/table.spec.ts b/src/lib/table/table.spec.ts
index 39949cf92b19..eac0a880fff9 100644
--- a/src/lib/table/table.spec.ts
+++ b/src/lib/table/table.spec.ts
@@ -109,8 +109,8 @@ describe('MatTable', () => {
       flushMicrotasks();  // Resolve promise that updates paginator's length
       expect(dataSource.paginator!.length).toBe(1);
 
-      // Change filter to a_2, should match one row
-      dataSource.filter = 'a_2';
+      // Change filter to '  A_2  ', should match one row (ignores case and whitespace)
+      dataSource.filter = '  A_2  ';
       fixture.detectChanges();
       expectTableToMatchContent(tableElement, [
         ['Column A', 'Column B', 'Column C'],
@@ -127,14 +127,17 @@ describe('MatTable', () => {
         ['a_3', 'b_3', 'c_3'],
       ]);
 
-      // Change filter function and filter, should match to rows.
-      dataSource.filterTermAccessor = data => {
+      // Change filter function and filter, should match to rows with zebra.
+      dataSource.filterPredicate = (data, filter) => {
+        let dataStr;
         switch (data.a) {
-          case 'a_1': return 'elephant';
-          case 'a_2': return 'zebra';
-          case 'a_3': return 'monkey';
-          default: return '';
+          case 'a_1': dataStr = 'elephant'; break;
+          case 'a_2': dataStr = 'zebra'; break;
+          case 'a_3': dataStr = 'monkey'; break;
+          default: dataStr = '';
         }
+
+        return dataStr.indexOf(filter) != -1;
       };
       dataSource.filter = 'zebra';
       fixture.detectChanges();