diff --git a/js/widgets/widget-filter.js b/js/widgets/widget-filter.js
index 8fc3dbfd..fef34caa 100644
--- a/js/widgets/widget-filter.js
+++ b/js/widgets/widget-filter.js
@@ -629,14 +629,16 @@
 		// encode or decode filters for storage; see #1026
 		processFilters: function( filters, encode ) {
 			var indx,
+				// fixes #1237; previously returning an encoded "filters" value
+				result = [],
 				mode = encode ? encodeURIComponent : decodeURIComponent,
 				len = filters.length;
 			for ( indx = 0; indx < len; indx++ ) {
 				if ( filters[ indx ] ) {
-					filters[ indx ] = mode( filters[ indx ] );
+					result[ indx ] = mode( filters[ indx ] );
 				}
 			}
-			return filters;
+			return result;
 		},
 		setDefaults: function( table, c, wo ) {
 			var isArray, saved, indx, col, $filters,
diff --git a/testing/testing-widgets.js b/testing/testing-widgets.js
index 87962372..a6124314 100644
--- a/testing/testing-widgets.js
+++ b/testing/testing-widgets.js
@@ -184,8 +184,9 @@ jQuery(function($){
 		var processFilters = this.ts.filter.processFilters,
 			filters = [],
 			results = [];
-		filters[1] = 5, filters[2] = 'test', filters[3] = true, filters[4] = null;
-		results[1] = '5', results[2] = 'test', results[3] = 'true', results[4] = null;
+		filters[1] = 5; filters[2] = 'test'; filters[3] = true; filters[4] = null;
+		results[1] = '5'; results[2] = 'test'; results[3] = 'true';
+		// filters[4] will now become undefined within results - see #1237
 
 		assert.deepEqual( processFilters( filters, true ), results );
 		assert.deepEqual( processFilters( filters, false ), results );