HTML Tables

HTML Table Example

Company	Contact	Country
Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Germany
Centro comercial Moctezuma	Francisco Chang	Mexico
Ernst Handel	Roland Mendel	Austria
Island Trading	Helen Bennett	UK
Laughing Bacchus Winecellars	Yoshi Tannamuri	Canada
Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti	Giovanni Rovelli	Italy

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Defining an HTML Table

An HTML table is defined with the <table> tag.

Each table row is defined with the <tr> tag. A table header is defined with the <th> tag. By default, table headings are bold and centered. A table data/cell is defined with the <td> tag.

Example

<table style="width:100%">
  <tr>
    <th>Firstname</th>
    <th>Lastname</th>
    <th>Age</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Jill</td>
    <td>Smith</td>
    <td>50</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Eve</td>
    <td>Jackson</td>
    <td>94</td>
  </tr>
</table>

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Note: The <td> elements are the data containers of the table.
They can contain all sorts of HTML elements; text, images, lists, other tables, etc.

HTML Table - Adding a Border

If you do not specify a border for the table, it will be displayed without borders.

A border is set using the CSS border property:

Example

table, th, td {
  border: 1px solid black;}

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Remember to define borders for both the table and the table cells.

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HTML Table - Collapsed Borders

If you want the borders to collapse into one border, add the CSS border-collapse property:

Example

table, th, td {
  border: 1px solid black;
  border-collapse: collapse;}

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HTML Table - Adding Cell Padding

Cell padding specifies the space between the cell content and its borders.

If you do not specify a padding, the table cells will be displayed without padding.

To set the padding, use the CSS padding property:

Example

th, td {
  padding: 15px;}

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HTML Table - Left-align Headings

By default, table headings are bold and centered.

To left-align the table headings, use the CSS text-align property:

Example

th {
  text-align: left;}

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HTML Table - Adding Border Spacing

Border spacing specifies the space between the cells.

To set the border spacing for a table, use the CSS border-spacing property:

Example

table {
  border-spacing: 5px;}

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Note: If the table has collapsed borders, border-spacing has no effect.

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HTML Table - Cells that Span Many Columns

To make a cell span more than one column, use the colspan attribute:

Example

<table style="width:100%">
  <tr>
    <th>Name</th>
    <th colspan="2">Telephone</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Bill Gates</td>
    <td>55577854</td>
    <td>55577855</td>
  </tr>
</table>

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HTML Table - Cells that Span Many Rows

To make a cell span more than one row, use the rowspan attribute:

Example

<table style="width:100%">
  <tr>
    <th>Name:</th>
    <td>Bill Gates</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th rowspan="2">Telephone:</th>
    <td>55577854</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>55577855</td>
  </tr>
</table>

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HTML Table - Adding a Caption

To add a caption to a table, use the <caption> tag:

Example

<table style="width:100%">
  <caption>Monthly savings</caption>
  <tr>
    <th>Month</th>
    <th>Savings</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>January</td>
    <td>$100</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>February</td>
    <td>$50</td>
  </tr>
</table>

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Note: The <caption> tag must be inserted immediately after the <table> tag.

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A Special Style for One Table

To define a special style for a special table, add an id attribute to the table:

Example

<table id="t01">
  <tr>
    <th>Firstname</th>
    <th>Lastname</th>
    <th>Age</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Eve</td>
    <td>Jackson</td>
    <td>94</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Now you can define a special style for this table:

table#t01 {
  width: 100%;
  background-color: #f1f1c1;}

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And add more styles:

table#t01 tr:nth-child(even) {
  background-color: #eee;}
table#t01 tr:nth-child(odd) {
  background-color: #fff;}
table#t01 th {
  color: white;
  background-color: black;}

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Chapter Summary

• Use the HTML <table> element to define a table
• Use the HTML <tr> element to define a table row
• Use the HTML <td> element to define a table data
• Use the HTML <th> element to define a table heading
• Use the HTML <caption> element to define a table caption
• Use the CSS border property to define a border
• Use the CSS border-collapse property to collapse cell borders
• Use the CSS padding property to add padding to cells
• Use the CSS text-align property to align cell text
• Use the CSS border-spacing property to set the spacing between cells
• Use the colspan attribute to make a cell span many columns
• Use the rowspan attribute to make a cell span many rows
• Use the id attribute to uniquely define one table

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HTML Exercises

Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Add a table row with two table headers.

The two table headers should have the value "Name" and "Age".

<table>
  
    
    
  
  <tr>
    <td>Jill Smith</td>
    <td>50</td>
  </tr>
</table>