HTML Tables

HTML Tables

Apples	44%
Bananas	23%
Oranges	13%
Other	10%

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Tables

Tables are defined with the <table> tag. A table is divided into rows (with the <tr> tag), and each row is divided into data cells (with the <td> tag). The letters td stands for "table data," which is the content of a data cell. A data cell can contain text, images, lists, paragraphs, forms, horizontal rules, tables, etc.

<table border="1"> <tr> <td>row 1, cell 1</td> <td>row 1, cell 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>row 2, cell 1</td> <td>row 2, cell 2</td> </tr> </table>

How it looks in a browser:

row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2

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Tables and the Border Attribute

If you do not specify a border attribute the table will be displayed without any borders. Sometimes this can be useful, but most of the time, you want the borders to show.
To display a table with borders, you will have to use the border attribute:

<table border="1"> <tr> <td>Row 1, cell 1</td> <td>Row 1, cell 2</td> </tr> </table>

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Headings in a Table

Headings in a table are defined with the <th> tag.

<table border="1"> <tr> <th>Heading</th> <th>Another Heading</th> </tr> <tr> <td>row 1, cell 1</td> <td>row 1, cell 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>row 2, cell 1</td> <td>row 2, cell 2</td> </tr> </table>

How it looks in a browser:

Heading	Another Heading
row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2

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Empty Cells in a Table

Table cells with no content are not displayed very well in most browsers.

<table border="1"> <tr> <td>row 1, cell 1</td> <td>row 1, cell 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>row 2, cell 1</td> <td></td> </tr> </table>

How it looks in a browser:

row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1

Note that the borders around the empty table cell are missing (NB! Mozilla Firefox displays the border).
To avoid this, add a non-breaking space (&nbsp;) to empty data cells, to make the borders visible:

<table border="1"> <tr> <td>row 1, cell 1</td> <td>row 1, cell 2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>row 2, cell 1</td> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table>

How it looks in a browser:

row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1

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Table Tags

Tag	Description
<table>	Defines a table
<th>	Defines a table header
<tr>	Defines a table row
<td>	Defines a table cell
<caption>	Defines a table caption
<colgroup>	Defines groups of table columns
<col>	Defines the attribute values for one or more columns in a table
<thead>	Defines a table head
<tbody>	Defines a table body
<tfoot>	Defines a table footer