The Web Design Group

TABLE - HTML Tables


This element is also available in our updated HTML 4 reference. Some characteristics may have changed.

Appearance: <TABLE> </TABLE>
Attributes: ALIGN=left|center|right, WIDTH=n|p%, BORDER=n, CELLSPACING=n, CELLPADDING=n
Contents: One CAPTION, TR.
May occur in: BODY, DIV, CENTER, BLOCKQUOTE, FORM, TH, TD and DD, LI.

Table start with an optional caption followed by one or more rows. Each row consists of one or more cells, which can be either header or data cells. Cells can overlap across rows and columns.

The ALIGN attribute controls the alignment of the table itself, but not of the individual cells. This can be set either in the TR element for an entire row, or in the TD and TH elements for individual cells. The WIDTH attribute can be a pixel width or a percentage. It indicates the suggested width of the table, although the browser can ignore this if it is not possible. A "100%" value means the table will span across the entire browser window.

You can specify the width of the border around the table with the BORDER attribute. This attribute only affects the width of that border, not of the lines between table cells. If the attribute is omitted, no border will be drawn.

However, you can increase the whitespace inside a table. The CELLPADDING attribute indicates how many pixels there should be between a cell's contents and the border. CELLSPACING indicates how much whitespace (in pixels) there should be between individual cells.

As an example, here is a table from the HTML 3.0 draft:

<TABLE BORDER=1>
  <CAPTION>A test table with merged cells</CAPTION>
  <TR><TH ROWSPAN=2><TH COLSPAN=2>Average
  <TH ROWSPAN=2>other<BR>category<TH>Misc
  <TR><TH>height<TH>weight
  <TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT>males<TD>1.9<TD>0.003
  <TR><TH ALIGN=LEFT ROWSPAN=2>females<TD>1.7<TD>0.002
</TABLE>

This could appear as follows, in a text browser:

          A test table with merged cells
/--------------------------------------------------\ 
|          |      Average      |  other   |  Misc  |
|          |-------------------| category |--------|
|          |  height |  weight |          |        |
|-----------------------------------------|--------|
| males    |   1.9   |  0.003  |          |        |
|-----------------------------------------|--------|
| females  |   1.7   |  0.002  |          |        |
\--------------------------------------------------/

Notes:

HTML 3.2 Reference  ~ Elements by Function  ~ Elements Alphabetically


Home, Forums, Reference, Tools, FAQs, Articles, Design, Links

Copyright © 1996 - 2006. Web Design Group All rights reserved.