CSS Tables
The look of an HTML table can be greatly improved with CSS:
| Company | Contact | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Alfreds Futterkiste | Maria Anders | Germany |
| Berglunds snabbköp | Christina Berglund | Sweden |
| Centro comercial Moctezuma | Francisco Chang | Mexico |
| Ernst Handel | Roland Mendel | Austria |
| Island Trading | Helen Bennett | UK |
| Königlich Essen | Philip Cramer | Germany |
| Laughing Bacchus Winecellars | Yoshi Tannamuri | Canada |
| Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti | Giovanni Rovelli | Italy |
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Table Borders
To specify table borders in CSS, use the border property.
The example below specifies a black border for <table>, <th>, and <td> elements:
Notice that the table in the example above has double borders. This is because both the table and the <th> and <td> elements have separate borders.
Collapse Table Borders
The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders
should be collapsed into a single border:
Example
table
{
border-collapse: collapse;
}
table, th, td
{
border: 1px solid black;
}
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If you only want a border around the table, only specify the border property for
<table>:
Table Width and Height
Width and height of a table are defined by the width and height properties.
The example below sets the width of the table to 100%, and the height of the <th> elements to 50px:
Horizontal Alignment
The text-align property sets the horizontal alignment (like left, right, or center)
of the content in <th> or <td>.
By default, the content of <th> elements are center-aligned and the content of <td> elements are left-aligned.
The following example left-aligns the text in <th> elements:
Vertical Alignment
The vertical-align property sets the vertical alignment (like top, bottom, or middle)
of the content in <th> or <td>.
By default, the vertical alignment of the content in a table is middle (for both <th> and <td> elements).
The following example sets the vertical text alignment to bottom for <td> elements:
Table Padding
To control the space between the border and the content in a table, use the
padding property on
<td> and <th> elements:
Horizontal Dividers
| First Name | Last Name | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | Griffin | $100 |
| Lois | Griffin | $150 |
| Joe | Swanson | $300 |
Add the border-bottom property to <th> and <td> for horizontal dividers:
Hoverable Table
Use the :hover selector on <tr> to highlight table rows on mouse
over:
| First Name | Last Name | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | Griffin | $100 |
| Lois | Griffin | $150 |
| Joe | Swanson | $300 |
Striped Tables
| First Name | Last Name | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | Griffin | $100 |
| Lois | Griffin | $150 |
| Joe | Swanson | $300 |
For zebra-striped tables, use the nth-child() selector and add a background-color to all even (or odd) table rows:
Table Color
The example below specifies the background color and text color of <th> elements:
| First Name | Last Name | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| Peter | Griffin | $100 |
| Lois | Griffin | $150 |
| Joe | Swanson | $300 |
Responsive Table
A responsive table will display a horizontal scroll bar if the screen is too small to display the full content:
| First Name | Last Name | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jill | Smith | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
| Eve | Jackson | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 | 94 |
| Adam | Johnson | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 | 67 |
Add a container element (like <div>) with overflow-x:auto around the <table> element to make it responsive:
Example
<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
<table>
... table content ...
</table>
</div>
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Note: In OS X Lion (on Mac), scrollbars are hidden by default and only shown when being used (even though "overflow:scroll" is set).
More Examples
Make a fancy table
This example demonstrates how to create a fancy table.
Set the position of the table caption
This example demonstrates how to position the table caption.
Test Yourself with Exercises!
CSS Table Properties
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| border | Sets all the border properties in one declaration |
| border-collapse | Specifies whether or not table borders should be collapsed |
| border-spacing | Specifies the distance between the borders of adjacent cells |
| caption-side | Specifies the placement of a table caption |
| empty-cells | Specifies whether or not to display borders and background on empty cells in a table |
| table-layout | Sets the layout algorithm to be used for a table |
