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HTML Tables Tutorial with Examples

  1. HTML Table
  2. Colspan, Rowspan
  3. Table creation tool online
  4. Col, Colgroup
  5. CSS Border
  6. CSS Width
  7. CSS border-spacing
  8. CSS padding
  9. CSS text-align, vertical-align
  10. CSS nowrap

1. HTML Table

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To create a table in HTML you need to use some tags, which include:
  • <table>
  • <thead>
  • <tbody>
  • <tfoot>
  • <tr>
  • <th>
  • <td>
  • <caption>
Here is the list of tag names and their abbreviations:
Tag
Stands For
<thead>
Table Head
<tbody>
Table Body
<tfoot>
Table Foot
<tr>
Table Row
<th>
Table Cell of <thead>.
<td>
Table Data (Table Cell of <tbody>)
Basically, a table is divided into 4 sections:
  • <caption>
  • <thead>
  • <tbody>
  • <tfoot>
<table border="1">
    <caption>A Caption</caption>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
    <tfoot>
        <tr>
            <td> </td>
            <td> </td>
            <td>318 million</td>
            <td> </td>
        </tr>
    </tfoot>
</table>
You probably do not need the <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot> tags; therefore, the example above can be written more briefly like this:
<table border="1">
    <caption>A Caption</caption>
    <tr>
        <th>Countries</th>
        <th>Capitals</th>
        <th>Population</th>
        <th>Language</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
        <td>309 million</td>
        <td>English</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Sweden</td>
        <td>Stockholm</td>
        <td>9 million</td>
        <td>Swedish</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td> </td>
        <td> </td>
        <td>318 million</td>
        <td> </td>
    </tr>
</table>

2. Colspan, Rowspan

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Colspan
The colspan attribute of the <th> or the <td> tags helps you merge the consecutive cells within the same row.
colspan-example.html
<table border="1">
    <tr>
        <th>Countries</th>
        <th>Capitals</th>
        <th>Population</th>
        <th>Language</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
        <td>309 million</td>
        <td>English</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Sweden</td>
        <td>Stockholm</td>
        <td>9 million</td>
        <td>Swedish</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="2"> </td>
        <td>318 million</td>
        <td> </td>
    </tr>
</table>
colspan-example2.html
<table border="1">
    <caption>Invoice</caption>
    <tr>
        <th>Item / Desc.</th>
        <th>Qty.</th>
        <th>@</th>
        <th>Price</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Paperclips (Box)</td>
        <td>100</td>
        <td>1.15</td>
        <td>115.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Paper (Case)</td>
        <td>10</td>
        <td>45.99</td>
        <td>459.90</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Wastepaper Baskets</td>
        <td>2</td>
        <td>17.99</td>
        <td>35.98</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th colspan="3">Subtotal</th>
        <td>610.88</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th colspan="2">Tax</th>
        <td>7%</td>
        <td>42.76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th colspan="3">Total</th>
        <td>653.64</td>
    </tr>
</table>
Rowspan
The rowspan attribute of the <th> or the <td> tags helps you merge the consecutive cells within the same column.
rowspan-example.html
<table border="1">
    <caption>Favorite and Least Favorite Things</caption>
    <tr>
        <th></th>
        <th></th>
        <th>Bob</th>
        <th>Alice</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th rowspan="2">Favorite</th>
        <th>Color</th>
        <td>Blue</td>
        <td>Purple</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>Flavor</th>
        <td>Banana</td>
        <td>Chocolate</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th rowspan="2">Least Favorite</th>
        <th>Color</th>
        <td>Yellow</td>
        <td>Pink</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <th>Flavor</th>
        <td>Mint</td>
        <td>Walnut</td>
    </tr>
</table>
Complex example:
Here is a complex example with colspan and rowspan:
complex-table-example.html
<table border="1">
    <caption>A complex table</caption>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th colspan="3">Invoice #123456789</th>
            <th>14 January 2025
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
                <strong>Pay to:</strong>
                <br> Acme Billing Co.
                <br> 123 Main St.
                <br> Cityville, NA 12345
            </td>
            <td colspan="2">
                <strong>Customer:</strong>
                <br> John Smith
                <br> 321 Willow Way
                <br> Southeast Northwestershire, MA 54321
            </td>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <th>Name / Description</th>
            <th>Qty.</th>
            <th>@</th>
            <th>Cost</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Paperclips</td>
            <td>1000</td>
            <td>0.01</td>
            <td>10.00</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Staples (box)</td>
            <td>100</td>
            <td>1.00</td>
            <td>100.00</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
    <tfoot>
        <tr>
            <th colspan="3">Subtotal</th>
            <td> 110.00</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th colspan="2">Tax</th>
            <td> 8% </td>
            <td>8.80</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th colspan="3">Grand Total</th>
            <td>$ 118.80</td>
        </tr>
    </tfoot>
</table>

3. Table creation tool online

You may find it difficult to create a table with the complex structure. However, you do not need to worry about it, there are a few tools online that help you visually create a table as well as generate the HTML code for you. Take this as an example:

4. Col, Colgroup

The <col> and <colgroup> tags represent a column and a column group of table. You can learn about them in the article below:

5. CSS Border

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By default, the table does not have a border, so you can use the border attribute to set the border for it.
border-example-0.html
<h2>Table without border</h2>
<table>
    <tr>
        <th>First Name</th>
        <th>Last Name</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>John</td>
        <td>Smith</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Peter</td>
        <td>Smith</td>
    </tr>
</table>

<h2>Table with border</h2>
<table border="1">
    <tr>
        <th>First Name</th>
        <th>Last Name</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>John</td>
        <td>Smith</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Peter</td>
        <td>Smith</td>
    </tr>
</table>
Note: The HTML5 does not really support the border attribute of <table>, even though all of the browsers still support it. The HTML5 recommends that you use CSS to set the border for the table.
  • Set the border for <table>.
  • Set the border for the cells of the table, namely the <th> andthe <td> tags.
table {
     border: 1px solid red;
}
 th, td {
     border: 1px solid blue;
}
css-border-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table Border</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table {
            border: 1px solid red;
        }
        th, td {
            border: 1px solid blue;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Table CSS border</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>John</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Peter</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
border-collapse
CSS border-collapse is used for the <table> tag to decide whether two adjacent cells use a single border or two separate borders.
border-collapse
Description
separate
Two adjacent cells will use two separate borders.(Default).
collapse
Two adjacent cells use a single border.
inherit
Inherit the border-collapse property from the <table> parent element.
border-collapse-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table border-collapse</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
        #table1 {
            border-collapse: separate;
        }
        #table2 {
            border-collapse: collapse;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>border-collapse: separate (Default)</h2>
    <table id="table1">
        <tr>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>John</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Peter</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
    </table>

    <h2>border-collapse: collapse</h2>
    <table id="table2">
        <tr>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>John</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Peter</td>
            <td>Smith</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>

6. CSS Width

Use CSS width to set the width of the table:
table  {
       width: 100%;
}
table  {
       width: 500px;
}
width-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>CSS Width</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table  {
           width: 100%;
        }
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>CSS width:100%;</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>

7. CSS border-spacing

CSS border-spacing sets the border spacing between two cells of the table.
table, th, td {
     border: 1px solid black;
}
table {
     border-spacing: 25px;
}
border-spacing-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table CSS border-spacing</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">

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

        table {
            border-spacing: 25px;
        }
    </style>

</head>
<body>
    <h2>Table CSS border-spacing</h2>

    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </table>

</body>
</html>

8. CSS padding

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Table padding
table-padding-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>CSS Table padding</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table  {
           padding: 25px;
        }
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>CSS Table padding</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
Table padding & border-spacing
padding-border-spacing-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table CSS border-spacing, padding</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
        table {
            border-spacing: 25px;
            padding: 30px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Table CSS border-spacing, Table padding</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
Cell padding
You can set the CSS padding for the cells of the table, specifically set the CSS padding for the <td> and the <th> tags.
td  {
   padding: 25px;
}
th {
   padding: 25px;
}
cell-padding-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table CSS Cell padding</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
        td {
            padding: 25px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>Table CSS Cell padding</h2>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Countries</th>
            <th>Capitals</th>
            <th>Population</th>
            <th>Language</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>USA</td>
            <td>Washington, D.C.</td>
            <td>309 million</td>
            <td>English</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Sweden</td>
            <td>Stockholm</td>
            <td>9 million</td>
            <td>Swedish</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>

9. CSS text-align, vertical-align

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CSS text-align can be used for the <th> and the <td> to align the horizontal position of the content in the <th> or the <td> tags.
CSS text-align can be used for the <th> and the <td> to align the vertical position of the content in the <th> or the <td> tags.
Here is an example using CSS text-align, CSS vertical-align along with the <th> and the <td> tags:
align-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Table align</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
        th, td {
             padding: 10px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>th, td (text-align, vertical-align)</h2>
    <table>
      <tr>
        <th rowspan="2"></th>
        <th colspan="2">Average</th>
        <th rowspan="2" style="vertical-align:middle">Red eyes</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>height</td>
        <td>weight</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Males</td>
        <td style="text-align:right">1.9</td>
        <td>0.003</td>
        <td style="text-align:center">40%</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Females</td>
        <td style="text-align:right">1.7</td>
        <td>0.002</td>
        <td style="text-align:center">43%</td>
      </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>

10. CSS nowrap

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As the width of the table becomes narrower, the text in the cells tends to show in multiple lines.
If you want to avoid the aforementioned problem, use CSS white-space: nowrap.
nowrap-example.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>CSS white-space:nowrap</title>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <style>
        table, th, td {
            border: 1px solid black;
        }
        th, td {
          padding: 5px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h2>CSS white-space:nowrap</h2> 
    <table>
        <tr>
            <th>Full Name</th>
            <th>Gender</th>
            <th>Job</th>
            <th>Hire Date</th>
            <th>Salary</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Joanna Smith</td>
            <td>Female</td>
            <td style="white-space:nowrap;">Database Administrator</td>
            <td>2000-10-11</td>
            <td>5000</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td>Peter White</td>
            <td>Male</td>
            <td style="white-space:nowrap;">Administrative Support</td>
            <td>2010-10-21</td>
            <td>7000</td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
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