CSS Tables

The look of an HTML table can be greatly improved with CSS:

</tr> </tr> </tr> </tr> </tr> </tr> </tr> </tr> </tbody> </table>

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:

Company	Contact	Country
Alfreds Futterkiste</td>	Maria Anders	Germany
Berglunds snabbköp</td>	Christina Berglund	Sweden
Centro comercial Moctezuma</td>	Francisco Chang	Mexico
Ernst Handel</td>	Roland Mendel	Austria
Island Trading</td>	Helen Bennett	UK
Königlich Essen</td>	Philip Cramer	Germany
Laughing Bacchus Winecellars</td>	Yoshi Tannamuri	Canada
Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti</td>	Giovanni Rovelli	Italy

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

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

Notice that the table in the example above has double borders. This is because both the table and the and elements have separate borders.</p>

Collapse Table Borders

The border-collapse property sets whether the table borders should be collapsed into a single border:

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

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

If you only want a border around the table, only specify the border property for <table>:

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

table {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

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:

Firstname	Lastname	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

table {
  width: 100%;
}
th {
  height: 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:

Firstname	Lastname	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

th {
  text-align: left;
}

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:

Firstname	Lastname	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

td {
  height: 50px;
  vertical-align: bottom;
}

Table Padding

To control the space between the border and the content in a table, use the padding property on <td> and <th> elements:

Firstname	Lastname	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

th, td {
  padding: 15px;
  text-align: left;
}

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:

th, td {
  border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;
}

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

tr:hover {background-color: #f5f5f5;}

Striped Tables

</tr> </tr> </tr> </tbody> </table>

For zebra-striped tables, use the nth-child() selector and add a background-color to all even (or odd) table rows:

tr:nth-child(even) {background-color: #dee2e6;}

Table Color

The example below specifies the background color and text color of <th> elements:

First Name	Last Name	Savings
Peter	Griffin</td>	$100
Lois	Griffin</td>	$150
Joe	Swanson</td>	$300

First Name	Last Name	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

th {
  background-color: #0054D1;
  color: white;
}

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
Jill	Smith	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:

<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
<table>
... table content ...
</table>
</div>

Note: In OS X Lion (on Mac), scrollbars are hidden by default and only shown when being used (even though "overflow:scroll" is set).

Previous Next