CSS Tables

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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

Try it Yourself »

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Table Borders

To specify table borders in CSS, use the border property.

The example below specifies a solid border for <table>, <th>, and <td> elements:

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

Example

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

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Full-Width Table

The table above might seem small in some cases. If you need a table that should span the entire screen (full-width), add width: 100% to the <table> element:

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

Example

table {
  width: 100%;
}

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Double Borders

Notice that the table in the examples above have double borders. This is because both the table and the <th> and <td> elements have separate borders.

To remove double borders, take a look at the example below.

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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

Example

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}

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

Firstname	Lastname
Peter	Griffin
Lois	Griffin

Example

table {
  border: 1px solid;
}

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CSS Table Size

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Table Width and Height

The 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 70px:

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

Example

table {
  width: 100%;
}

th {
  height: 70px;
}

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To create a table that should only span half the page, use width: 50%:

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

Example

table {
  width: 50%;
}

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CSS Table Alignment

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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.

To center-align the content of  <td> elements as well, use text-align: center:

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

Example

td {
  text-align: center;
}

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To left-align the content, force the alignment of <th> elements to be left-aligned, with the text-align: left property:

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

Example

th {
  text-align: left;
}

Try it Yourself »

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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

Example

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

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CSS Table Style

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Table Padding

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

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

Example

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

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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:

Example

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

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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

Example

tr:hover {background-color: coral;}

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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:

Example

tr:nth-child(even) {background-color: #f2f2f2;}

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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

Example

th {
  background-color: #04AA6D;
  color: white;
}

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CSS Responsive Table

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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).

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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.

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Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Set the border to “2px solid green” for table, th and td elements.

<style>
 {
  : 2px solid green;
}
</style>

<body>
<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Firstname</th>
    <th>Lastname</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Peter</td>
    <td>Griffin</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Lois</td>
    <td>Griffin</td>
  </tr>
</table>
</body>

Submit Answer »

Start the Exercise

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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

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