HTML tables allow web developers to arrange data into rows and columns.
Example
| Company | Contact | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Alfreds Futterkiste | Maria Anders | Germany |
| Centro comercial Moctezuma | Francisco Chang | Mexico |
| Ernst Handel | Roland Mendel | Austria |
| Island Trading | Helen Bennett | UK |
| Laughing Bacchus Winecellars | Yoshi Tannamuri | Canada |
| Magazzini Alimentari Riuniti | Giovanni Rovelli | Italy |
Define an HTML Table
A table in HTML consists of table cells inside rows and columns.
Example
<table>
<tr>
<th>Company</th>
<th>Contact</th>
<th>Country</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Alfreds Futterkiste</td>
<td>Maria
Anders</td>
<td>Germany</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Centro
comercial Moctezuma</td>
<td>Francisco
Chang</td>
<td>Mexico</td>
</tr>
</table>Live preview
Table Cells
Each table cell is defined by a <td> and a </td> tag.
td stands for table data.
Everything between <td> and </td> is the content of a table cell.
Example
<table>
<tr>
<td>Emil</td>
<td>Tobias</td>
<td>Linus</td>
</tr>
</table>Live preview
Note
A table cell can contain all sorts of HTML elements: text, images, lists, links, other tables, etc.
Table Rows
Each table row starts with a <tr> and ends with a </tr> tag.
tr stands for table row.
Example
<table>
<tr>
<td>Emil</td>
<td>Tobias</td>
<td>Linus</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
</table>Live preview
You can have as many rows as you like in a table; just make sure that the number of cells are the same in each row.
Note
There are times when a row can have less or more cells than another. You will learn about that in a later chapter.
Table Headers
Sometimes you want your cells to be table header cells. In those cases use the <th> tag instead of the <td> tag:
th stands for table header.
Example
<table>
<tr>
<th>Person 1</th>
<th>Person 2</th>
<th>Person
3</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Emil</td>
<td>Tobias</td>
<td>Linus</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>14</td>
<td>10</td>
</tr>
</table>Live preview
By default, the text in <th> elements are bold and centered, but you can change that with CSS.
HTML Table Tags
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
| <table> | Defines a table |
| <th> | Defines a header cell in a table |
| <tr> | Defines a row in a table |
| <td> | Defines a cell in a table |
| <caption> | Defines a table caption |
| <colgroup> | Specifies a group of one or more columns in a table for formatting |
| <col> | Specifies column properties for each column within a <colgroup> element |
| <thead> | Groups the header content in a table |
| <tbody> | Groups the body content in a table |
| <tfoot> | Groups the footer content in a table |
For a complete list of all available HTML tags, visit our HTML Tag Reference .
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