CSS Tables

by | Oct 18, 2017 | Articles and Short Tutorials, Web Design Tutorials and Articles

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

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:

Example

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 <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;
}

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

Example

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:

Example

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:

Example

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:

Example

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:

Example

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:

Example

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

Example

tr:hover {background-color: #f5f5f5}

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}

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: #4CAF50;
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
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>