Lesson 11: More Advanced Table Tags

 

In the last two chapters, we have learned how to create tables. However, there are more advanced features available in table. In this chapter, we shall learn a few more new tags and a more systematic way to construct a table.

First of all, you can use the <caption></caption> tags to add a title to the table. Usually we place the <caption></caption> tags after the <table></table> tags, like this:

<table>

<caption><b>Monthly Sales Report</b></caption>

</table>

Next we introduce the <thead></thead>, <tbody></tbody>, <tfoot></tfoot> and <th></th> tags. <thead></thead>tags define the header section of the table. It is used together with the <th></th> tags. <th></th> tags define the columns in the header section and they are used to add columns' titles. <th></th> tags display text in bold and align it in the center. They have to be enclosed within the <tr></tr> tags, like this:

 

<table border=1 cellspacing=1 width=50%>

<caption><b>First Quarter Sales Report</b></caption>

<tr>

<th>Month</th>

<th> Desktop</th>

<th>Laptop</th>

</tr>

</table>

 

The actual table is shown below:

 
First Quarter Sales Report(units)
Month Desktop Laptop

*Notice that the column titles are centered and in bold face.

The <tbody</tbody> tags define the table body or the main part of the table. They are placed after the header section, as follows:

<table border=1 cellspacing=1 width=50%>

<caption><b>First Quarter Sales Report</b></caption>

<tr>

<th>Month</th>

<th> Desktop</th>

<th>Laptop</th>

<tbody>

<tr>

<td>January</td>

<td>1000</td>

<td>2000</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>February</td>

<td>1200</td>

<td>1700</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>March</td>

<td>1500</td>

<td>1900</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>April</td>

<td>2200</td>

<td>2300</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>

The resulting table is displayed below:

First Quarter Sales Report
Month Desktop Laptop
January 1000 2000
February 1200 1700
March 1500 1900
April 2200 2300
 

Finally, we need to calculate the monthly sales volumes and sum them up by adding another row to the table. We can do this by using the <tfoot></tfoot> tags which define the footer section of the table, as shown below:

<table border=1 cellspacing=1 width=50%>

<caption><b>First Quarter Sales Report</b></caption>

<tr>

<th>Month</th>

<th> Desktop</th>

<th>Laptop</th>

<tbody>

<tr>

<td>January</td>

<td>1000</td>

<td>2000</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>February</td>

<td>1200</td>

<td>1700</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>March</td>

<td>1500</td>

<td>1900</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>April</td>

<td>2200</td>

<td>2300</td>

</tr>

<tfoot>

<tr>

<th>Total</th>

<th>5900</th>

<th>7900</th>

</tr>

</tfoot>

</tbody>

</table>

The resulting table is displayed below:

 
First Quarter Sales Report
Month Desktop Laptop
January 1000 2000
February 1200 1700
March 1500 1900
April 2200 2300
Total 5900 7900

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