HTML <th> tag
Example
A simple HTML table, containing two columns and two rows:
<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Month</th>
<th>Savings</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>January</td>
<td>$100</td>
</tr>
</table> |
Try it yourself! (more examples at the bottom of this page)
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Definition and Usage
The <th> tag defines a header cell in an HTML table.
An HTML table has two kinds of cells:
- Header cells - contains header information (created with the th element)
- Standard cells - contains data (created with the td element)
The text in a th element is bold and centered.
The text in a td element is regular and left-aligned.
Browser Support
The <th> tag is supported in all major browsers.
Differences Between HTML and XHTML
The "bgcolor", "height", "width", and "nowrap" attributes of the th element were deprecated
in HTML 4.01, and
are not supported in XHTML 1.0 Strict DTD.
Tips and Notes
Tip: Use the colspan and rowspan attributes to let the content span
over multiple columns or rows!
Optional Attributes
DTD indicates in which DTD the attribute is
allowed. S=Strict, T=Transitional, and F=Frameset.
| Attribute |
Value |
Description |
DTD |
| abbr |
text |
Specifies an abbreviated version of the content in a
cell |
STF |
| align |
left
right
center
justify
char |
Aligns the
content in a cell |
STF |
| axis |
category_name |
Categorizes cells |
STF |
| bgcolor |
rgb(x,x,x)
#xxxxxx
colorname |
Deprecated. Use styles instead.
Specifies a background color for a cell |
TF |
| char |
character |
Aligns the content in a cell to a character |
STF |
| charoff |
pixels
% |
Sets the number of characters the content will be aligned
from the character specified by the char attribute |
STF |
| colspan |
number |
Sets the number of columns a cell should span |
STF |
| height |
pixels
% |
Deprecated. Use styles instead.
Sets the height of a cell |
TF |
| nowrap |
nowrap |
Deprecated. Use styles instead.
Specifies that the content inside a cell should not wrap |
TF |
| rowspan |
number |
Sets the number of rows a cell should span |
STF |
| scope |
col
colgroup
row
rowgroup |
Defines a way to associate header cells and data cells in a
table |
STF |
| valign |
top
middle
bottom
baseline |
Vertical aligns the
content in a cell |
STF |
| width |
pixels
% |
Deprecated. Use styles instead.
Specifies the width of a cell |
TF |
Standard Attributes
| id, class, title, style, dir, lang, xml:lang |
For a full description, go to Standard
Attributes.
Event Attributes
| onclick, ondblclick, onmousedown, onmouseup, onmouseover, onmousemove, onmouseout, onkeypress, onkeydown, onkeyup |
For a full description, go to Event Attributes.
Try-It-Yourself Demos
Tables
How to create simple HTML tables.
Table borders
HTML tables with different borders.
Table headers
How to create table headers.
Empty cells
How to use " " to handle cells that have no content.
Table cells that span more than one row/column
How to define table cells that span more than one row or one column.
Tags inside a
table
How to display elements inside other elements.
Add a
background color and a background image to a table cell
How to add a background to a table cell.
Align the content in a table cell
How to use the "align" attribute to align the content of cells.
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