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Table Parts 243

10

The Element

All the components of a table are placed within a

... element:

...table caption (optional) and contents...

Here’s the code that produces the table shown in Figure 10.1. Don’t be concerned if you
don’t know what all this means right now. For now, notice that the table starts with a

tag and its attributes and ends with a tag:

Vital Statistics

Name	Height	Weight	Eye Color
Alison	5'4"	140	Blue
Tom	6'0"	165	Hazel
Susan	5'1"	97	Brown

Summarizing the Table

Previous versions of HTML before HTML5 required that tables be summarized within
the table. HTML5 removed this attribute in favor of describing tables more explicitly
within the page. Specifically, tables that might be difficult to understand or where the
headers are not in the first row or column should have explanatory information introduc-
ing the table. This summary should introduce the purpose of the table, explain the cell
structure, and teach the reader how the table will be used.