Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML, 5th Edition

8.1 Using Tables on Web Pages^313

Notice how the table is described row by row. Also, each row is described cell by cell.

This attention to detail is crucial to the successful use of tables.

What if you don’t want a border on your table? The borderattributeis optional. The

table shown in Figure 8.1 uses a border with its width set to 1. If you omit the border

attribute, the table displays with no visible border. Figure 8.2 shows the same table with

the borderattribute omitted.

Figure 8.2
Table with no visible
border

Figure 8.3
Using tags on
a table

XHTML Table Headings

The <th>, or table heading, element can be used to distinguish column headings from

table content. Figure 8.3 shows a table that uses the <th>element.

The XHTML for the table shown in Figure 8.3 is shown below. Notice that the first

row uses <th>instead of <td>tags.

<table border="1">

<tr>

<th>Name</th>

<th>Birthday</th>

<th>Phone</th>

<th>E-mail</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Jack</td>

<td>5/13</td>

<td>857-555-5555</td>

<td>[email protected]</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Sparky</td>

<td>11/28</td>

<td>303-555-5555</td>

<td>[email protected]</td>

</tr>

</table>

XHTML Table Captions

The <caption>element is often used with a data table to describe its contents. The

table shown in Figure 8.4 uses <caption>tags to set the caption to Birthday List.