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HTML colgroup tag

Note: If you don't know what a tag is and/or how you must use it we recommend you to read our HTML tags and attributes tutorial that you can find in our HTML tutorials section.

Description

The HTML colgroup tag is used in tables to group columns. This allow author to group columns, define default attributes for them as well as to set a visual format for the table (with "rules" attribute for the HTML table tag).

The number of columns grouped by this element can be set with the "span" attribute.

Example:

Code

View

<table border="1" summary="Example table used to show the use of the HTML colgroup tag.">
<colgroup span="2" style="width: 3.8em">
</colgroup>
<colgroup span="4" style="width: 2.28em" align="right">
</colgroup>
<tr>
<td>Sean</td>
<td>Male</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Anne</td>
<td>Female</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cynthia</td>
<td>Female</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
</table>

Sean	Male	5	4	2	Yes
Anne	Female	4	1	5	Yes
Cynthia	Female	2	0	1	No

The other way to set the number of columns in the group is by using the HTML col tag. This alternative offers more control over the attributes of grouped columns.

Example:

Code

View

<table border="1" summary="Example table used to show the use of the HTML colgroup tag together with the HTML col tag.">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 7.6em" />
<col style="width: 3.8em" />
</colgroup>
<colgroup>
<col span="3" style="width: 1.52em" align="right" />
<col style="width: 2.28em" />
</colgroup>
<tr>
<td>Sean</td>
<td>Male</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Anne</td>
<td>Female</td>
<td>4</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>Yes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Cynthia</td>
<td>Female</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>0</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
</table>

Sean	Male	5	4	2	Yes
Anne	Female	4	1	5	Yes
Cynthia	Female	2	0	1	No

Attributes

id (name)

The "id" attribute assigns an identifier to the associated element. This identifier must be unique in the document and can be used to refer to that element.

Example:

Code begin
<p id="paragraph1">This is the first paragraph named as paragraph1. To dynamically change its properties use this identifier.</p>Code end

class (cdata)

The "class" attribute assigns a class name (or a list of class names separated by spaces) to the container element. It's used with style sheets and tells the browser the class to which the element is associated with. A class gives visual attributes to elements.

Example:

Code begin
<p class="references">This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks</p>

<p class="references important">This article is based on the book "Wind in the trees" by Jhon L. Brooks... and is more important than the one before.</p>Code end

style (style)

Defines a visual style of this element. Is a better practice to define styles attributes in external style sheets grouping them in classes. Attributes in the "style" parameter must preserve this order "name : value" and be separated by a semi-colon.

If you're writing XHTML code it's recommended not to use this attribute and try style sheet classes (with the "class" attribute).

Example:

Code begin
<p style="color: #0000FF; font-size: 12pt">This is a paragraph with a defined style</p>
<p>And this is another text without style.</p>Code end

title (text)

Indicates a title for the element. Used to give a short description about the element that is usually shown as a "tool tip" when the user put the mouse pointer over the element.

Example:

Code	View
<a title="HTMLQuick.com" href="http://www.htmlquick.com">HTML code</a>	HTML code

lang (langcode)

Specifies the language of an element's content. The default value in "unknown".

When writing XHTML code the syntax "xml:lang" represents a preferred alternative in XHTML 1.0 and a replacement in XHTML 1.1 (e.g., xml:lang="en").

Example:

Code begin
<p lang="en">This is a paragraph in english.</p>
<p lang="es">Este es un p&aacute;rrafo en espa&ntilde;ol.</p>Code end

dir

Specifies the text direction of the element's contents and attribute values, as well as tables directionality. It has two possible values that are case insensitive:

RTL: Right to left.
LTR: Left to right.

Example:

Code begin
<q lang="he" dir="rtl">...a Hebrew quotation...</q>Code end

span (number)

Specifies the number of consecutive columns "spanned" or affected by the element or it's attributes.

Example:

Code begin
<col span="5" width="50" />
<col span="3" width="10" align="right" />

<colgroup span="20" width="10"></colgroup>Code end

width (multi-length)

Defines a width for the element.

Example:

Code begin
<col width="30" />
<col width="5*" />

<td width="50%">Code end

align

Defines the alignment of the content of a cell. Can be one of the following values (case-insensitive):

left: Data's aligned to the left. This is the default value for common cells (HTML td tag).
center: Data's centered. This is the default value for table headers (HTML th tag).
right: Data's aligned to the right.
justify: Justified text.
char: The text is aligned around a specific character.

Example:

Code

View

<table border="1" summary="Example table showing the use of the align attribute.">
<tr><td style="width: 7.6em">Left</td></tr>
<tr><td style="width: 7.6em" align="center">Center</td></tr>
<tr><td style="width: 7.6em" align="right">Right</td></tr>
</table>

Left

Center

Right

valign

Specifies the vertical alignment of the data in a cell. Works exactly like "align" attribute but for vertical space. The possible values are (case-insensitive):

top: The data is aligned to the top.
middle: The data is vertically centered. This is the default value.
bottom: The data is aligned to the bootom.
baseline: All the cells in a row that has this alignment should have their first text line on a baseline common to all cells in the row.

Example:

Code

View

1
2
3
4

23.065

324.432

45.8745

char (character)

Specifies a single character that will act as axis for text alignment.
Note: Browsers are not required to support this attribute.

charoff (length)

Specifies the offset to the first occurrence of the alignment character on each line. Take into account the text direction (dir).
Note: Browsers are not required to support this attribute.

Events

onclick
ondblclick
onmousedown
onmouseup
onmouseover
onmousemove
onmouseout
onkeypress
onkeydown
onkeyup

See complete list and information about events in HTML

Examples

In this example we define a table with grouped columns, grouped rows and many attributes for each tag that will define a visual style.

Code

View

<table border="1" frame="border" rules="groups" summary="Functionality of HTML files in different versions of Internet Explorer">
<caption>Representation of how HTML files works in different versions of Internet Explorer</caption>
<colgroup align="center"></colgroup>
<colgroup></colgroup>
<colgroup align="center" span="2"></colgroup>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>File</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>4.0</th>
<th>5.0</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<th>File</th>
<th>Name</th>
<th>4.0</th>
<th>5.0</th>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>index.html</td>
<td>Ok</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>links.html</td>
<td>Ok</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>fullfunc.html</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>nofunc.html</td>
<td>Ok</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>panel.html</td>
<td>-</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>search.php</td>
<td>Ok</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>send.php</td>
<td>Ok</td>
<td>Ok</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Representation of how HTML files works in different versions of Internet Explorer
File	Name	4.0	5.0
File	Name	4.0	5.0
1	index.html	Ok	Ok
2	links.html	Ok	Ok
3	fullfunc.html	-	Ok
4	nofunc.html	Ok	Ok
5	panel.html	-	Ok
6	search.php	Ok	Ok
7	send.php	Ok	Ok

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