<tr>: The Table Row element

This element includes the global attributes.

The following attributes are deprecated and should not be used. They are documented below for reference when updating existing code and for historical interest only.

align Deprecated

Specifies the horizontal alignment of each row cell. The possible enumerated values are left, center, right, justify, and char. When supported, the char value aligns the textual content on the character defined in the char attribute and on offset defined by the charoff attribute. Use the text-align CSS property instead, as this attribute is deprecated.

bgcolor Deprecated

Defines the background color of each row cell. The value is an HTML color; either a 6-digit hexadecimal RGB code, prefixed by a #, or a color keyword. Other CSS <color> values are not supported. Use the background-color CSS property instead, as this attribute is deprecated.

char Deprecated

Specifies the alignment of the content to a character of each row cell. Typical values for this include a period (.) when attempting to align numbers or monetary values. If align is not set to char, this attribute is ignored.

charoff Deprecated

Specifies the number of characters to offset the row cell content from the alignment character specified by the char attribute.

valign Deprecated

Specifies the vertical alignment of each row cell. The possible enumerated values are baseline, bottom, middle, and top. Use the vertical-align CSS property instead, as this attribute is deprecated.

• The <tr> element is valid as a child of a <thead>, <tbody>, or <tfoot> element only.
• If the <tr> is placed as a direct child of its parent <table> element, the <tbody> parent is implied and browsers will add the <tbody> to the markup.
• The implied <tbody> parent is only supported if the <table> otherwise has no child <tbody> elements, and only if the <tr> is included after any <caption>, <colgroup>, and <thead> elements.
• The CSS pseudo-classes :nth-of-type, :first-of-type, and :last-of-type are often useful for selecting the desired set of rows and their data and header cells (<td> and <th> elements).
• When a <tr> is included as a direct child of the <table>, as the browser adds a <tbody> to the markup, CSS selectors such as table > tr may not work as expected or at all.

See <table> for a complete table example introducing common standards and best practices.

This example demonstrates a table with four rows and three columns, where the first column contains headers for the row data cells.

HTML

Four <tr> elements are used to create four table rows. Each row contains three cells - one header cell (<th>) and two data cells (<td>) - creating three columns. The scope attribute set on each header cell specifies which cells they relate to, which in this example is all data cells within the row.

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">A</th>
      <td>Alfa</td>
      <td>AL fah</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">B</th>
      <td>Bravo</td>
      <td>BRAH voh</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">C</th>
      <td>Charlie</td>
      <td>CHAR lee</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">D</th>
      <td>Delta</td>
      <td>DELL tah</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

The CSS :nth-of-type pseudo-class is used to select every odd row and set the background-color of those rows to a slightly darker tone, creating a so-called "zebra stripe" effect. This alternating background makes the rows of data in the table easier to parse and read—imagine having many rows and columns and trying to find some data in a particular row. In addition, the row header cells (<th> elements) are highlighted with a background-color to distinguish them from the data cells (<td> elements).

tr:nth-of-type(odd) {
  background-color: #eee;
}

tr th[scope="row"] {
  background-color: #d6ecd4;
}

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: 2px solid rgb(140 140 140);
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

th,
td {
  border: 1px solid rgb(160 160 160);
  padding: 8px 10px;
}

Result

This example extends the basic table from the previous example by adding a header row as the first row of the table.

HTML

An additional table row (<tr>) is added as the first row of the table with column header cells (<th>) providing a header for each column. We put this row in a <thead> grouping element to indicate this is the header of the table. The scope attribute is added to each header cell (<th>) within this head row to explicitly specify that each header cell relates to all the cells within its own column, even though those cells are in the <tbody>.

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Symbol</th>
      <th scope="col">Code word</th>
      <th scope="col">Pronunciation</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">A</th>
      <td>Alfa</td>
      <td>AL fah</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">B</th>
      <td>Bravo</td>
      <td>BRAH voh</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">C</th>
      <td>Charlie</td>
      <td>CHAR lee</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">D</th>
      <td>Delta</td>
      <td>DELL tah</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

The CSS is nearly unchanged from the previous example, except for some additional styling to highlight the "header row" so that the headers of the columns stand out from the other cells.

tr:nth-of-type(odd) {
  background-color: #eee;
}

tr th[scope="col"] {
  background-color: #505050;
  color: #fff;
}

tr th[scope="row"] {
  background-color: #d6ecd4;
}

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: 2px solid rgb(140 140 140);
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

th,
td {
  border: 1px solid rgb(160 160 160);
  padding: 8px 10px;
}

Result

There are no native methods for sorting the rows (<tr> elements) of a <table>. But using Array.prototype.sort(), Node.removeChild, and Node.appendChild, a custom sort() function can be implemented in JavaScript to sort an HTMLCollection of <tr> elements.

HTML

A <tbody> element is used in this basic table to mark the body section of the table and to include three rows (<tr> elements) with data (<td> elements), creating one column with numbers in descending order.

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

JavaScript

In the JavaScript code below, the created sort() function is attached to the <tbody> element so that it sorts the table cells in order of increasing value and updates the display accordingly.

HTMLTableSectionElement.prototype.sort = function (cb) {
  Array.from(this.rows)
    .sort(cb)
    .forEach((e) => this.appendChild(this.removeChild(e)));
};

document
  .querySelector("table")
  .tBodies[0].sort((a, b) => a.textContent.localeCompare(b.textContent));

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: 2px solid rgb(140 140 140);
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

td {
  border: 1px solid rgb(160 160 160);
  padding: 4px 8px;
}

Result

This example extends the basic table from the previous example by making the sorting interactive and independent for multiple columns.

HTML

An additional data cell (<td> element) is added to each row (<tr> element) within the table body (<tbody> element) to create a second column with letters in ascending order. Using the <thead> element, a head section is added before the body section to introduce a head row with table header cells (<th> element). These header cells are used in the JavaScript code below to make them clickable and then to perform the corresponding sorting when activated per click.

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Numbers</th>
      <th>Letters</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>A</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>B</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>C</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

JavaScript

A click event handler is added to each table header (<th> element) of each <table> in the document; it sorts all the rows (<tr> elements) of the <tbody> based on the contents of the data cells (<td> elements) contained in the rows.

const allTables = document.querySelectorAll("table");

for (const table of allTables) {
  const tBody = table.tBodies[0];
  const rows = Array.from(tBody.rows);
  const headerCells = table.tHead.rows[0].cells;

  for (const th of headerCells) {
    const cellIndex = th.cellIndex;

    th.addEventListener("click", () => {
      rows.sort((tr1, tr2) => {
        const tr1Text = tr1.cells[cellIndex].textContent;
        const tr2Text = tr2.cells[cellIndex].textContent;
        return tr1Text.localeCompare(tr2Text);
      });

      tBody.append(...rows);
    });
  }
}

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: 2px solid rgb(140 140 140);
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

th,
td {
  border: 1px solid rgb(160 160 160);
  padding: 4px 8px;
}

th {
  background-color: #505050;
  color: #fff;
  cursor: pointer;
}

Result

• Learn: HTML tables
• <caption>, <col>, <colgroup>, <table>, <tbody>, <td>, <tfoot>, <th>, <thead>: Other table-related elements
• background-color: CSS property to set the background color of each row cell
• border: CSS property to control borders of row cells
• text-align: CSS property to horizontally align each row cell content
• vertical-align: CSS property to vertically align each row cell content
• :nth-of-type, :first-of-type, :last-of-type: CSS pseudo-classes to select the desired row cells