<thead>

Summary

The HTML Table Head Element (<thead>) defines a set of rows defining the head of the columns of the table.

Usage context

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

align in HTML 4, in HTML5

This enumerated attribute specifies how horizontal alignment of each cell content will be handled. Possible values are:

• left, aligning the content to the left of the cell
• center, centering the content in the cell
• right, aligning the content to the right of the cell
• justify, inserting spaces into the textual content so that the content is justified in the cell
• char, aligning the textual content on a special character with a minimal offset, defined by the char and charoff attributes Unimplemented (see bug 2212).

If this attribute is not set,  the left value is assumed.

Note: Do not use this attribute as it is obsolete (not supported) in the latest standard.

• To achieve the same effect as the left, center, right or justify values, use the CSS text-align property on it.
• To achieve the same effect as the char value, in CSS3, you can use the value of the char as the value of the text-align property Unimplemented.

bgcolor

This attribute defines the background color of each cell of the column. It is one of the 6-digit hexadecimal code as defined in sRGB, prefixed by a '#'. One of the sixteen predefined color strings may be used:

	black = "#000000"		green = "#008000"
	silver = "#C0C0C0"		lime = "#00FF00"
	gray = "#808080"		olive = "#808000"
	white = "#FFFFFF"		yellow = "#FFFF00"
	maroon = "#800000"		navy = "#000080"
	red = "#FF0000"		blue = "#0000FF"
	purple = "#800080"		teal = "#008080"
	fuchsia = "#FF00FF"		aqua = "#00FFFF"

Usage note: Do not use this attribute, as it is non-standard and only implemented in some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer: the <thead> element should be styled using CSS. To give a similar effect to the bgcolor attribute, use the CSS property background-color, on the relevant <td> or <th> elements.

char in HTML 4, in HTML5

This attribute is used to set the character to align the cells in a column on. 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.

Note: Do not use this attribute as it is obsolete (and not supported) in the latest standard. To achieve the same effect as the char, in CSS3, you can use the character set using the char attribute as the value of the text-align property Unimplemented.

charoff in HTML 4, in HTML5

This attribute is used to indicate the number of characters to offset the column data from the alignment characters specified by the char attribute.

Note: Do not use this attribute as it is obsolete (and not supported) in the latest standard.

valign in HTML 4, in HTML5

This attribute specifies the vertical alignment of the text within each row of cells of the table header. Possible values for this attribute are:

• baseline, which will put the text as close to the bottom of the cell as it is possible, but align it on the baseline of the characters instead of the bottom of them. If characters are all of the size, this has the same effect as bottom.
• bottom, which will put the text as close to the bottom of the cell as it is possible;
• middle, which will center the text in the cell;
• top, which will put the text as close to the top of the cell as it is possible.

Note: Do not use this attribute as it is obsolete (and not supported) in the latest standard: instead set the CSS vertical-align property on it.

DOM interface

This element implements the HTMLTableSectionElement interface.

Examples

See <table> for examples on <thead>.

Browser compatibility

[1] See bug 915

[2] See bug 2212

	Desktop Browsers					Mobile Browsers
	Chrome for Desktop	Firefox for Desktop	Internet Explorer for Desktop	Opera for Desktop	Safari for Desktop	Android Browser	Firefox for Android	Internet Explorer Mobile	Opera Mobile	Safari for iOS
Basic Support	1.0Full support	1.0Full support	YesFull support	YesFull support	YesFull support	YesFull support	1.0Full support	YesFull support	YesFull support	YesFull support
align/valign attribute	1.0Full support	NoNo support requirements_note No supportNo requirements_note requirements_noteSee bug 915	YesFull support	YesFull support	YesFull support	?	NoNo support requirements_note No supportNo requirements_note requirements_noteSee bug 915	?	?	?
bgcolor attribute features_nonstandard	NoNo support	NoNo support	YesFull support	NoNo support	NoNo support	NoNo support	NoNo support	YesFull support	NoNo support	NoNo support
char/charoff attribute	1.0Full support	NoNo support requirements_note No supportNo requirements_note requirements_noteSee bug 2212	YesFull support	YesFull support	YesFull support	?	NoNo support requirements_note No supportNo requirements_note requirements_noteSee bug 2212	?	?	?

Legend

Full support 

Full support

No support 

No support

requirements_note

requirements_noteLong

features_nonstandard

Non-standard. Expect poor cross-browser support.

See also

• Other table-related HTML Elements: <caption>, <col>, <colgroup>, <table>, <tbody>, <td>, <tfoot>, <th>, <tr>;
• CSS properties and pseudo-classes that may be specially useful to style the <thead> element:
  • the :nth-child pseudo-class to set the alignment on the cells of the column;
  • the text-align property to align all cells content on the same character, like '.'.<