HTMLTableElement

The HTMLTableElement interface provides special properties and methods (beyond the regular HTMLElement object interface it also has available to it by inheritance) for manipulating the layout and presentation of tables in an HTML document.

Properties

Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement.

HTMLTableElement.caption

Is a HTMLTableCaptionElement representing the first <caption> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <caption>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree as the first child of this element and the first <caption> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.

HTMLTableElement.tHead

Is a HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <thead> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <thead>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, nor a <colgroup>, or as the last child if there is no such element, and the first <thead> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.

HTMLTableElement.tFoot

Is a HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <tfoot>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, a <colgroup>, nor a <thead>, or as the last child if there is no such element, and the first <tfoot> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.

HTMLTableElement.rows Read only

Returns a live HTMLCollection containing all the rows of the element, that is all <tr> that are a child of the element, or a child or one of its <thead>, <tbody> and <tfoot> children. The rows members of a <thead> appear first, in tree order, and those members of a <tbody> last, also in tree order. The HTMLCollection is live and is automatically updated when the HTMLTableElement changes.

HTMLTableElement.tBodies Read only

Returns a live HTMLCollection containing all the <tbody> of the element. The HTMLCollection is live and is automatically updated when the HTMLTableElement changes.

HTMLTableElement.sortable

Is a Boolean value indicating if the user agent is allowed to provide sorting mechanism for the table, if it supports such a feature. This property reflects the sortable attribute.

HTMLTableElement.align

Is a DOMString containing an enumerated value reflecting the align attribute. It indicates the alignment of the element's contents with respect to the surrounding context. The possible values are "left", "right", and "center".

HTMLTableElement.bgColor

Is a DOMString containing the background color of the cells. It reflects the obsolete bgcolor attribute.

HTMLTableElement.border

Is a DOMString containing the width in pixels of the border of the table. It reflects the obsolete border attribute.

HTMLTableElement.cellPadding

Is a DOMString containing the width in pixels of the horizontal and vertical sapce between cell content and cell borders. It reflects the obsolete cellpadding attribute.

HTMLTableElement.cellSpacing

Is a DOMString containing the width in pixels of the horizontal and vertical separation between cells. It reflects the obsolete cellspacing attribute.

HTMLTableElement.frame

Is a DOMString containing the type of the external borders of the table. It reflects the obsolete frame attribute and can take one of the following values: "void", "above", "below", "hsides", "vsides", "lhs", "rhs", "box", or "border".

HTMLTableElement.rules

Is a DOMString containing the type of the internal borders of the table. It reflects the obsolete rules attribute and can take one of the following values: "none", "groups", "rows", "cols", or "all".

HTMLTableElement.summary

Is a DOMString containing a description of the purpose or the structure of the table. It reflects the obsolete summary attribute.

HTMLTableElement.width

Is a DOMString containing the length in pixels or in percentage of the desired width fo the entire table. It reflects the obsolete width attribute.

Methods

Inherits methods from its parent, HTMLElement.

HTMLTableElement.createTHead()

Returns an HTMLElement representing the first <thead> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, nor a <colgroup>, or as the last child if there is no such element.

HTMLTableElement.deleteTHead()

Removes the first <thead> that is a child of the element.

HTMLTableElement.createTFoot()

Returns an HTMLElement representing the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, a <colgroup>, nor a <thead>, or as the last child if there is no such element.

HTMLTableElement.deleteTFoot()

Removes the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element.

HTMLTableElement.createCaption()

Returns an HTMLElement representing the first <caption> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree as the first child of the <table> element.

HTMLTableElement.deleteCaption()

Removes the first <caption> that is a child of the element.

HTMLTableElement.insertRow()

Returns an HTMLTableRowElement representing a new row of the table. It inserts it in the rows collection immediately before the <tr> element at the given index position. If necessary a <tbody> is created. If the index is -1, the new row is appended to the collection. If the index is smaller than -1 or greater than the number of rows in the collection, a DOMException with the value IndexSizeError is raised.

HTMLTableElement.deleteRow()

Removes the row corresponding to the index given in parameter. If the index value is -1 the last row is removed; if it smaller than -1 or greater than the amount of rows in the collection, a DOMException with the value IndexSizeError is raised.

HTMLTableElement.stopSorting()

Removes the sortable attribute to all <th> elements of the table.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'HTMLTableElement' in that specification.	Living Standard	Added the sortable property and the stopSorting() method.
HTML5 The definition of 'HTMLTableElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	Added the createTBody() method. Obsoleted xaz
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification The definition of 'HTMLTableElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	Defined when caption, tHead, tFoot, insertRow(), and deleteRow() raise exceptions.
Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 Specification The definition of 'HTMLTableElement' in that specification.	Recommendation	Initial definition.

Browser compatibility

See also

• The HTML element implementing this interface: <table>.