The <colgroup> element is used to style specific columns of a table.
HTML Table Colgroup
If you want to style the two first columns of a table, use the <colgroup> and <col> elements.
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
The <colgroup> element should be used as a container for the column specifications.
Each group is specified with a <col> element.
The span attribute specifies how many columns that get the style.
The style attribute specifies the style to give the columns.
Note: There is a very limited selection of legal CSS properties for colgroups.
Example
<table>
<colgroup>
<col span=”2″ style=”background-color: #D6EEEE”>
</colgroup>
<tr>
<th>MON</th>
<th>TUE</th>
<th>WED</th>
<th>THU</th>
…
Note: The <colgroup> tag must be a child of a <table> element and should be placed before any other table elements, like <thead>, <tr>, <td> etc., but after the <caption> element, if present.
Legal CSS Properties
There is only a very limited selection of CSS properties that are allowed to be used in the colgroup:
width propertyvisibility propertybackground propertiesborder properties
All other CSS properties will have no effect on your tables.
Multiple Col Elements
If you want to style more columns with different styles, use more <col> elements inside the <colgroup>:
Example
<table>
<colgroup>
<col span=”2″ style=”background-color: #D6EEEE”>
<col span=”3″ style=”background-color: pink”>
</colgroup>
<tr>
<th>MON</th>
<th>TUE</th>
<th>WED</th>
<th>THU</th>
…
Empty Colgroups
If you want to style columns in the middle of a table, insert a “empty” <col> element (with no styles) for the columns before:
Example
<table>
<colgroup>
<col span=”3″>
<col span=”2″ style=”background-color: pink”>
</colgroup>
<tr>
<th>MON</th>
<th>TUE</th>
<th>WED</th>
<th>THU</th>
…
Hide Columns
You can hide columns with the visibility: collapse property:
Example
<table>
<colgroup>
<col span=”2″>
<col span=”3″ style=”visibility: collapse”>
</colgroup>
<tr>
<th>MON</th>
<th>TUE</th>
<th>WED</th>
<th>THU</th>
