Set cellpadding and cellspacing in CSS?
-
19-08-2019 - |
Question
In an HTML table, the cellpadding
and cellspacing
can be set like this:
<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1">
How can the same be accomplished using CSS?
Solution
Basics
For controlling "cellpadding" in CSS, you can simply use padding
on table cells. E.g. for 10px of "cellpadding":
td {
padding: 10px;
}
For "cellspacing", you can apply the border-spacing
CSS property to your table. E.g. for 10px of "cellspacing":
table {
border-spacing: 10px;
border-collapse: separate;
}
This property will even allow separate horizontal and vertical spacing, something you couldn't do with old-school "cellspacing".
Issues in IE <= 7
This will work in almost all popular browsers except for Internet Explorer up through Internet Explorer 7, where you're almost out of luck. I say "almost" because these browsers still support the border-collapse
property, which merges the borders of adjoining table cells. If you're trying to eliminate cellspacing (that is, cellspacing="0"
) then border-collapse:collapse
should have the same effect: no space between table cells. This support is buggy, though, as it does not override an existing cellspacing
HTML attribute on the table element.
In short: for non-Internet Explorer 5-7 browsers, border-spacing
handles you. For Internet Explorer, if your situation is just right (you want 0 cellspacing and your table doesn't have it defined already), you can use border-collapse:collapse
.
table {
border-spacing: 0;
border-collapse: collapse;
}
Note: For a great overview of CSS properties that one can apply to tables and for which browsers, see this fantastic Quirksmode page.
OTHER TIPS
Default
The default behavior of the browser is equivalent to:
table {border-collapse: collapse;}
td {padding: 0px;}
Cellpadding
Sets the amount of space between the contents of the cell and the cell wall
table {border-collapse: collapse;}
td {padding: 6px;}
Cellspacing
Controls the space between table cells
table {border-spacing: 2px;}
td {padding: 0px;}
Both
table {border-spacing: 2px;}
td {padding: 6px;}
Both (special)
table {border-spacing: 8px 2px;}
td {padding: 6px;}
Note: If there is
border-spacing
set, it indicatesborder-collapse
property of the table isseparate
.
Here you can find the old HTML way of achieving this.
table
{
border-collapse: collapse; /* 'cellspacing' equivalent */
}
table td, table th
{
padding: 0; /* 'cellpadding' equivalent */
}
Setting margins on table cells doesn't really have any effect as far as I know. The true CSS equivalent for cellspacing
is border-spacing
- but it doesn't work in Internet Explorer.
You can use border-collapse: collapse
to reliably set cell spacing to 0 as mentioned, but for any other value I think the only cross-browser way is to keep using the cellspacing
attribute.
This hack works for Internet Explorer 6 and later, Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera:
table {
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 10px; /* cellspacing */
*border-collapse: expression('separate', cellSpacing = '10px');
}
table td, table th {
padding: 10px; /* cellpadding */
}
The *
declaration is for Internet Explorer 6 and 7, and other browsers will properly ignore it.
expression('separate', cellSpacing = '10px')
returns 'separate'
, but both statements are run, as in JavaScript you can pass more arguments than expected and all of them will be evaluated.
For those who want a non-zero cellspacing value, the following CSS worked for me, but I'm only able to test it in Firefox.
See the Quirksmode link posted elsewhere for compatibility details. It seems it may not work with older Internet Explorer versions.
table {
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 2px;
}
The simple solution to this problem is:
table
{
border: 1px solid #000000;
border-collapse: collapse;
border-spacing: 0px;
}
table td
{
padding: 8px 8px;
}
Also, if you want cellspacing="0"
, don't forget to add border-collapse: collapse
in your table
's stylesheet.
Wrap the contents of the cell with a div and you can do anything you want, but you have to wrap every cell in a column to get a uniform effect. For example, to just get wider left & right margins:
So the CSS will be,
div.cellwidener {
margin: 0px 15px 0px 15px;
}
td.tight {
padding: 0px;
}
<table border="0">
<tr>
<td class="tight">
<div class="cellwidener">My content</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Yes, it's a hassle. Yes, it works with Internet Explorer. In fact, I've only tested this with Internet Explorer, because that's all we're allowed to use at work.
Just use border-collapse: collapse
for your table, and padding
for th
or td
.
TBH. For all the fannying around with CSS you might as well just use cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0"
since they are not deprecated...
Anyone else suggesting margins on <td>
's obviously has not tried this.
This style is for full reset for tables - cellpadding, cellspacing and borders.
I had this style in my reset.css file:
table{
border:0; /* Replace border */
border-spacing: 0px; /* Replace cellspacing */
border-collapse: collapse; /* Patch for Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 */
}
table td{
padding: 0px; /* Replace cellpadding */
}
table th,td {
padding: 8px 2px;
}
table {
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 2px;
}
Simply use CSS padding rules with table data:
td {
padding: 20px;
}
And for border spacing:
table {
border-spacing: 1px;
border-collapse: collapse;
}
However, it can create problems in older version of browsers like Internet Explorer because of the diff implementation of the box model.
From what I understand from the W3C classifications is that <table>
s are meant for displaying data 'only'.
Based on that I found it a lot easier to create a <div>
with the backgrounds and all that and have a table with data floating over it using position: absolute;
and background: transparent;
...
It works on Chrome, Internet Explorer (6 and later) and Mozilla Firefox (2 and later).
Margins are used (or meant anyways) to create a spacer between container elements, like <table>
, <div>
and <form>
, not <tr>
, <td>
, <span>
or <input>
. Using it for anything other than container elements will keep you busy adjusting your website for future browser updates.
CSS:
selector{
padding:0 0 10px 0; // Top left bottom right
}
Try this:
table {
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 10px;
}
table td, table th {
padding: 10px;
}
Or try this:
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
table td, table th {
padding: 10px;
}
I used !important
after the border-collapse like
border-collapse: collapse !important;
and it works for me in IE7. It seems to override the cellspacing attribute.
You can easily set padding inside the table cells using the CSS padding property. It is a valid way to produce the same effect as the table's cellpadding attribute.
table,
th,
td {
border: 1px solid #666;
}
table th,
table td {
padding: 10px;
/* Apply cell padding */
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Set Cellpadding in CSS</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Row</th>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Email</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Clark</td>
<td>Kent</td>
<td>clarkkent@mail.com</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Peter</td>
<td>Parker</td>
<td>peterparker@mail.com</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>John</td>
<td>Rambo</td>
<td>johnrambo@mail.com</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Similarly, you can use the CSS border-spacing property to apply the spacing between adjacent table cell borders like the cellspacing attribute. However, in order to work border-spacing the value of border-collapse property muse be separate, which is default.
table {
border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 10px;
/* Apply cell spacing */
}
table,
th,
td {
border: 1px solid #666;
}
table th,
table td {
padding: 5px;
/* Apply cell padding */
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Set Cellspacing in CSS</title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Row</th>
<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Email</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Clark</td>
<td>Kent</td>
<td>clarkkent@mail.com</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Peter</td>
<td>Parker</td>
<td>peterparker@mail.com</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>John</td>
<td>Rambo</td>
<td>johnrambo@mail.com</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</body>
</html>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Col 1</th>
<th>Col 2</th>
<th>Col 3</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>3</td>
</tr>
</table>
cell-padding
can be given by padding
in CSS while cell-spacing
can be set by setting border-spacing
for table.
table {
border-spacing: 10px;
}
td {
padding: 10px;
}
td {
padding: npx; /* For cellpadding */
margin: npx; /* For cellspacing */
border-collapse: collapse; /* For showing borders in a better shape. */
}
If margin
didn't work, try to set display
of tr
to block
and then margin will work.
For tables, cellspacing and cellpadding are obsolete in HTML 5.
Now for cellspacing you have to use border-spacing. And for cellpadding you have to use border-collapse.
And make sure you don't use this in your HTML5 code. Always try to use these values in a CSS 3 file.
table {
border-spacing: 4px;
color: #000;
background: #ccc;
}
td {
padding-left: 4px;
}
You can simply do something like this in your CSS, using border-spacing
and padding
:
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
td, th {
padding: 1em;
border: 1px solid blue;
}
<table>
<tr>
<th>head_1</th>
<th>head_2</th>
<th>head_3</th>
<th>head_4</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>txt_1</td>
<td>txt_2</td>
<td>txt_3</td>
<td>txt_4</td>
</tr>
</table>
In an HTML table, the cellpadding
and cellspacing
can be set like this:
For cell-padding:
Just call simple td/th
cell padding
.
Example:
/******Call-Padding**********/
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
border: 1px solid red;
padding: 10px;
}
<table>
<tr>
<th>Head1 </th>
<th>Head2 </th>
<th>Head3 </th>
<th>Head4 </th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>21</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>23</td>
<td>24</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>31</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>33</td>
<td>34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>41</td>
<td>42</td>
<td>43</td>
<td>44</td>
</tr>
</table>
table {
border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
border: 1px solid red;
padding: 10px;
}
For cell-spacing
Just call simple table
border-spacing
Example:
/********* Cell-Spacing ********/
table {
border-spacing: 10px;
border-collapse: separate;
}
td {
border: 1px solid red;
}
<table>
<tr>
<th>Head1</th>
<th>Head2</th>
<th>Head3</th>
<th>Head4</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11</td>
<td>12</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>21</td>
<td>22</td>
<td>23</td>
<td>24</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>31</td>
<td>32</td>
<td>33</td>
<td>34</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>41</td>
<td>42</td>
<td>43</td>
<td>44</td>
</tr>
</table>
/********* Cell-Spacing ********/
table {
border-spacing: 10px;
border-collapse: separate;
}
td {
border: 1px solid red;
}
More table style by CSS source link here you get more table style by CSS.
How about adding the style directly to the table itself? This is instead of using table
in your CSS, which is a BAD approach if you have multiple tables on your page:
<table style="border-collapse: separate;border-spacing: 2px;">
<tr>
<td style="padding: 4px 4px;">Some Text</td>
</tr>
</table>