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HTML <th> Tag


Example

A simple HTML table with two header cells and two data cells:

<table>
 <tr>
   <th>Month</th>
   <th>Savings</th>
 </tr>
 <tr>
   <td>January</td>
   <td>$100</td>
 </tr>
</table>
Try it yourself »

More "Try it Yourself" examples below.


Definition and Usage

The <th> tag defines a header cell in an HTML table.

An HTML table has two kinds of cells:

  • Header cells - contains header information (created with the <th> element)
  • Standard cells - contains data (created with the <td> element)

The text in <th> elements are bold and centered by default.

The text in <td> elements are regular and left-aligned by default.


Browser Support

Element
<th> Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Tips and Notes

Tip: Use the colspan and rowspan attribute to let the content span over multiple columns or rows!


Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

All layout attributes are removed in HTML5.


Attributes

Attribute Value Description
abbr text Specifies an abbreviated version of the content in a header cell
align left
right
center
justify
char
Not supported in HTML5.
Aligns the content in a header cell
axis category_name Not supported in HTML5.
Categorizes header cells
bgcolor rgb(x,x,x)
#xxxxxx
colorname
Not supported in HTML5.
Specifies the background color of a header cell
char character Not supported in HTML5.
Aligns the content in a header cell to a character
charoff number  Not supported in HTML5.
Sets the number of characters the content will be aligned from the character specified by the char attribute
colspan number Specifies the number of columns a header cell should span
headers header_id Specifies one or more header cells a cell is related to
height pixels
%
Not supported in HTML5.
Sets the height of a header cell
nowrap nowrap Not supported in HTML5.
Specifies that the content inside a header cell should not wrap
rowspan number Specifies the number of rows a header cell should span
scope col
colgroup
row
rowgroup
Specifies whether a header cell is a header for a column, row, or group of columns or rows
sorted reversed
number
reversed number
number reversed
Defines the sort direction of a column
valign top
middle
bottom
baseline
Not supported in HTML5.
Vertical aligns the content in a header cell
width pixels
%
Not supported in HTML5.
Specifies the width of a header cell

Global Attributes

The <th> tag also supports the Global Attributes in HTML.


Event Attributes

The <th> tag also supports the Event Attributes in HTML.


Examples

Try it Yourself - Examples

Table headers
How to create table headers.

Table with a caption
An HTML table with a caption.

Tags inside a table
How to display elements inside other elements.

Cells that span more than one row/column
How to define table cells that span more than one row or one column.


Related Pages

HTML tutorial: HTML Tables

HTML DOM reference: TableHeader Object

CSS Tutorial: Styling Tables


Default CSS Settings

Most browsers will display the <th> element with the following default values:

th {
    display: table-cell;
    vertical-align: inherit;
    font-weight: bold;
    text-align: center;
}