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.

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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.

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Browser Support

Element
<th>	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

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Tips and Notes

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

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Differences Between HTML 4.01 and HTML5

All layout attributes are removed in HTML5.

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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 numberreversed	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

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Global Attributes

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

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Event Attributes

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

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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.

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Related Pages

HTML tutorial: HTML Tables

HTML DOM reference: TableHeader Object

CSS Tutorial: Styling Tables

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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;}