HTML Table Styling

Use CSS to make your tables look better.

HTML Table - Zebra Stripes

If you add a background color on every other table row, you will get a nice zebra stripes effect.

1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20

To style every other table row element, use the :nth-child(even) selector like this:

Example

tr:nth-child(even) {
background-color: #D6EEEE;
}

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Note: If you use (odd) instead of (even), the styling will occur on row 1,3,5 etc. instead of 2,4,6 etc.

HTML Table - Vertical Zebra Stripes

To make vertical zebra stripes, style every other column, instead of every other row.

1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20

Set the :nth-child(even) for table data elements like this:

Example

td:nth-child(even), th:nth-child(even) {
background-color: #D6EEEE;
}

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Note: Put the :nth-child() selector on both th and td elements if you want to have the styling on both headers and regular table cells.

Combine Vertical and Horizontal Zebra Stripes

You can combine the styling from the two examples above and you will have stripes on every other row and every other column.

If you use a transparent color you will get an overlapping effect.

Use an rgba() color to specify the transparency of the color:

Example

tr:nth-child(even) {
background-color: rgba(150, 212, 212, 0.4);
}

th:nth-child(even),td:nth-child(even) {
background-color: rgba(150, 212, 212, 0.4);
}

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Horizontal Dividers

First Name	Last Name	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

If you specify borders only at the bottom of each table row, you will have a table with horizontal dividers.

Add the border-bottom property to all tr elements to get horizontal dividers:

Example

tr {
border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd;
}

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Hoverable Table

Use the :hover selector on tr to highlight table rows on mouse over:

First Name	Last Name	Savings
Peter	Griffin	$100
Lois	Griffin	$150
Joe	Swanson	$300

Example

tr:hover {background-color: #D6EEEE;}

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