HTML <thead> Tag

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The <thead> tag defines the header of an HTML table. The tag is used along with <tbody> and <tfoot> tags, that specify the body and footer of the table, respectively.

The <thead> tag must be used as a child of the <table> element, after the <caption>, <colgroup> elements and before the <tfoot>, <tbody>, and <tr> elements. (You can use only one <thead> tag inside <table>).

Note, that the <tfoot> tag must be placed before <tbody>, so that the browser can render the table footer correctly.

The <thead> must contain at least one <tr> element.

The <thead>, <tbody>, and <tfoot> elements do not affect the table layout by default. Use CSS properties to customize the look of the table.

Syntax

The <thead> tag comes in pairs. The content is written between the opening (<thead>) and closing (</thead>) tags.

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <td> ... </td>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tfoot> ... </tfoot>
  <tbody> ... </tbody>
</table>

Example of the HTML <thead> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      table {
        width: 80%;
        margin: 30px auto;
        border-collapse: collapse;
      }
      thead {
        background-color: #1c87c9;
        color: #ffffff;
      }
      th,
      td {
        padding: 10px;
        border: 1px solid #666666;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>Month</th>
          <th>Savings</th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tfoot>
        <tr>
          <td>Total</td>
          <td>1500</td>
        </tr>
      </tfoot>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>January</td>
          <td>500</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>February</td>
          <td>1000</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>

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Result

Attributes

Attribute	Values	Description
align	right left center justify char	Specifies the alignment of the content inside a <thead> element. Not supported in HTML5
bgcolor	bgcolor	Sets the background color of the rows inside a <thead> element. Not supported in HTML5
char	character	Specifies the alignment of the content inside a <thead> element to a character. It is used only when the attribute is align="char". Not supported in HTML5.
charoff	number	Specifies the number of characters the content inside the <thead> element will be aligned from the character specified by the char attribute. It is used only when the attribute is align="char". Not supported in HTML5.
valign	top bottom middle baseline	Specifies a vertical alignment of the content inside a <tbody> element. Not supported in HTML5.

The <thead> tag supports the Global Attributes and the Event Attributes.

How to style <thead> tag?

Common properties to alter the visual weight/emphasis/size of text in <thead> tag:

CSS font-style property sets the style of the font. normal | italic | oblique | initial | inherit.
CSS font-family property specifies a prioritized list of one or more font family names and/or generic family names for the selected element.
CSS font-size property sets the size of the font.
CSS font-weight property defines whether the font should be bold or thick.
CSS text-transform property controls text case and capitalization.
CSS text-decoration property specifies the decoration added to text, and is a shorthand property for text-decoration-line, text-decoration-color, text-decoration-style.

Coloring text in <thead> tag:

CSS color property describes the color of the text content and text decorations.
CSS background-color property sets the background color of an element.

Text layout styles for <thead> tag:

CSS text-indent property specifies the indentation of the first line in a text block.
CSS text-overflow property specifies how overflowed content that is not displayed should be signalled to the user.
CSS white-space property specifies how white-space inside an element is handled.
CSS word-break property specifies where the lines should be broken.

Other properties worth looking at for <thead> tag:

CSS text-shadow property adds shadow to text.
CSS text-align-last property sets the alignment of the last line of the text.
CSS line-height property specifies the height of a line.
CSS letter-spacing property defines the spaces between letters/characters in a text.
CSS word-spacing property sets the spacing between words.