| <COL> | NN 6 IE 3 HTML 4 | |||||||||
<COL> | HTML End Tag: Forbidden | |||||||||
The col element provides shortcuts to assigning widths and other characteristics (styles) to one or more subsets of columns within a table or within a table's column group. With this information appearing early in the table element, a browser equipped to do so starts rendering the table before all source code for the table has loaded (the time at which it would otherwise perform all of its geographical calculations). You can use the col element in combination with the colgroup element or by itself. The structure depends on how you need to assign widths and styles to individual columns or contiguous columns. A col element can apply to multiple contiguous columns. By assigning an integer value to the span attribute, you direct the browser to apply the col element's width or style settings to said number of contiguous columns. The span attribute is similar to the colgroup element's colspan attribute. In concert with the colgroup element, the col element allows you to create a kind of subset of related columns within a colgroup set. No matter how you address the column structure of your table, the total number of columns defined in all col and colgroup elements should equal the physical number of columns you intend for the table. The following three skeletal examples specify HTML 4 tables with six columns: <table> <col span="6"> ... </table> <table> <col> <col span="4"> <col> ... </table> <table> <colgroup> <col span="2"></colgroup> <colgroup span="4"> ... </table> HTML 4 specifications for the col element exceed the implementation in IE and Navigator through Version 6. For example, HTML 4 provides for alignment within a column to be around any character, such as the decimal point of a money amount. This kind of feature adds to the rationale behind the col element. For example, you can have a table whose first three columns are formatted one way, and fourth column is assigned a special style with its own alignment characteristics: <html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
.colHdrs {color:black}
.normColumn {color:green}
.priceColumn {color:red}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<colgroup class="normColumn" span="3"></colgroup>
<col class="priceColumn" align="char" char=".">
<thead class="colHdrs">
<tr><th>Stock No.<th>In Stock<th>Description<th>Price</tr>
<tbody>
<tr><td>8832<td>Yes<td>Brass Frobnitz<td>$255.98</tr>
<tr><td>8835<td>No<td>Frobnitz (black)<td>$98</tr>
...
</table>
</body>
</html>
Because attributes of the col and colgroup elements apply to the entire column, in the preceding example the style sheet rule for the thead overrides the color settings for the two column styles for the rows enclosed by the thead element. The preceding example works in IE 4 and later for Windows, except for the alignment of the final column, which is ignored. Support indicated here for Netscape 6 is based on the browser's DOM implementation. The DOM reports to scripts that the col element and its attributes exist (reflected as properties). But as of Netscape 7, the element does not perform its intended tasks. A later version will likely connect the element's internal wiring. |
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| Example | ||||||||||
<COL class="dateCols" width="15" align="right"> |
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| Object Model Reference | ||||||||||
[window.]document.getElementById(elementID)
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| Element-Specific Attributes | ||||||||||
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| Element-Specific Event Handler Attributes | ||||||||||
None. |
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