Why can you have a th element without thead element?

Question

I know that the browsers are very flexible with html, but is there any other reason why this is possible?

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>
            Column 1
        </th>
    </tr>
<table>

What do you think is the problem with the html you have provided? — afuzzyllama, Apr 17 '13 at 19:06

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 17 '13 at 15:07

4

<th> doesn't necessarly mean it's in the head of the table. For example, you might have this layout:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>Name:</th>
    <td>Tarquin Smith</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Occupation:</th>
    <td>Jovian Agent</td>
  </tr>
</table>

answered Apr 17 '13 at 15:07

Niet the Dark Absol

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Can you use thead and have the same layout? – Tiago Almeida Apr 17 '13 at 15:15
Absolutely. Just as long as it makes sense. – Niet the Dark Absol Apr 17 '13 at 15:59

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 16 '15 at 04:27

2

<thead> contains rows. long story short it just says that that row is the head row. i dont use it but it just makes it easier to use it in your css. for example:

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Month</th>
      <th>Savings</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>

and your css could say: thead {color:green;}

<th> is for one cell in your table and all it does is bold and center the text in it.

edited Jan 16 '15 at 04:27

BoltClock

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answered Apr 17 '13 at 15:10

Musti Hakan

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"bold and center" refers to default styles, of course. Completely overrideable by CSS. – Niet the Dark Absol Apr 17 '13 at 15:10
true, you should check both tags on w3schools – Musti Hakan Apr 17 '13 at 15:16
[No you shouldn't](http://w3fools.com/) – Niet the Dark Absol Apr 17 '13 at 15:58
i see your point but the only reason why i use/recommend w3schools is that you can play around with the code and see what happens... it doesn't matter who or what made it – Musti Hakan Apr 17 '13 at 19:20
http://jsfiddle.net/ is significantly better for that. – Niet the Dark Absol Apr 17 '13 at 19:21
i see... it is great for js but nothing for the rest – Musti Hakan Apr 19 '13 at 06:21

Why can you have a th element without thead element?

2 Answers2