A wide variety of tables can be created with only five tags: the
<table>
tag, which encapsulates a table and
its elements in the document’s body content; the
<tr>
tag, which defines a table row; the
<th>
and <td>
tags,
which define the table’s headers and data cells; and
the <caption>
tag, which defines a title or
caption for the table. Beyond these core tags, you may also define
and control whole sections of tables, including adding running
headers and footers, with the <colgroup>
,
<col>
, <tbody>
,
<thead>
, and
<tfoot>
tags. Each tag has one or more
required and optional attributes, some of which affect not only the
tag itself but also related tags.
The
<table>
tag and its
</table>
end tag define and encapsulate a
table within the body of your document. Unless otherwise placed
within the browser window by style sheet, paragraph, division-level,
or other alignment options, the browser stops the current text flow,
breaks the line, inserts the table beginning on a new line, and then
restarts the text flow on a new line below the table.