HTMLTableElement

Baseline Widely available *

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since ⁨July 2015⁩.

* Some parts of this feature may have varying levels of support.

The HTMLTableElement interface provides special properties and methods (beyond the regular HTMLElement object interface it also has available to it by inheritance) for manipulating the layout and presentation of tables in an HTML document.

Instance properties

Inherits properties from its parent, HTMLElement.

HTMLTableElement.caption: A HTMLTableCaptionElement representing the first <caption> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <caption>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree as the first child of this element and the first <caption> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.
HTMLTableElement.tHead: A HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <thead> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <thead>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, nor a <colgroup>, or as the last child if there is no such element, and the first <thead> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.
HTMLTableElement.tFoot: A HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element, or null if none is found. When set, if the object doesn't represent a <tfoot>, a DOMException with the HierarchyRequestError name is thrown. If a correct object is given, it is inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, a <colgroup>, nor a <thead>, or as the last child if there is no such element, and the first <tfoot> that is a child of this element is removed from the tree, if any.
HTMLTableElement.rows Read only: Returns a live HTMLCollection containing all the rows of the element, that is all <tr> that are a child of the element, or a child of one of its <thead>, <tbody> and <tfoot> children. The rows members of a <thead> appear first, in tree order, and those members of a <tbody> last, also in tree order. The HTMLCollection is live and is automatically updated when the HTMLTableElement changes.
HTMLTableElement.tBodies Read only: Returns a live HTMLCollection containing all the <tbody> of the element. The HTMLCollection is live and is automatically updated when the HTMLTableElement changes.

Obsolete Properties

Warning: The following properties are obsolete. You should avoid using them.

HTMLTableElement.align Deprecated: A string containing an enumerated value reflecting the align attribute. It indicates the alignment of the element's contents with respect to the surrounding context. The possible values are "left", "right", and "center".
HTMLTableElement.bgColor Deprecated: A string containing the background color of the cells. It reflects the obsolete bgColor attribute.
HTMLTableElement.border Deprecated: A string containing the width in pixels of the border of the table. It reflects the obsolete border attribute.
HTMLTableElement.cellPadding Deprecated: A string containing the width in pixels of the horizontal and vertical space between cell content and cell borders. It reflects the obsolete cellpadding attribute.
HTMLTableElement.cellSpacing Deprecated: A string containing the width in pixels of the horizontal and vertical separation between cells. It reflects the obsolete cellspacing attribute.
HTMLTableElement.frame Deprecated: A string containing the type of the external borders of the table. It reflects the obsolete frame attribute and can take one of the following values: "void", "above", "below", "hsides", "vsides", "lhs", "rhs", "box", or "border".
HTMLTableElement.rules Deprecated: A string containing the type of the internal borders of the table. It reflects the obsolete rules attribute and can take one of the following values: "none", "groups", "rows", "cols", or "all".
HTMLTableElement.summary Deprecated: A string containing a description of the purpose or the structure of the table. It reflects the obsolete summary attribute.
HTMLTableElement.width Deprecated: A string containing the length in pixels or in percentage of the desired width of the entire table. It reflects the obsolete width attribute.

Instance methods

Inherits methods from its parent, HTMLElement.

HTMLTableElement.createTHead(): Returns an HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <thead> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree immediately before the first element that is neither a <caption>, nor a <colgroup>, or as the last child if there is no such element.
HTMLTableElement.deleteTHead(): Removes the first <thead> that is a child of the element.
HTMLTableElement.createTFoot(): Returns an HTMLTableSectionElement representing the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree as the last child.
HTMLTableElement.deleteTFoot(): Removes the first <tfoot> that is a child of the element.
HTMLTableElement.createTBody(): Returns a HTMLTableSectionElement representing a new <tbody> that is a child of the element. It is inserted in the tree after the last element that is a <tbody>, or as the last child if there is no such element.
HTMLTableElement.createCaption(): Returns an HTMLElement representing the first <caption> that is a child of the element. If none is found, a new one is created and inserted in the tree as the first child of the <table> element.
HTMLTableElement.deleteCaption(): Removes the first <caption> that is a child of the element.
HTMLTableElement.insertRow(): Returns an HTMLTableRowElement representing a new row of the table. It inserts it in the rows collection immediately before the <tr> element at the given index position. If necessary a <tbody> is created. If the index is -1, the new row is appended to the collection. If the index is smaller than -1 or greater than the number of rows in the collection, a DOMException with the value IndexSizeError is raised.
HTMLTableElement.deleteRow(): Removes the row corresponding to the index given in parameter. If the index value is -1 the last row is removed; if it is smaller than -1 or greater than the amount of rows in the collection, a DOMException with the value IndexSizeError is raised.

Examples

Using the DOM Table Interface

The HTMLTableElement interface provides some convenience methods for creating and manipulating tables. Two frequently used methods are HTMLTableElement.insertRow and HTMLTableRowElement.insertCell.

To add a row and some cells to an existing table:

html

<table id="table0">
  <tr>
    <td>Row 0 Cell 0</td>
    <td>Row 0 Cell 1</td>
  </tr>
</table>

const table = document.getElementById("table0");
const row = table.insertRow(-1);

for (let i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
  const cell = row.insertCell(-1);
  const text = `Row ${row.rowIndex} Cell ${i}`;
  cell.appendChild(document.createTextNode(text));
}

Specifications

Specification
HTML # htmltableelement

Browser compatibility

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This page was last modified on ⁨Oct 13, 2025⁩ by MDN contributors.

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