Web/HTML/Element/colgroup

The HTML <colgroup> element defines a group of columns within a table.

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Content categories	None.
Permitted content	If the `span` attribute is present: none, it is an empty element. If the attribute is not present: zero or more `<col>` element
Tag omission	The start tag may be omitted, if it has a `<col>` element as its first child and if it is not preceded by a `<colgroup>` whose end tag has been omitted. The end tag may be omitted, if it is not followed by a space or a comment.
Permitted parents	A `<table>` element. The `<colgroup>` must appear after any optional `<caption>` element but before any `<thead>`, `<th>`, `<tbody>`, `<tfoot>` and `<tr>` element.
Implicit ARIA role	No corresponding role
Permitted ARIA roles	No `role` permitted
DOM interface	`HTMLTableColElement`

Attributes

This element's attributes include the global attributes.

span

This attribute contains a positive integer indicating the number of consecutive columns the <colgroup> element spans. If not present, its default value is 1.

Note: This attribute is applied on the attributes of the column group, it has no effect on the CSS styling rules associated with it or, even more, to the cells of the column's members of the group.

The span attribute is not permitted if there are one or more <col> elements within the <colgroup>.

Deprecated attributes

The following attributes are deprecated and should not be used. They are documented below for reference when updating existing code and for historical interest only.

align '

This enumerated attribute specifies how horizontal alignment of each column cell content will be handled. Possible values are:

left, aligning the content to the left of the cell
center, centering the content in the cell
right, aligning the content to the right of the cell
justify, inserting spaces into the textual content so that the content is justified in the cell
char, aligning the textual content on a special character with a minimal offset, defined by the char and charoff attributes.

If this attribute is not set, the left value is assumed. The descendant <col> elements may override this value using their own align attribute.

Note:

Do not try to set the text-align property on a selector giving a <colgroup> element. Because <td> elements are not descendant of the <colgroup> element, they won't inherit it.
If the table doesn't use a colspan attribute, use one td:nth-child(an+b) CSS selector per column, where a is the total number of the columns in the table and b is the ordinal position of this column in the table. Only after this selector the text-align property can be used.
If the table does use a colspan attribute, the effect can be achieved by combining adequate CSS attribute selectors like [colspan=n], though this is not trivial.

bgcolor '

The background color of the table. It is a 6-digit hexadecimal RGB code, prefixed by a '#'. One of the predefined color kewords can also be used.

To achieve a similar effect, use the CSS background-color property.

char '

This attribute specifies the alignment of the content in a column group to a character. Typical values for this include a period (.) when attempting to align numbers or monetary values. If align is not set to char, this attribute is ignored, though it will still be used as the default value for the align of the <col> which are members of this column group.

charoff ': This attribute is used to indicate the number of characters to offset the column data from the alignment character specified by the char attribute.

valign '

This attribute specifies the vertical alignment of the text within each cell of the column. Possible values for this attribute are:

baseline, which will put the text as close to the bottom of the cell as it is possible, but align it on the baseline of the characters instead of the bottom of them. If characters are all of the size, this has the same effect as bottom.
bottom, which will put the text as close to the bottom of the cell as it is possible;
middle, which will center the text in the cell;
and top, which will put the text as close to the top of the cell as it is possible.

Note:

Do not try to set the vertical-align property on a selector giving a <colgroup> element. Because <td> elements are not descendant of the <colgroup> element, they won't inherit it.
If the table doesn't use a colspan attribute, use the td:nth-child(an+b) CSS selector per column, where a is the total number of the columns in the table and b is the ordinal position of the column in the table. Only after this selector the vertical-align property can be used.
If the table does use a colspan attribute, the effect can be achieved by combining adequate CSS attribute selectors like [colspan=n], though this is not trivial.

Examples

Please see the <table> page for examples on <colgroup>.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
HTML Living StandardThe definition of '<colgroup>' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5The definition of '<colgroup>' in that specification.	Recommendation
HTML 4.01 SpecificationThe definition of '<colgroup>' in that specification.	Recommendation

Browser compatibility

Update compatibility data on GitHub

	Desktop						Mobile
	Chrome	Edge	Firefox	Internet Explorer	Opera	Safari	Android webview	Chrome for Android	Firefox for Android	Opera for Android	Safari on iOS	Samsung Internet
`colgroup`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`align` Deprecated'	Chrome ?	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 915	IE Full support Yes	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android ?	Firefox Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 915	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android ?
`bgcolor` Deprecated'	Chrome ?	Edge ?	Firefox No support No	IE Full support Yes	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android ?	Firefox Android No support No	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android ?
`char` Deprecated'	Chrome ?	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 2212	IE Full support Yes	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android ?	Firefox Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 2212	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android ?
`charoff` Deprecated'	Chrome ?	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 2212	IE Full support Yes	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android ?	Firefox Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 2212	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android ?
`span`	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes
`valign` Deprecated'	Chrome ?	Edge Full support 12	Firefox No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 915	IE Full support Yes	Opera ?	Safari ?	WebView Android ?	Chrome Android ?	Firefox Android No support No Notes' No support No Notes' Notes' See bug 915	Opera Android ?	Safari iOS ?	Samsung Internet Android ?
`width` Deprecated'	Chrome Full support 1	Edge Full support 12	Firefox Full support 1	IE Full support Yes	Opera Full support Yes	Safari Full support Yes	WebView Android Full support Yes	Chrome Android Full support Yes	Firefox Android Full support 4	Opera Android Full support Yes	Safari iOS Full support Yes	Samsung Internet Android Full support Yes

Legend

Full support: Full support
No support: No support
Compatibility unknown: Compatibility unknown
Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.': Deprecated. Not for use in new websites.
See implementation notes.': See implementation notes.