<col>: The Table Column element

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 <col> HTML element defines one or more columns in a column group represented by its parent <colgroup> element. The <col> element is only valid as a child of a <colgroup> element that has no span attribute defined.

Try it

<table>
  <caption>
    Superheros and sidekicks
  </caption>
  <colgroup>
    <col />
    <col span="2" class="batman" />
    <col span="2" class="flash" />
  </colgroup>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <th scope="col">Batman</th>
      <th scope="col">Robin</th>
      <th scope="col">The Flash</th>
      <th scope="col">Kid Flash</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <th scope="row">Skill</th>
      <td>Smarts, strong</td>
      <td>Dex, acrobat</td>
      <td>Super speed</td>
      <td>Super speed</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

.batman {
  background-color: #d7d9f2;
}

.flash {
  background-color: #ffe8d4;
}

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  border: 2px solid rgb(140 140 140);
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 0.8rem;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
}

caption {
  caption-side: bottom;
  padding: 10px;
}

th,
td {
  border: 1px solid rgb(160 160 160);
  padding: 8px 6px;
}

td {
  text-align: center;
}

Attributes

This element includes the global attributes.

span: Specifies the number of consecutive columns the <col> element spans. The value must be a positive integer greater than zero. If not present, its default value is 1.