TFOOT - Table Foot

The TFOOT element defines a group of footer rows in a table. A TABLE may have one TFOOT, which must follow the optional THEAD and precede the required TBODY.

By explicitly grouping footer rows with TFOOT, authors give browsers the ability to include the footer rows on each page of a printed, multi-page table, as well as the ability to present a long table with a scrolling body and static footer rows. However, few browsers currently support TFOOT, and the requirement that it be placed before the TBODY may make it unsuitable for non-supporting browsers. If the presentation of footer rows prior to body rows is not acceptable, authors should avoid using TFOOT until browser support is greater.

A table footer may provide a summary row or footnotes that apply to the entire table or portions of it. The following example uses TFOOT to contain footnotes for a table:

<TABLE SUMMARY="This table lists program available at the university
                based on the discipline and type of degree.">
  <CAPTION>Programs Available</CAPTION>
  <COLGROUP CLASS="program-discipline">
  <COLGROUP CLASS="program-type" SPAN=5>
  <THEAD>
    <TR>
      <TH SCOPE=col>Program</TH>
      <TH SCOPE=col>Honors Co-op</TH>
      <TH SCOPE=col>Honors Regular</TH>
      <TH SCOPE=col>General Regular</TH>
      <TH SCOPE=col>*Preprofessional or Professional</TH>
    </TR>
  </THEAD>
  <TFOOT CLASS=footnote>
    <TR>
      <TD COLSPAN=5>
          Many disciplines are also available as Minors and Joint
          Honors programs.
      </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR>
      <TD COLSPAN=5>
        * Preprofessional programs normally fulfull the academic
          requirements for registration in the related professions.
      </TD>
    </TR>
  </TFOOT>
  <TBODY>
    <TR>
      <TD SCOPE=row>Computer Science</TD>
      <TD>yes</TD>
      <TD>yes</TD>
      <TD>no</TD>
      <TD>no</TD>
    </TR>
    ...
  </TBODY>
</TABLE>

In addition to the attributes common to most elements, TFOOT takes presentational attributes for specifying the alignment of cell data. Since few browsers support TFOOT, authors may wish to specify these attributes on the TR or TD elements instead.

The ALIGN attribute specifies the horizontal alignment for each cell in the row group. Possible values are left, center, right, justify, and char. ALIGN=char aligns a cell's contents on the character given in the CHAR attribute. The default value for the CHAR attribute is the decimal point of the current language--a period in English. The CHAROFF attribute specifies the offset to the first occurrence of the alignment character. The attribute's value is a number in pixels or a percentage of the cell's width; CHAROFF="50%" centers the alignment character horizontally in a cell.

The VALIGN attribute specifies the vertical position of a cell's contents. Possible values are:

• top, which positions data at the top of the cell;
• middle, the default value, which centers the cell data vertically;
• bottom, which positions data at the bottom of the cell;
• baseline, which specifies that the first line of each cell in the row with VALIGN=baseline should occur on a common baseline.

More Information

• TFOOT in W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation

Copyright © 1998 by Liam Quinn. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).