empty-cells

The empty-cells CSS property sets whether borders and backgrounds appear around {{htmlelement("table")}} cells that have no visible content.

This property has an effect only when the {{cssxref("border-collapse")}} property is separate.

css

empty-cells: show;

css

empty-cells: hide;

html

<section class="default-example" id="default-example">
  <table class="transition-all" id="example-element">
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <th>Client Name</th>
        <th>Age</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td></td>
        <td>25</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Louise Q.</td>
        <td></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Owen B.</td>
        <td></td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>Stan L.</td>
        <td>71</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</section>

css

th,
td {
  border: 2px solid #aa1199;
  padding: 0.25rem 0.5rem;
}

Syntax

css

/* Keyword values */
empty-cells: show;
empty-cells: hide;

/* Global values */
empty-cells: inherit;
empty-cells: initial;
empty-cells: revert;
empty-cells: revert-layer;
empty-cells: unset;

The empty-cells property is specified as one of the keyword values listed below.

Values

show
- : Borders and backgrounds are drawn like in normal cells.
hide
- : No borders or backgrounds are drawn.

Formal definition

Formal syntax

Examples

Showing and hiding empty table cells

HTML

html

<table class="table_1">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Moe</td>
      <td>Larry</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Curly</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>


<table class="table_2">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Moe</td>
      <td>Larry</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Curly</td>
      <td></td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

CSS

css

.table_1 {
  empty-cells: show;
}

.table_2 {
  empty-cells: hide;
}

td,
th {
  border: 1px solid gray;
  padding: 0.5rem;
}

Result

{{ EmbedLiveSample('Showing_and_hiding_empty_table_cells', '100%', '200') }}