Colspan/Rowspan for elements whose display is set

Question

I have the following code:

<div class="table">
    <div class="row">
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="cell colspan2">Cell</div>
    </div>
</div>

<style>
    .table {
        display: table;
    }
    .row {
        display: table-row;
    }
    .cell {
        display: table-cell;
    }
    .colspan2 {
        /* What to do here? */
    }
</style>

Pretty straightforward. How do I add a colspan (or the equivalent of colspan) for elements with display: table-cell?

Answer 1

You can set the position of colspan content as "relative" and the row as "absolute" like this:

.table {
    display: table;
}
.row {
    display: table-row;
    position: relative;
}
.cell {
    display: table-cell;
}
.colspan2 {
    position: absolute;
    width: 100%;
}

Answer 2

Use nested tables to nest column spans...

<div class="table">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="cell">
      <div class="table">
        <div class="row">
          <div class="cell">Cell</div>
          <div class="cell">Cell</div>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>

  <div class="row">
    <div class="cell">Cell</div>
  </div>
</div>

Or use 2 tables where the column span covers the whole row...

<div class="table">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="cell">Cell</div>
    <div class="cell">Cell</div>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="table">
  <div class="row">
    <div class="cell">Cell</div>
  </div>
</div>

Answer 3

Simply use a table.

table's are only frowned upon when being used for layout purposes.

This seems like tabular data (rows/columns of data). Therefore I would recommend using a table.

See my answer to this question for more information:

creating the same thing with divs as tables

Answer 4

There is a solution to make the colspan the widht of the entire table. You can not use this technique to colspan a part of the table.

Code:

    *{
      box-sizing: border-box;
    }
    .table {
        display: table;
        position: relative;
    }
    .row {
        display: table-row;
    }
    .cell {
        display: table-cell;
        border: 1px solid red;
        padding: 5px;
        text-align: center;
    }
    .colspan {
        position: absolute;
        left: 0;
        width: 100%;
    }
    .dummycell {
        border-color: transparent;
    }

<div class="table">
    <div class="row">
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="cell dummycell">&nbsp;</div>
        <div class="cell colspan">Cell</div>
    </div>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
        <div class="cell">Cell</div>
    </div>
</div>

Explanation:

We use position absolute on the colspan to make it the full width of the table. The table itself needs position relative. We make use of a dummycell to maintain the height of the rows, position absolute does not follow the flow of the document.

Of course you can also use flexbox and grid to tackle this problem these days.

Answer 5

You can try this solution, where you can find how to apply colspan using div https://codepen.io/pkachhia/pen/JyWMxY

HTML:

<div class="div_format">
            <div class="divTable">
                <div class="divTableBody">
                    <div class="divTableRow">
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Project Name</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: Testing Project</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Project Type</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: Web application</div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="divTableRow">
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Version</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: 1.0.0</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Start Time</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: 2016-07-10 11:00:21</div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="divTableRow">
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Document Version</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: 2.0.0</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">End Time</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: 2017-07-10 11:00:23</div>
                    </div>
                    <div class="divTableRow">
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Document Revision</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value">: 3</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_lable">Overall Result</div>
                        <div class="divTableCell cell_value txt_bold txt_success">: Passed</div>
                    </div>                          
                </div>
                <div class="divCaptionRow">
                    <div class="divCaptionlabel">Description</div>
                    <div class="divCaptionValue">: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore</div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>

CSS:

body {
                font-family: arial
            }
            * {
                -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
                -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
                box-sizing: border-box
            }
            .div_format {
                width: 100%;
                display: inline-block;
                position: relative
            }           
            .divTable {
                display: table;
                width: 100%;            
            }
            .divTableRow {
                display: table-row
            }
            .divTableHeading {
                background-color: #EEE;
                display: table-header-group
            }
            .divTableCell,
            .divTableHead {
                display: table-cell;
                padding: 10px
            }
            .divTableHeading {
                background-color: #EEE;
                display: table-header-group;
                font-weight: bold
            }
            .divTableFoot {
                background-color: #EEE;
                display: table-footer-group;
                font-weight: bold
            }
            .divTableBody {
                display: table-row-group
            }
            .divCaptionRow{
                display: table-caption;
                caption-side: bottom;
                width: 100%;
            }
            .divCaptionlabel{
                caption-side: bottom;
                display: inline-block;
                background: #ccc;
                padding: 10px;
                width: 15.6%;
                margin-left: 10px;
                color: #727272;
            }
            .divCaptionValue{
                float: right;
                width: 83%;
                padding: 10px 1px;
                border-bottom: 1px solid #dddddd;
                border-right: 10px solid #fff;
                color: #5f5f5f;
                text-align: left;
            }

            .cell_lable {
                background: #d0d0d0;
                border-bottom: 1px solid #ffffff;
                border-left: 10px solid #ffffff;
                border-right: 10px solid #fff;
                width: 15%;
                color: #727272;
            }
            .cell_value {
                border-bottom: 1px solid #dddddd;
                width: 30%;
                border-right: 10px solid #fff;   
                color: #5f5f5f;
            }

Answer 6

Here's one way to span columns in CSS I used for my own situation.

https://jsfiddle.net/mb8npttu/

<div class='table'>
    <div class='row'>
        <div class='cell colspan'>
            spanning
        </div>
        <div class='cell'></div>
        <div class='cell'></div>
    </div>

    <div class='row'>
        <div class='cell'>1</div>
        <div class='cell'>2</div>
        <div class='cell'>3</div>
    </div>
</div>

<style>
    .table { display:table; }
    .row { display:table-row; }
    .cell { display:table-cell; }
    .colspan { max-width:1px; overflow:visible; }
</style>