How to add a scrollbar to an HTML5 table?

Question

I have an table in HTML5 that I would like to add a scrollbar to. I want the table to show ten rows and then the user can scroll down to see other songs. How can I add the scrollbar?

Here is my code for the table in HTML5:

<table id="my_table" table border="5">
  <tr>
    <th>URL</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Here is my CSS code:

#my_table {
    border-radius: 20px;
    background-color: transparent;
    color: black;
    width: 500px;
    text-align: center;
}

Answer 1

My simplest solution is based on fixed columns layout. You'll have to set the width of each column, for example: 4 columns 100px each is equal to 400px total width.

table {
  table-layout: fixed;
  width: 400px;
}
td, th {
  width: 100px;
}

The fixed table layout algorithm has many advantages over the automatic table layout algorithm (for example: the horizontal layout only depends on the table's width and the width of the columns, not the contents of the cells; allows a browser to lay out the table faster than the automatic table layout; the browser can begin to display the table once the first row has been received; etc.)

Then, you'll have to separate the thead from the tbody by forcing their display style to block rather than to the default table-*

thead tr {
  display: block;
}
tbody {
  display: block;
  height: 256px;
  overflow-y: auto;
}

That what will make the tbody scrollable as a separate box and the thead unrelated from it. And that's the main reason why you had to fix the column widths as done above.

Working JsFiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/angiolep/65q1gdcy/1/

Answer 2

This is technique I have used on a number of occasions. It is originally based on this fiddle with a number of modifications. It is also fluid and column widths can be fixed by adding a width style to the <th>.

/* this is for the main container of the table, also sets the height of the fixed header row */
.headercontainer {
  position: relative;
  border: 1px solid #222;
  padding-top: 37px;
  background: #000;
}
/* this is for the data area that is scrollable */
.tablecontainer {
  overflow-y: auto;
  height: 200px;
  background: #fff;
}

/* remove default cell borders and ensures table width 100% of its container*/
.tablecontainer table {
  border-spacing: 0;
  width:100%;
}

/* add a thin border to the left of cells, but not the first */
.tablecontainer td + td {
  border-left:1px solid #eee; 
}

/* cell padding and bottom border */
.tablecontainer td, th {
  border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
  padding: 10px;
}

/* make the default header height 0 and make text invisible */
.tablecontainer th {
    height: 0px;
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    line-height: 0;
    visibility: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

/* reposition the divs in the header cells and place in the blank area of the headercontainer */
.tablecontainer th div{
  visibility: visible;
  position: absolute;
  background: #000;
  color: #fff;
  padding: 9px 10px;
  top: 0;
  margin-left: -10px;
  line-height: normal;
   border-left: 1px solid #222;
}
/* prevent the left border from above appearing in first div header */
th:first-child div{
  border: none;
}

/* alternate colors for rows */
.tablecontainer tbody  tr:nth-child(even){
     background-color: #ffffd;
}

<div class="headercontainer">
  <div class="tablecontainer">
    <table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>
              Table attribute name
            <div>Table attribute name</div>
          </th>
          <th>
            Value
            <div>Value</div>
          </th>
          <th>
            Description
            <div>Description</div>
          </th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>align</td>
          <td>left, center, right</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Deprecated in HTML 4.01. Specifies the alignment of a table according to surrounding text</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>bgcolor</td>
          <td>rgb(x,x,x), #xxxxxx, colorname</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Deprecated in HTML 4.01. Specifies the background color for a table</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>border</td>
          <td>1,""</td>
          <td>Specifies whether the table cells should have borders or not</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>cellpadding</td>
          <td>pixels</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies the space between the cell wall and the cell content</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>cellspacing</td>
          <td>pixels</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies the space between cells</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>frame</td>
          <td>void, above, below, hsides, lhs, rhs, vsides, box, border</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies which parts of the outside borders that should be visible</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>rules</td>
          <td>none, groups, rows, cols, all</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies which parts of the inside borders that should be visible</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>summary</td>
          <td>text</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies a summary of the content of a table</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>width</td>
          <td>pixels, %</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies the width of a table</td>
        </tr>
      </tbody>
    </table>
  </div>
</div>

Also as a JSFiddle

Answer 3

This was a challenging question. I think I finally have a solution that satisfies complete requirements: a vertical and horizontal scrollable dynamic table (dynamic because you can change the amount of rows and columns, and no cells have fixed width or height).

The HTML and CSS layout is quite simple as other people have mentioned. The key issue is recalculating (JavaScript) cell widths. And to make sure horizontal scrolling works, I also recalculate theader and tbody width.

Here's a fiddle https://jsfiddle.net/jmarcos00/6hv0dsj8/1/

HTML code:

<!--
thead and tbody have identifiers
table is inside a div container
-->
<div>
  <table>
    <thead id="mythead">
      <tr>
        <th>header one</th>
        <th>two</th>
        <th>header three</th>
        <th>header one</th>
        <th>two</th>
        <th>header three</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody id="mytbody">
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
        <td>one</td>
        <td>data two</td>
        <td>three</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>

CSS code:

/* table border rule */
table, td, th { border: 1px solid black; }

/* display as block plus display vertical scroll bars */
thead, tbody { display: block; overflow-y: scroll; }

/* sample height */
tbody { height: 100px; }

/* sample width and horizontal scroll bar */
div { width: 200px; overflow-x: auto; }

JavaScript code:

var i, w, wtot, thtot, thw, tdw, theadtr, tbodytr;
var th_rect, td_rect, theadtr_rect, tbodytr_rect;
var safe = new Array();

// get thead and tbody
var mythead = document.getElementById("mythead");
var mytbody = document.getElementById("mytbody");

// get first tr of thead and tbody
theadtr = mythead.children[0];
tbodytr = mytbody.children[0];
theadtr_rect = theadtr.getBoundingClientRect();
tbodytr_rect = tbodytr.getBoundingClientRect();

// get width difference of longer first tr
//   difference between tr and parent
if (tbodytr_rect.width > theadtr_rect.width)
    wtot = mytbody.getBoundingClientRect().width - tbodytr_rect.width;
else
    wtot = mythead.getBoundingClientRect().width - theadtr_rect.width;

// get width difference between tr and total th width (first step)
thtot = theadtr_rect.width;

// get th thead array and td tbody array
theadtr = theadtr.children;
tbodytr = tbodytr.children;

// get loop
for (i = 0; i < theadtr.length; i++)
{
    // second step for width difference between tr and total th width
    th_rect = theadtr[i].getBoundingClientRect();
    td_rect = tbodytr[i].getBoundingClientRect();
    thtot -= th_rect.width;

    // get width of each th and first row td (without paddings etc)
    tdw = parseFloat(window.getComputedStyle(tbodytr[i]).getPropertyValue("width"));
    thw = parseFloat(window.getComputedStyle(theadtr[i]).getPropertyValue("width"));

    // get bigger width
    w = (tdw > thw) ? tdw : thw;
    safe.push(w);

    // add to width total (decimal value with paddings etc)
    w = (tdw > thw) ? td_rect.width : th_rect.width;
    wtot += w;
}

// consider tr width and total th width difference
wtot += thtot;

// set loop
for (i = 0; i < theadtr.length; i++)
{
    // set width to th and first row td
    w = safe[i] + "px";
    theadtr[i].style.width = w;
    tbodytr[i].style.width = w; 
}

// set width for thead and tbody
wtot = wtot + "px";
mythead.style.width = wtot;
mytbody.style.width = wtot;

Answer 4

<!DOCTYPE html>
    <html>
    <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
    <title>Scrollable Table</title>
    <style type="text/css">
      * { padding: 0; margin: 0; }
      table.my_table { 
        font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;
        font-size: 11px;
        cellspacing: 0; 
        border-collapse: collapse; 
        width: 283px;    
        }
      table.my_table th, table.my_table td { 
        border-bottom: 1px solid #999; 
        border-right: 1px solid #999; 
        }
      table.my_table th { background: #ffb; }
      table.my_table td { background: #ffe; }

      div.scrollableContainer { 
        height: 100px; 
        overflow: auto;  
        width: 300px; 
        margin: 40px;    
        border: 1px solid #999;
        background: #ffb;     
        }

    </style>
    </head>
    <body>
    <div class="scrollableContainer">
        <table class="my_table scrollable">
          <thead>
            <tr>
              <th>URL</th>
                </tr>
        </thead>

        <tbody>
                <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td> 
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>                   
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td> 
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>                   
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td> 
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>                   
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td> 
                    </tr>

                    <tr>
              <td>http://www.youtube.com/embed/evuSpI2Genw</td>                   
                    </tr>
            </tbody>
          </table>
        </div>
      </body>
    </html>

Answer 5

you can try this

CSS:

          #table-wrapper {
                height:150px;
                overflow:auto;  
                margin-top:20px;
                  }
          #table-wrapper table {
                 width:100%;
                 color:#000;    
                 }
          #table-wrapper table thead th .text {
                  position:fixed;   
                  top:0px;  
                  height:20px;
                  width:35%;
                  border:1px solid red;
               }

HTML:

<div id="table-wrapper">

    <table>
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th><span class="text">album</span></th>
                <th><span class="text">song</span></th>
                <th><span class="text">genre</span></th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
<tr> <td> album 0</td> <td> song0</td> <td> genre0</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 1</td> <td>song 1</td> <td> genre1</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album2</td> <td>song 2</td> <td> genre2</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album3</td> <td>song 3</td> <td> genre3</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album4</td> <td>song 4</td> <td>genre 4</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album5</td> <td>song 5</td> <td>genre 5</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 6</td> <td> song6</td> <td> genre6</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 7</td> <td> song7</td> <td> genre7</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album8</td> <td> song8</td> <td>genre 8</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album9</td> <td> song9</td> <td> genre9</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album10</td> <td>song 10</td> <td> genre10</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album11</td> <td>song 11</td> <td> genre11</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album12</td> <td> song12</td> <td> genre12</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 13</td> <td> song13</td> <td> genre13</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album14</td> <td> song14</td> <td> genre14</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album15</td> <td> song15</td> <td> genre15</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 16</td> <td> song16</td> <td> genre16</td> </tr>
<tr> <td>album 17</td> <td> song17</td> <td> genre17</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album18</td> <td> song18</td> <td> genre18</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album19</td> <td> song19</td> <td> genre19</td> </tr>
<tr> <td> album20</td> <td> song20</td> <td> genre20</td> </tr>    
        </tbody>
    </table>
  </div>

Check this fiddle : http://jsfiddle.net/Kritika/GLKxB/1/

this will keep the table head fixed ,and scroll only the table content .

Answer 6

Using flexboxes, no javascript, and it is responsive.

/* styles */

table {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  border-collapse: collapse;
  max-height: 300px;
  overflow: auto;
}

td,
th {
  border: 1px solid #ffffd;
  text-align: left;
  padding: 8px;
  background: #fff;
}

tr:nth-child(odd) td {
  background-color: #eee;
}

/* fixed headers */

table,
thead,
tbody {
  display: block;
}

thead {
  position: sticky;
  top: 0;
}

tr {
  display: flex;
}

th,
td {
  flex: 1;
  min-width: 100px;
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

<h2>HTML Table</h2>
<div class=wrap>
  <table>
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th>#</th>
        <th>Firstname</th>
        <th>Lastname</th>
        <th>Age</th>
        <th>City</th>
        <th>Country</th>
        <th>Sex</th>
        <th>Example</th>
        <th>Example</th>
        <th>ExampleReallyReallyLong</th>
        <th>Example</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Example Really Really Long</td>
        <td>ExampleReallyReallyLong</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
        <td>Female</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
        <td>Yes</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>