HTML colspan problem

[Mindhunter74]

I want to do an HTML table like the following:



I wrote the following code to generate it:

<table border>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">A</td>
<td>A</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>A</td>
<td colspan="2">A</td>
</tr>
</table>


But the problem is that it doesn't appear like I want in Firefox:


And it's kinda similar to what I want in IE but it's not the same:


Is this a problem in browsers? And is there anyway to solve it?

[drhowarddrfine]

You have two table cells filled in each row but you are telling it to span two columns with one of those cells. You'd need at least 3 columns to span two cells or get rid of one of the cells in the row you want to expand.

[Mindhunter74]

I'm not sure I got what you said.

Yes, it looks fine when I add a row at the beginning with 3 columns but doesn't work without it.

<table border>
<tr><td>A</td><td>A</td><td>A</td></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">A</td>
<td>A</td>
</tr>

<tr>
<td>A</td>
<td colspan="2">A</td>
</tr>
</table>

[drhowarddrfine]

You have two columns. Each row has a cell in both columns but you are telling one of those cells to occupy both columns. Where is the other cell to go?

[Dormilich]

simply put, the cell in the "middle" (over which you do the span) has no content and thus no width (despite default padding/spacing).

[Mindhunter74]

You have two columns. Each row has a cell in both columns but you are telling one of those cells to occupy both columns. Where is the other cell to go?

Aren't there 3 columns, not 2? I count the colspan of 2 as being 2 columns.

[Mindhunter74]

simply put, the cell in the "middle" (over which you do the span) has no content and thus no width (despite default padding/spacing).

Unfortunately It still doesn't look like as I want.

[drhowarddrfine]

Setting colspan to 2 does not create another column. There must be a 3rd column in this case for it to span. You only have two <td> elements in each row. You need to add another <td> in one of the rows but you can leave it empty.

[MusoFreak200]

it is not possible to make 3 columns with only a 2 columnspan...

i suggest that you re evaluate using a 3 columnspan...

thats all that i can give you info on but you could go to this site...

http://www.echoecho.com/school.htm