HTML:
<section class="">
<div class="container">
<table>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<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>
</section>
CSS:
html, body{
margin:0;
padding:0;
height:100%;
}
section {
position: relative;
border: 1px solid #000;
padding-top: 37px;
background: #500;
}
section.positioned {
position: absolute;
top:100px;
left:100px;
width:800px;
box-shadow: 0 0 15px #333;
}
.container {
overflow-y: auto;
height: 200px;
}
table {
border-spacing: 0;
width:100%;
}
td + td {
border-left:1px solid #eee;
}
td, th {
border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
background: #ddd;
color: #000;
padding: 10px 25px;
}
th {
height: 0;
line-height: 0;
padding-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
color: transparent;
border: none;
white-space: nowrap;
}
th div{
position: absolute;
background: transparent;
color: #fff;
padding: 9px 25px;
top: 0;
margin-left: -25px;
line-height: normal;
border-left: 1px solid #800;
}
th:first-child div{
border: none;
}
[JSFIDDLE][1]
[1]: https://jsfiddle.net/dPixie/byB9d/3/
# TL;DR
If you target modern browsers and don't have extravagant styling needs: http://jsfiddle.net/dPixie/byB9d/3/ ... Although the [big four version][1] is pretty sweet as well this version handles fluid width a lot better.
# Good news everyone!
With the advances of HTML5 and CSS3 this is now possible, at least for modern browsers. The slightly hackish implementation I came up with can be found here: http://jsfiddle.net/dPixie/byB9d/3/. I have tested it in FX 25, Chrome 31 and IE 10 ...
Relevant HTML (insert a HTML5 doctype at the top of your document though):
<section class="positioned">
<div class="container">
<table>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<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>
</section>
With this CSS:
html, body{
margin:0;
padding:0;
height:100%;
}
section {
position: relative;
border: 1px solid #000;
padding-top: 37px;
background: #500;
}
section.positioned {
position: absolute;
top:100px;
left:100px;
width:800px;
box-shadow: 0 0 15px #333;
}
.container {
overflow-y: auto;
height: 200px;
}
table {
border-spacing: 0;
width:100%;
}
td + td {
border-left:1px solid #eee;
}
td, th {
border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
background: #ddd;
color: #000;
padding: 10px 25px;
}
th {
height: 0;
line-height: 0;
padding-top: 0;
padding-bottom: 0;
color: transparent;
border: none;
white-space: nowrap;
}
th div{
position: absolute;
background: transparent;
color: #fff;
padding: 9px 25px;
top: 0;
margin-left: -25px;
line-height: normal;
border-left: 1px solid #800;
}
th:first-child div{
border: none;
}
# But how?!
Simply put you have a table header, that you visually hide by making it 0px high, that also contains divs used as the fixed header. The table's container leaves enough room at the top to allow for the absolutely positioned header, and the table with scrollbars appear as you would expect.
The code above uses the positioned class to position the table absolutely (I'm using it in a popup style dialog) but you can use it in the flow of the document as well by removing the `positioned` class from the container.
# But ...
It's not perfect. Firefox refuses to make the header row 0px (at least I did not find any way) but stubbornly keeps it at minimum 4px ... It's not a huge problem, but depending on your styling it will mess with your borders etc.
The table is also using a faux column approach where the background color of the container itself is used as the background for the header divs, that are transparent.
# Summary
All in all there might be styling issues depending on your requirements, especially borders or complicated backgrounds. There might also be problems with computability, I haven't checked it in a wide variety of browsers yet (please comment with your experiences if you try it out), but I didn't find anything like it so I thought it was worth posting anyway ...
[1]: http://www.imaputz.com/cssStuff/bigFourVersion.html
