Summary

The empty-cells CSS property specifies how user agents should render borders and backgrounds around cells that have no visible content.

Initial valueshow
Applies totable-cell elements
Inheritedyes
Mediavisual
Computed valueas specified
Animatableno
Canonical orderthe unique non-ambiguous order defined by the formal grammar

Syntax

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

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

Values

show
Is a keyword indicating that borders and backgrounds should be drawn like in normal cells.
hide
Is a keyword indicating that no borders or backgrounds should be drawn.

Formal syntax

show | hide

Example

HTML

<table class="table_1">
    <tr>
        <td>Moe</td>
        <td>Larry</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Curly</td>
        <td></td>
    </tr>
</table>
<table class="table_2">
    <tr>
        <td>Moe</td>
        <td>Larry</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Curly</td>
        <td></td>
    </tr>
</table>

CSS

.table_1 {
  empty-cells: show;
}
.table_2 { 
  empty-cells: hide; 
}

td, th {
  border: 1px solid #999;
  padding: 0.5rem;
}

Result

Specifications

Specification Status Comment
CSS Level 2 (Revision 1)
The definition of 'empty-cells' in that specification.
Recommendation Initial definition

Browser compatibility

Feature Chrome Firefox (Gecko) Internet Explorer Opera Safari
Basic support 1.0 1.0 (1.7 or earlier) 8.0 4.0 1.2
Feature Android Firefox Mobile (Gecko) IE Phone Opera Mobile Safari Mobile
Basic support 1 1.0 (1.0) 8 6 3.1

Document Tags and Contributors

 Last updated by: duncanmcdonald,