What's the difference between <td> and <th> tag?

[heavensgate15]

what's the big difference between <td> and <th>? When to use <td> effectively and when to use <th> effectively?

[forum_amnesiac]

<th> defines a header cell, <td> a normal cell:

This code will give you an example:


<table border = "1">
<tr>
<th>Tag</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>td</td>
<td>Specifies a table header</td>
</tr>
</table>

I rarely use <th>

[traq]

the only use I have for <th> is formatting

[heavensgate15]

so, you can use either <td> or <th> interchangeably? There is no advantage nor disadvantage in using either the two?

[EISD]

depends on how you want to comfrom to standards and how clean you want your document to be in source view.

'i'd personaly only use <th> for its propper function as a table header.

[Judas]

It also depends on whether or not you are making a distinction between the two in your stylesheet.

The only real inherent visual difference, as you saw in the code above, is that the <th> tag is naturally bold.

[bluewalrus]

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/tables.html#h-11.2.6

[sniperman]

<th> is used in place of <td> to define a table header. This is used for accessibility purposes for disabled or impaired users. Not everyone can see a table (which makes accessibility for the blind difficult to interpret) so headers are encouraged by W3C accessibility guidelines to help identify and navigate a data table; with a screen reader like JAWS for example.

<td> should only be used for data, and <th> for the values attached to that data.


<tr>
<th scope="col">Artist</th>
<th scope="col">Title</th>
<th scope="col">Price</th>
<th scope="col">Quantity</th>
<th scope="col">Sales</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bob Dylan</td>
<td>Empire Burlesque</td>
<td>$25.00</td>
<td>6</td>
<td>$150.00</td>

</tr>


<th> also provides print functionality.