Columns and Column Groups

This is a draft specification. It is likely that changes will still be made before the final specification.

Use the col and colgroup elements to specify column grouping for column rules and column shading in tables.

Notes

The colgroup element contains zero or more col elements. A col element must be empty.
The colgroup element can occur in a table element, before any rows or row groups. The col element can occur wherever the colgroup element can occur, or inside a colgroup element.
The style attribute on either the colgroup or col element takes a space-separated list of style hints. Processing tools should adjust their behavior according to those style hints they understand.
The colgroup and col elements can have attributes from external namespaces. See External Namespaces for more information on external-namespace attributes.

Examples

See Examples on the page Tables.

Processing Expectations

See Processing Expectations on the page Tables.

Comparison to Other Formats

See Comparison to Other Formats on the page Tables.

Schema

The formal definition of the Mallard language is maintained in RELAX NG Compact Syntax in code blocks within this specification. This is the formal definition for the col and colgroup elements. The namespace declarations for these definitions are on the page Pages.

mal_table_col = element col {
  mal_table_col_attr
}
mal_table_col_attr = (
  attribute style { xsd:NMTOKENS } ?,
  mal_attr_external *
)
mal_table_colgroup = element colgroup {
  mal_table_colgroup_attr,
  mal_table_col *
}
mal_table_colgroup_attr = (
  attribute style { xsd:NMTOKENS } ?,
  mal_attr_external *
)