Glossary

Table

Also known as: html table, <table>, data table, datatable
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Definition

The HTML element for two-dimensional data — rows and columns with a header row (<thead>, <th scope=“col”>), a body, and often a caption — which a screen reader navigates cell by cell announcing the headers, and which is the right element for data and the wrong one for layout

The one element with a decade of misuse behind it and a strict rule in front: if the data is not a grid of records with attributes, it is not a table. Done right — <caption>, scope on headers, no merged cells that break the reading order — it is the most accessible way to present a dataset there is. Nuxt UI’s UTable renders one from a column definition with sorting and selection; a datatable or grid in a component library is this element plus behavior. The HTTP status codes reference is four of them.

Tech

Rows are records, columns are attributes, headers say which. When those sentences are true, use a table; when they are not, it is a layout, and CSS Grid is waiting.

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