I'm trying to construct a layout similar to the following:

+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |
+---+---+---+
|           |
+-----------+

where the bottom is filling the space of the upper row.

If this were an actual table, I could easily accomplish this with <td colspan="3">, but as I'm simply creating a table-like layout, I cannot use <tabl开发者_运维知识库e> tags. Is this possible using CSS?

---

There's no simple, elegant CSS analog for colspan.

Searches on this very issue will return a variety of solutions that include a bevy of alternatives, including absolute positioning, sizing, along with a similar variety of browser- and circumstance-specific caveats. Read, and make the best informed decision you can based on what you find.

---

There is no colspan in css as far as I know, but there will be column-span for multi column layout in the near future, but since it is only a draft in CSS3, you can check it in here. Anyway you can do a workaround using div and span with table-like display like this.

This would be the HTML:

<div class="table">
  <div class="row">
    <span class="cell red first"></span>
    <span class="cell blue fill"></span>
    <span class="cell green last"></span>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="table">
  <div class="row">
    <span class="cell black"></span>
  </div>
</div>

And this would be the css:

  /* this is to reproduce table-like structure
     for the sake of table-less layout. */
  .table { display:table; table-layout:fixed; width:100px; }
  .row { display:table-row; height:10px; }
  .cell { display:table-cell; }

  /* this is where the colspan tricks works. */
  span { width:100%; }

  /* below is for visual recognition test purposes only. */
  .red { background:red; }
  .blue { background:blue; }
  .green { background:green; }
  .black { background:black; }

  /* this is the benefit of using table display, it is able 
     to set the width of it's child object to fill the rest of 
     the parent width as in table */
  .first { width: 20px; }
  .last { width: 30px; }
  .fill { width: 100%; }

The only reason to use this trick is to gain the benefit of table-layout behaviour, I use it alot if only setting div and span width to certain percentage didn't fullfil our design requirement.

But if you don't need to benefit from the table-layout behaviour, then durilai's answer would suit you enough.

---

Another suggestion is using flexbox instead of tables altogether. This is a "modern browser" thing of course, but come on, it's 2016 ;)

At least this might be an alternative solution for those looking for an answer to this nowadays, since the original post was from 2010.

Here's a great guide: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/a-guide-to-flexbox/

.table {
  border: 1px solid red;
  padding: 2px;
  max-width: 300px;
  display: flex;
  flex-flow: row wrap;
}
.table-cell {
  border: 1px solid blue;
  flex: 1 30%;
}
.colspan-3 {
  border: 1px solid green;
  flex: 1 100%;
}

<div class="table">
  <div class="table-cell">
    row 1 - cell 1
  </div>
  <div class="table-cell">
    row 1 - cell 2
  </div>
  <div class="table-cell">
    row 1 - cell 3
  </div>
  <div class="table-cell colspan-3">
    row 2 - cell 1 (spans 3 columns)
  </div>
</div>

---

<div style="width: 100%;">
    <div style="float: left; width: 33%;">Row 1 - Cell 1</div>
    <div style="float: left; width: 34%;">Row 1 - Cell 2</div>
    <div style="float: left; width: 33%;">Row 1 - Cell 3</div>
</div>
<div style="clear: left; width: 100%;">
Row 2 - Cell 1
</div>

---

To provide an up-to-date answer: The best way to do this today is to use css grid layout like this:

.container {
  display: grid;
  grid-template-columns: 1fr 1fr 1fr;
  grid-template-rows: auto;
  grid-template-areas: 
    "top-left top-middle top-right"
    "bottom bottom bottom"
}

.item-a {
  grid-area: top-left;
}
.item-b {
  grid-area: top-middle;
}
.item-c {
  grid-area: top-right;
}
.item-d {
  grid-area: bottom;
}

and the HTML

<div class="container">
  <div class="item-a">1</div>
  <div class="item-b">2</div>
  <div class="item-c">3</div>
  <div class="item-d">123</div>
</div>

---

That isn't part of the purview of CSS. colspan describes the structure of the page's content, or gives some meaning to the data in the table, which is HTML's job.

---

I've had some success, although it relies on a few properties to work:

table-layout: fixed border-collapse: separate

and cell 'widths' that divide/span easily, i.e. 4 x cells of 25% width:

.div-table-cell,
* {
  box-sizing: border-box;
}

.div-table {
  display: table;
  border: solid 1px #ccc;
  border-left: none;
  border-bottom: none;
  table-layout: fixed;
  margin: 10px auto;
  width: 50%;
  border-collapse: separate;
  background: #eee;
}

.div-table-row {
  display: table-row;
}

.div-table-cell {
  display: table-cell;
  padding: 15px;
  border-left: solid 1px #ccc;
  border-bottom: solid 1px #ccc;
  text-align: center;
  background: #ddd;
}

.colspan-3 {
  width: 300%;
  display: table;
  background: #eee;
}

.row-1 .div-table-cell:before {
  content: "row 1: ";
}

.row-2 .div-table-cell:before {
  content: "row 2: ";
}

.row-3 .div-table-cell:before {
  content: "row 3: ";
  font-weight: bold;
}

.div-table-row-at-the-top {
  display: table-header-group;
}

<div class="div-table">

  <div class="div-table-row row-1">

    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 1</div>
    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 2</div>
    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 3</div>

  </div>

  <div class="div-table-row row-2">

    <div class="div-table-cell colspan-3">
      Cor blimey he's only gone and done it.
    </div>

  </div>

  <div class="div-table-row row-3">

    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 1</div>
    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 2</div>
    <div class="div-table-cell">Cell 3</div>

  </div>

</div>

https://jsfiddle.net/sfjw26rb/2/

Also, applying display:table-header-group or table-footer-group is a handy way of jumping 'row' elements to the top/bottom of the 'table'.

---

You could trying using a grid system like http://960.gs/

Your code would be something like this, assuming you're using a "12 column" layout:

<div class="container_12">
<div class="grid_4">1</div><div class="grid_4">2</div><div class="grid_4">3</div>
<div class="clear"></div>
<div class="grid_12">123</div>
</div>

---

Try adding display: table-cell; width: 1%; to your table cell element.

.table-cell {
  display: table-cell;
  width: 1%;
  padding: 4px;
  border: 1px solid #efefef;
}

<div class="table">
  <div class="table-cell">one</div>
  <div class="table-cell">two</div>
  <div class="table-cell">three</div>
  <div class="table-cell">four</div>
</div>
<div class="table">
  <div class="table-cell">one</div>
  <div class="table-cell">two</div>
  <div class="table-cell">three</div>
  <div class="table-cell">four</div>
</div>
<div class="table">
  <div class="table-cell">one</div>
</div>

---

The CSS properties "column-count", "column-gap", and "column-span" can do this in a way that keeps all the columns of the pseudo-table inside the same wrapper (HTML stays nice and neat).

The only caveats are that you can only define 1 column or all columns, and column-span doesn't yet work in Firefox, so some additional CSS is necessary to ensure it will displays correctly. https://www.w3schools.com/css/css3_multiple_columns.asp

.split-me {
  -webkit-column-count: 3;
  -webkit-column-gap: 0;
  -moz-column-count: 3;
  -moz-column-gap: 0;
  column-count: 3;
  column-gap: 0;
}

.cols {
  /* column-span is 1 by default */
  column-span: 1;
}

div.three-span {
  column-span: all !important;
}

/* alternate style for column-span in Firefox */
@-moz-document url-prefix(){
  .three-span {
    position: absolute;
    left: 8px;
    right: 8px;
    top: auto;
    width: auto;
  }
}


    

<p>The column width stays fully dynamic, just like flex-box, evenly scaling on resize.</p>

<div class='split-me'>
  <div class='col-1 cols'>Text inside Column 1 div.</div>
  <div class='col-2 cols'>Text inside Column 2 div.</div>
  <div class='col-3 cols'>Text inside Column 3 div.</div>
  <div class='three-span'>Text div spanning 3 columns.</div>
</div>



  <style>
/* Non-Essential Visual Styles */

html * { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial; text-align: center; }
.split-me>* { padding: 5px; } 
.cols { border: 2px dashed black; border-left: none; }
.col-1 { background-color: #ddffff; border-left: 2px dashed black; }
.col-2 { background-color: #ffddff; }
.col-3 { background-color: #ffffdd; }
.three-span {
  border: 2px dashed black; border-top: none;
  text-align: center; background-color: #ddffdd;
}
  </style>

---

if you use div and span it will occupy more code size when the datagrid-table row are more in volume. This below code is checked in all browsers

HTML:

<div id="gridheading">
<h4>Sl.No</h4><h4 class="big">Name</h4><h4>Location</h4><h4>column</h4><h4>column</h4><h4>column</h4><h4>Amount(Rs)</h4><h4>View</h4><h4>Edit</h4><h4>Delete</h4> 
</div>
<div class="data"> 
<h4>01</h4><h4 class="big">test</h4><h4>TVM</h4><h4>A</h4><h4>I</h4><h4>4575</h4><h4>4575</h4></div>
<div class="data"> 
<h4>01</h4><h4 class="big">test</h4><h4>TVM</h4><h4>A</h4><h4>I</h4><h4>4575</h4><h4>4575</h4></div>

CSS:

#gridheading {
    background: #ccc;
    border-bottom: 1px dotted #BBBBBB;
    font-size: 12px;
    line-height: 30px;
    text-transform: capitalize;
}
.data {
    border-bottom: 1px dotted #BBBBBB;
    display: block;
    font-weight: normal;
    line-height: 20px;
    text-align: left;
    word-wrap: break-word;
}
 h4 {
    border-right: thin dotted #000000;
    display: table-cell;
    margin-right: 100px;
    text-align: center;
    width: 100px;
    word-wrap: break-word;
}
.data .big {
    margin-right: 150px;
    width: 200px;
}

---

If you come here because you have to turn on or off the colspan attribute (say for a mobile layout):

Duplicate the <td>s and only show the ones with the desired colspan:

table.colspan--on td.single {
  display: none;
}

table.colspan--off td.both {
  display: none;
}

<!-- simple table -->
<table class="colspan--on">
  <thead>
    <th>col 1</th>
    <th>col 2</th>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <!-- normal row -->
      <td>a</td>
      <td>b</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <!-- the <td> spanning both columns -->
      <td class="both" colspan="2">both</td>

      <!-- the two single-column <td>s -->
      <td class="single">A</td>
      <td class="single">B</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <!-- normal row -->
      <td>a</td>
      <td>b</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<!--
that's all
-->

 

<!--
stuff only needed for making this interactive example looking good:
-->
<br><br>
<button onclick="toggle()">Toggle colspan</button>
<script>/*toggle classes*/var tableClasses = document.querySelector('table').classList;
function toggle() {
  tableClasses.toggle('colspan--on');
  tableClasses.toggle('colspan--off');
}
</script>
<style>/* some not-needed styles to make this example more appealing */
td {text-align: center;}
table, td, th {border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid black;}</style>

---

I came here because currently the WordPress table block doesn't support the colspan parameter and i thought i will replace it using CSS. This was my solution, assuming that the columns are the same width:

table {
  width: 100%;
}

table td {
  width: 50%;
  background: #dbdbdb;
  text-align: center;
}

table tr:nth-child(2n+1) {
  position:relative;
  display:block;
  height:20px;
  background:green;
}

table tr:nth-child(2n+1) td {
  position:absolute;
  left:0;
  right:-100%;
  width: auto;
  top:0;
  bottom:0;
  background:red;
  text-align:center;
}

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>row</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>cell</td>
        <td>cell</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>row</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>cell</td>
        <td>cell</td>
    </tr>
</table>

---

You could always position:absolute; things and specify widths. It's not a very fluid way of doing it, but it would work.

---

I've created this fiddle:

http://jsfiddle.net/wo40ev18/3/

HTML

<div id="table">
<div class="caption">
    Center Caption
</div>
<div class="group">
      <div class="row">
            <div class="cell">Link 1t</div>
            <div class="cell"></div>
          <div class="cell"></div>
          <div class="cell"></div>
            <div class="cell"></div>
            <div class="cell ">Link 2</div>
      </div>
</div>

CSS

   #table {
    display:table;
}

.group {display: table-row-group; }

.row {
    display:table-row;
    height: 80px;
    line-height: 80px;
}

.cell {
    display:table-cell;
    width:1%;
    text-align: center;
    border:1px solid grey;
    height: 80px
        line-height: 80px;
}

.caption {
    border:1px solid red; caption-side: top; display: table-caption; text-align: center; 
    position: relative;
    top: 80px;
    height: 80px;
      height: 80px;
    line-height: 80px;

}

---

Media Query classes can be used to achieve something passable with duplicate markup. Here's my approach with bootstrap:

  <tr class="total">
    <td colspan="1" class="visible-xs"></td>
    <td colspan="5" class="hidden-xs"></td>
    <td class="focus">Total</td>
    <td class="focus" colspan="2"><%= number_to_currency @cart.total %></td>
  </tr>

colspan 1 for mobile, colspan 5 for others with CSS doing the work.