RULES Attribute | rules Property

Sets or retrieves which dividing lines (inner borders) are displayed.

Syntax

HTML <TABLE RULES = sRule... >
Scripting TABLE.rules [ = sRule ]

Possible Values

sRule String that specifies or receives one of the following values.
all Borders are displayed on all rows and columns.
cols Borders are displayed between all table columns.
groups Horizontal borders are displayed between all tHead, tBody, and tFoot objects; vertical borders are displayed between all colGroup objects.
none All interior table borders are removed.
rows Horizontal borders are displayed between all table rows.
The property is read/write. The property has no default value.
Expressions can be used in place of the preceding value(s), as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5. For more information, see About Dynamic Properties.

Remarks

The value none turns off only the interior borders. To turn off the table borders, set the rules property to '', or omit the RULES attribute from the table object.

Examples

This example initially sets the RULES attribute on the table, and then uses the rules property to dynamically change the table borders.
<TABLE ID="oID_1" RULES="cols">
<THEAD>
<TR>
<TD>EST</TD><TD>1am</TD><TD>8pm</TD>
</TR>
</THEAD>
<TR>
<TD>CST</TD><TD>2am</TD><TD>9pm</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>MST</TD><TD>3am</TD><TD>10pm</TD>
</TR>
<TFOOT>
<TR>
<TD>PST</TD><TD>4am</TD><TD>11pm</TD>
</TR>
</TFOOT>
</TABLE>
<P>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules=''">No borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='none'">Exterior border</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='all'">All borders</BUTTON><BR>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='cols'">Column borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='groups'">Groups borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='rows'">Table row borders</BUTTON>
</P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.
In this example, the table object contains the RULES attribute set to cols and the border attribute set to an empty string (""). This example demonstrates that if the RULES attribute is set to an empty string (""), the border attribute will cause the table to show all borders, trumping the RULES attribute.
<TABLE ID="oID_1" BORDER="" RULES="cols">
<THEAD>
<TR>
<TD>EST</TD><TD>1am</TD><TD>8pm</TD>
</TR>
</THEAD>
<TR>
<TD>CST</TD><TD>2am</TD><TD>9pm</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>MST</TD><TD>3am</TD><TD>10pm</TD>
</TR>
<TFOOT>
<TR>
<TD>PST</TD><TD>4am</TD><TD>11pm</TD>
</TR>
</TFOOT>
</TABLE>
<P>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules=''">No borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='none'">Exterior border</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='all'">All borders</BUTTON><BR>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='cols'">Column borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='groups'">Groups borders</BUTTON>
<BUTTON onclick="oID_1.rules='rows'">Table row borders</BUTTON>
</P>
This feature requires Microsoft® Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Click the following icon to install the latest version. Then reload this page to view the sample.

Standards Information

This property is defined in HTML 4.0 and is defined in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 .

Applies To

TABLE