Valid HTML and the number of TD elements

Question

I have a HTML table with several columns and several rows. The last row does not always have as many TD elements as the other rows. It renders correctly in several browsers I have checked and passes validation checks. But it seems incorrect. Should the number of TD elements be the same in every row?

EDIT: This could happen with or without colspans and rowspans.

Answer 1

"Should the number of TD elements be the same in every row?"

Though it is not strictly required, I say "yes, or you should have colspans to compensate for them."

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>two</td>
        <td>columns</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td colspan="2">one big column</td>
    </tr>
</table>

My take on this, despite that it is not required by the W3C spec, is that when considering how spotty browsers are about the way they support anything, I'd make it as consistent as possible, using colspans or empty cells, to make sure that it's doing exactly what I want on all browsers.

The secondary benefit is for anyone maintaining your code. Makes it more obvious what is intended, rather than it being percieved as a possible error.

Answer 2

There is no requirement in HTML standards that the number of columns defined by each row match. It can be said that you "should" provide a uniform number of columns, from a moralistic or best-practices standpoint, and I'd support that, but it isn't required by standard, which is why it's validating.

Answer 3

Just an idea: try to create your table with element ;-) There are some issues in rendering tables.