HTMLTableRowElement: cells property

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since July 2015.

The cells read-only property of the HTMLTableRowElement interface returns a live HTMLCollection containing the cells in the row. The HTMLCollection is live and is automatically updated when cells are added or removed.

Value

A live HTMLCollection of HTMLTableCellElement objects.

Examples

This example uses HTMLTableRowElement.cells to display the number of cell in a row.

HTML

html
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>C1</th>
      <th>C2</th>
      <th>C3</th>
      <th>C4</th>
      <th>C5</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Cell 1</td>
      <td>Cell 2</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<button id="add">Add a cell</button>
<button id="remove">Remove last cell</button>
<div>This first row has <output>2</output> cell(s).</div>

JavaScript

js
// Obtain relevant interface elements
const bodySection = document.querySelectorAll("tbody")[0];
const row = bodySection.rows[0]; // Select the first row of the body section
const cells = row.cells; // The collection is live, therefore always up-to-date
const cellNumberDisplay = document.querySelectorAll("output")[0];

const addButton = document.getElementById("add");
const removeButton = document.getElementById("remove");

function updateCellNumber() {
  cellNumberDisplay.textContent = cells.length;
}

addButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  // Add a new cell at the end of the first row
  const newCell = row.insertCell();
  newCell.textContent = `Cell ${cells.length}`;

  // Update the row counter
  updateCellNumber();
});

removeButton.addEventListener("click", () => {
  // Delete the row from the body
  row.deleteCell(-1);

  // Update the row counter
  updateCellNumber();
});

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML
# dom-tr-cells

Browser compatibility

desktop mobile
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
cells
Chrome – Full support
Chrome 1 (Release date: 2008-12-11)
footnote Full support
Edge – Full support
Edge 12 (Release date: 2015-07-29)
footnote Full support
Firefox – Full support
Firefox 1 (Release date: 2004-11-09)
footnote Full support
Opera – Full support
Opera 12.1 (Release date: 2012-11-20)
footnote Full support
Safari – Full support
Safari 3 (Release date: 2007-10-26)
footnote Full support
Chrome Android – Full support
Chrome Android 18 (Release date: 2012-06-27)
footnote Full support
Firefox for Android – Full support
Firefox for Android 4 (Release date: 2011-03-29)
footnote Full support
Opera Android – Full support
Opera Android 12.1 (Release date: 2012-10-09)
footnote Full support
Safari on iOS – Full support
Safari on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support
Samsung Internet – Full support
Samsung Internet 1 (Release date: 2013-04-27)
footnote Full support
WebView Android – Full support
WebView Android 4.4 (Release date: 2013-12-09)
footnote Full support
WebView on iOS – Full support
WebView on iOS 1 (Release date: 2007-06-29)
footnote Full support

Legend

Tip: you can click/tap on a cell for more information.

Full support
Full support

See also