Question

Example:

<style type="text/css">
    table {
        border: 1px solid red;
        border-collapse: collapse;
        text-align: left;
    }
    #col-1 {
        padding-left: 20px;
        background-color: tan;
    }
    #specific-cell {
        padding-left: 20px;
    }
</style>
<table>
    <col id="col-1">
    <col id="col-2">
    <tr>
        <th>foo</th>
        <th>bar</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>data1</th>
        <td>data2</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="specific-cell">data1</th>
        <td>data2</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>data1</th>
        <td>data2</th>
    </tr>
</table>

The color is applied to the column but not the padding. If I use classes/ids on cells directly, it works.

Am I forced to use them, or is there a way taking advantage of the <col> tag?

Answer 1

It’s not supposed to work, at least with CSS 2.1. You may have a look at the CSS 2.1 table columns specification.

You can circumvent this by using :first-child and +:

/* first column */
td:first-child {
    padding-left: 20px;  
}

/* second column */ 
td:first-child + td {
    padding-left: 10px;  
}

/* third columns */ {
td:first-child + td + td {
    padding-left: 0;  
}