Question

I am trying to figure out how to add a border only inside the table. When I do:

table {
    border: 0;
}
table td, table th {
    border: 1px solid black;
}

The border is around the whole table and also between table cells. I want to have a border only inside the table around table cells (without an outer border around the table).

Here is the markup I’m using for tables (even though I think that is not important):

<table>
    <tr>
        <th>Heading 1</th>
        <th>Heading 2</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Cell (1,1)</td>
        <td>Cell (1,2)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Cell (2,1)</td>
        <td>Cell (2,2)</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>Cell (3,1)</td>
        <td>Cell (3,2)</td>
    </tr>
</table>

And here are some basic styles I apply to most of my tables:

table {
    border-collapse: collapse;
    border-spacing: 0;
}

Answer 1

If you are doing what I believe you are trying to do, you’ll need something a little more like this:

table {
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
table td, table th {
  border: 1px solid black;
}
table tr:first-child th {
  border-top: 0;
}
table tr:last-child td {
  border-bottom: 0;
}
table tr td:first-child,
table tr th:first-child {
  border-left: 0;
}
table tr td:last-child,
table tr th:last-child {
  border-right: 0;
}

jsFiddle Demo

The problem is that you are setting a ‘full border’ around all the cells, which make it appear as if you have a border around the entire table.

EDIT: A little more info on those pseudo-classes can be found on quirksmode, and, as to be expected, you are pretty much S.O.L. in terms of IE support.