Html – Border around specific rows in a table

bordercsscss-tableshtml

I'm trying to design some HTML/CSS that can put a border around specific rows in a table. Yes, I know I'm not really supposed to use tables for layout but I don't know enough CSS to completely replace it yet.

Anyways, I have a table with multiple rows and columns, some merged with rowspan and colspan, and I'd like to put a simple border around parts of the table. Currently, I'm using 4 separate CSS classes (top, bottom, left, right) that I attach to the <td> cells that are along the top, bottom, left, and right of the table respectively.

.top {
  border-top: thin solid;
  border-color: black;
}

.bottom {
  border-bottom: thin solid;
  border-color: black;
}

.left {
  border-left: thin solid;
  border-color: black;
}

.right {
  border-right: thin solid;
  border-color: black;
}
<html>

<body>

  <table cellspacing="0">
    <tr>
      <td>no border</td>
      <td>no border here either</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="top left">one</td>
      <td class="top right">two</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="bottom left">three</td>
      <td class="bottom right">four</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">once again no borders</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td class="top bottom left right" colspan="2">hello</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">world</td>
    </tr>
  </table>

</html>

Is there any easier way to do what I want? I tried applying top and bottom to a <tr> but it didn't work. (p.s. I'm new to CSS, so there's probably a really basic solution to this that I've missed.)

note: I do need to have multiple bordered sections. The basic idea is to have multiple bordered clusters each containing multiple rows.

Best Answer

How about tr {outline: thin solid black;}? Works for me on tr or tbody elements, and appears to be compatible with the most browsers, including IE 8+ but not before.

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