HTML <caption> Tag

The HTML <caption> tag is used for creating captions for the <table> element. A <caption> element represents the title of the table.

The <caption> element can be useful when it's not apparent what the data in the table represents. This is often true when a data contains nothing but numbers, or a series of letters or symbols. The <caption> element allows you to provide a context for the data in the table.

Syntax

The <caption> tag is written as <caption></caption> with the caption content inserted between the start and end tags. It must appear as the first child of a <table> element.

Like this:

Examples

Basic tag usage

This example shows a basic sample caption in a table. Although the <caption> tag is located inside the <table> tag, most (if not all) browsers display the caption outside the table.

Actual Usage

Here is an example of where the <caption> element can come in handy.

Note that you can use any flow content (except for the <table> element) within the <caption> element. So you can use the <p> tag to create paragraphs within the <caption> element, as well as other tags as required.

Attributes

Attributes can be added to an HTML element to provide more information about how the element should appear or behave.

The <caption> element accepts the following attributes.

AttributeDescription
None 

Global Attributes

The following attributes are standard across all HTML elements. Therefore, you can use these attributes with the <caption> tag , as well as with all other HTML tags.

For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.

Event Handlers

Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.

Most event handler content attributes can be used on all HTML elements, but some event handlers have specific rules around when they can be used and which elements they are applicable to.

For more detail, see HTML event handler content attributes.