I have two tables on a page that I want to display side by side, and then center them within the page (actually within another div, but this is the simplest I could come up
I found I could solve this by simply putting the two side by side tables inside of a third table that was centered. Here is the code
I added two lines of code at the top and bottom of the two existing tables
<style>
#outer {
text-align: center;
}
#inner {
text-align: left;
margin: 0 auto;
}
.t {
float: left;
}
table {
border: 1px solid black;
}
#clearit {
clear: left;
}
</style>
<div id="outer">
<p>Two tables, side by side, centered together within the page.</p>
<div id="inner">
<table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<td>
<div class="t">
<table>
<tr>
<th>a</th>
<th>b</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>16</td>
<td>25</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div class="t">
<table>
<tr>
<th>a</th>
<th>b</th>
<th>c</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>2</td>
<td>2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>5</td>
<td>15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td>13</td>
<td>104</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</table>
</div>
<div id="clearit">all done.</div>
</div>
Give your inner div a width.
EXAMPLE
Change your CSS:
<style>
#outer { text-align: center; }
#inner { text-align: left; margin: 0 auto; }
.t { float: left; }
table { border: 1px solid black; }
#clearit { clear: left; }
</style>
To this:
<style>
#outer { text-align: center; }
#inner { text-align: left; margin: 0 auto; width:500px }
.t { float: left; }
table { border: 1px solid black; }
#clearit { clear: left; }
</style>
I realize this is an ancient question, but here goes anyway.
The following will work in compliant browsers and IE8 in standards mode (i.e. with a doctype set).
#inner {text-align:center;}
.t {display:inline-block;}
Unfortunately, there's really no way to tweak it to work in IE6. For IE7, adding a zoom:1 to the .t divs (via a conditional comment) might help, but I don't have IE7 available for testing at the moment.
I have provided two solutions. Pick up which one best suits for you.
Solution#1:
<html>
<style>
#container {
width: 50%;
margin: auto;
text-align: center;
}
#first {
width:48%;
float: left;
height: 200px;
background-color: blue;
}
#second {
width: 48%;
float: left;
height: 200px;
background-color: green;
}
#clear {
clear: both;
}
#space{
width: 4%;
float: left;
height: 200px;
}
table{
border: 1px solid black;
margin: 0 auto;
table-layout:fixed;
width:100%;
text-align:center;
}
</style>
<body>
<div id = "container" >
<div id="first">
<table>
<tr>
<th>Column1</th>
<th>Column2</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value1</td>
<td>Value2</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div id = "space" >
</div>
<div id = "second" >
<table>
<tr>
<th>Column1</th>
<th>Column2</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value1</td>
<td>Value2</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div id = "clear" ></div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Solution#2:
<html>
<style>
#container {
margin:0 auto;
text-align: center;
}
#first {
float: left;
}
#second {
float: left;
}
#clear {
clear: both;
}
#space{
width:20px;
height:20px;
float: left;
}
.table, .table th, .table td{
border: 1px solid black;
}
</style>
<body>
<table id = "container" >
<td>
<div id="first">
<table class="table">
<tr>
<th>Column1</th>
<th>Column2</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value1</td>
<td>Value2</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div id = "space" >
</div>
<div id = "second" >
<table class="table">
<tr>
<th>Column1</th>
<th>Column2</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Value1</td>
<td>Value2</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div id = "clear" ></div>
</div>
</td>
</table>
</body>
</html>
Note: Change the width percentage as per your need in 1st solution.
<style>
#outer { text-align: center; }
#inner { width:500px; text-align: left; margin: 0 auto; }
.t { float: left; width:240px; border: 1px solid black;}
#clearit { clear: both; }
</style>
The problem is that the DIV that should center your tables has no width defined. By default, DIVs are block elements and take up the entire width of their parent - in this case the entire document (propagating through the #outer DIV), so the automatic margin style has no effect.
For this technique to work, you simply have to set the width of the div that has margin:auto to anything but "auto" or "inherit" (either a fixed pixel value or a percentage).