TABLES - CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout - page 213

h e one thing to watch out for with this approach is that it will be spoiled by any cols-
pan ned table cells. But then, if you're making your cells span columns, you probably aren't
doing full-column styling anyway. (Well, okay, you are. But most people aren't.) If you're
doing column-spanning cells, then classes are probably your best bet.

TABLE MAPPING
h ere are times when you have a bunch of data that has geographic relevance: sales i gures by
state, polling results by region, that sort of thing. h e data is usually best structured as a table,
but that doesn't mean that you have to lay it out that way. In fact, why not put it onto a map?

To do this, you really need two things besides the CSS. First you need the appropriate classes
and IDs in the markup. Here's part of the markup for a U.S.-states example.

< table>
< thead>
< tr>
< th scope="col">State< / th>
< th scope="col">Representatives< / th>
</ tr>
</ thead>
< tbody>
< tr id="AL">
< th scope="row">AL< / th>
< td> 7</ td>
</ tr>
< tr id="AK">
< th scope="row">AK< / th>
< td> 1</ td>
</ tr>
…
< tr id="WY">
< th scope="row">WY< / th>
< td> 1</ td>
</ tr>
</ tbody>
</ table>

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So that plus 47 other rows of data now need to be placed onto a map. And that's the second
thing you need: an image of the map (Figure 6-9).