Table cells can span across more than one column or row. The attributes COLSPAN ("how many across") and ROWSPAN ("how many down") indicate how many columns or rows a cell should take up.
For example, we might want to create header cells for each department in our table of names and phone numbers. In this table, the header cells in the first and fifth rows span across two columns to indicate the department for each group of names.
<TABLE BORDER=2 CELLPADDING=4>
<TR> <TH COLSPAN=2>Production</TH> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Raha Mutisya</TD> <TD>1493</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Shalom Buraka</TD> <TD>3829</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Brandy Davis</TD> <TD>0283</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TH COLSPAN=2>Sales</TH> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Claire Horne</TD> <TD>4827</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Bruce Eckel</TD> <TD>7246</TD> </TR>
<TR> <TD>Danny Zeman</TD> <TD>5689</TD> </TR>
</TABLE>
which gives us:
Production
Raha Mutisya 1493
Shalom Buraka 3829
Brandy Davis 0283
Sales
Claire Horne 4827
Bruce Eckel 7246
Danny Zeman 5689