Where to put <thead>, <tbody> in a verticle heading table?

Issue

In a horizontal heading table, <thead> comes after the <table> and before <tbody> such as the following,

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th colspan="2">The table header</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>The table body</td>
      <td>with two columns</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

How about in a vertical heading table? What is the (best) practice to put the <thead>? I have seen the following without <thead>,

<table style="width:100%">
  <tbody>
  <tr>
    <th>Name:</th>
    <td>Bill Gates</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Telephone:</th>
    <td>555 77 854</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th>Telephone:</th>
    <td>555 77 855</td>
  </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Thank you in advance for your help.

I tried W3Schools and MDN The Table Head element, although it said <thead> is optional, is there any approach to include the element?

Solution

You don't need any <thead>. However, for a vertical tables in particular, do not forget to add the scope attribute to <th> cells:

<table style="width:100%">
  <tr>
    <th scope="row">Name:</th>
    <td>Bill Gates</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th scope="row">Telephone:</th>
    <td>555 77 854</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <th scope="row">Telephone:</th>
    <td>555 77 855</td>
  </tr>
</table>

(You can also omit the <tbody> if there's nothing else in the table)

Answered By - Bergi