merge existing columns using CSS

Question

I have a table. The table is generated by some server side code which I can't change but I can add some CSS to style.

<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
 <td>row 1 column 1</td>
 <td>row 1 column 2</td>

</tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

Is there a way of merging the two columns using CSS and not JQuery

  |row1 column1 |row 1 column 2 |
  |             |               |

get an output like

| row 1 column2  |
|                |  

Answer 1

This isn't possible within CSS, even when you say they're block level elements.

They are still two separate elements and HTML will render them as such.

As shown below:

td {
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.block * {
  display: block;
}
.border-collapse {
  border-collapse: collapse;
  margin: 0;
}

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>row 1 column 1</td>
      <td>row 1 column 2</td>

    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<table class="block">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>row 1 column 1</td>
      <td>row 1 column 2</td>

    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

<table class="border-collapse">
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>row 1 column 1</td>
      <td>row 1 column 2</td>

    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

I believe you are going to have to try and change the html, use the colspan attribute:

<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="3">Here I need a cell by all width</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>TD 1</td>
      <td>TD 2</td>
      <td>TD 3</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

The colspan attribute defines the number of columns a cell should span.

There is a related attribute rowspan that achieves the same for rows.

One last dirty option is to always set one of the elements to display: none and the other width: 100%

table {
  width: 400px;
}
table tr td {
  border: 1px solid black;
}

table.td_hide tr td:first-child {
  display: none;
}

table.td_hide tr td:last-child {
  width: 100%;
}

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>Row One</td>
    <td>Row Two</td>
  </tr>
</table>

<table class="td_hide">
  <tr>
    <td>Row One</td>
    <td>Row Two</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Answer 2

Try to display the elements as block elements like this:

table, tbody, tr, td {
    display: block;
}