HTML table pure CSS fixed header

This is a, slightly hackish, pure CSS implementation of a fixed table header. It is implemented in HTML5 and CSS3 and is tested in FX 25, Chrome 31 and IE 10.

by kirky93

HTML

<div class="headercontainer">
  <div class="tablecontainer">
    <table>
      <thead>
        <tr>
          <th>
              Table attribute name
            <div>Table attribute name</div>
          </th>
          <th>
            Value
            <div>Value</div>
          </th>
          <th>
            Description
            <div>Description</div>
          </th>
        </tr>
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        <tr>
          <td>align</td>
          <td>left, center, right</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Deprecated in HTML 4.01. Specifies the alignment of a table according to surrounding text</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>bgcolor</td>
          <td>rgb(x,x,x), #xxxxxx, colorname</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Deprecated in HTML 4.01. Specifies the background color for a table</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>border</td>
          <td>1,""</td>
          <td>Specifies whether the table cells should have borders or not</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>cellpadding</td>
          <td>pixels</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies the space between the cell wall and the cell content</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>cellspacing</td>
          <td>pixels</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies the space between cells</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>frame</td>
          <td>void, above, below, hsides, lhs, rhs, vsides, box, border</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies which parts of the outside borders that should be visible</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>rules</td>
          <td>none, groups, rows, cols, all</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies which parts of the inside borders that should be visible</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>summary</td>
          <td>text</td>
          <td>Not supported in HTML5. Specifies a summary of the content of a table</td>
        </tr>
       ...

CSS

/* altered by cw */
/* This is for the main container of the table, also sets the height of the fixed header row */
.headercontainer {
  position: relative;
  border: 1px solid #222;
  padding-top: 37px;
  background: #000;
}
/* This is for the data area that is scrollable */
.tablecontainer {
  overflow-y: auto;
  height: 200px;
  background: #fff;
}

/* Removes default cell borders and ensures table width 100% of its container*/
.tablecontainer table {
  border-spacing: 0;
  width:100%;
}

/* adds a thin border to the left of cells, but not the first */
.tablecontainer td + td {
  border-left:1px solid #eee; 
}

/* cell padding and bottom border */
.tablecontainer td, th {
  border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
  padding: 10px;
}

/* make the default header height 0 and make text invisible */
.tablecontainer th {
    height: 0px;
    padding-top: 0;
    padding-bottom: 0;
    line-height: 0;
    visibility: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

/* reposition the divs in the header cells and place in the blank area of the headercontainer */
.tablecontainer th div{
  visibility: visible;
  position: absolute;
  background: #000;
  color: #fff;
  padding: 9px 10px;
  top: 0;
  margin-left: -10px;
  line-height: normal;
   border-left: 1px solid #222;
}
/* prevent the left border from above appearing in first div header */
th:first-child div{
  border: none;
}

/* alternate colors for rows */
.tablecontainer tbody  tr:nth-child(even){
     background-color: #ddd;
}