Are large html tables slow?

Question

I've recently been developing an application using tables with a large number (hundreds) of rows. The rows contain tabular data and each row contains two drop down lists as well as link which displays hidden table rows directly below it.

I am currently experiencing lengthy delays when attempting to select a value from the drop down, and when displaying the hidden table rows.

Is the table the source of my problem here?

Answer 1

From what I gather, HTML tables can be appear to be slow to render if widths are not explicitly stated. If they aren't, the browser has to finish loading the contents of the cells before it can calculate the correct widths.

MSDN has some information here on their "Building High Performance HTML Pages" article that may help; they suggest the following (regarding tables specifically):

• Set the table-layout CSS attribute to fixed on the table.
• Explicitly define col objects for each column.
• Set the WIDTH attribute on each col.