HTMLTableElement: insertRow() method

The HTMLTableElement.insertRow() method inserts a new row (<tr>) in a given <table>, and returns a reference to the new row.

If a table has multiple <tbody> elements, by default, the new row is inserted into the last <tbody>. To insert the row into a specific <tbody>:

let specific_tbody = document.getElementById(tbody_id);
let row = specific_tbody.insertRow(index);

Note: insertRow() inserts the row directly into the table. The row does not need to be appended separately as would be the case if Document.createElement() had been used to create the new <tr> element.

Syntax

insertRow()
insertRow(index)

HTMLTableElement is a reference to an HTML <table> element.

Parameters

index Optional: The row index of the new row. If index is -1 or equal to the number of rows, the row is appended as the last row. If index is omitted it defaults to -1.

Return value

An HTMLTableRowElement that references the new row.

Exceptions

IndexSizeError DOMException: Thrown if index is greater than the number of rows.

Examples

This example uses insertRow(-1) to append a new row to a table.

We then use HTMLTableRowElement.insertCell() to insert a new cell in the new row. (To be valid HTML, a <tr> must have at least one <td> element.) Finally, we add some text to the cell using Document.createTextNode() and Node.appendChild().

HTML

html

<table id="my-table">
  <tr>
    <td>Row 1</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Row 2</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Row 3</td>
  </tr>
</table>

JavaScript

function addRow(tableID) {
  // Get a reference to the table
  let tableRef = document.getElementById(tableID);

  // Insert a row at the end of the table
  let newRow = tableRef.insertRow(-1);

  // Insert a cell in the row at index 0
  let newCell = newRow.insertCell(0);

  // Append a text node to the cell
  let newText = document.createTextNode("New bottom row");
  newCell.appendChild(newText);
}

// Call addRow() with the table's ID
addRow("my-table");

Result

Specifications

Specification
HTML Standard # dom-table-insertrow-dev

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser