Should Tables be avoided in HTML at any cost?

Question

It is advisable to use tables in HTML pages (now that we have CSS)?

What are the applications of tables? What features/abilities does tables have that are not in CSS?

Answer 1

I am going to assume that your question is actually - "Should I avoid using HTML tables for layout purposes?". The answer is: No. In fact, tables are specifically meant to be used to control layout. The drawback for using tables to control the layout of an entire page is that the source file rapidly becomes difficult to manually understand and edit. A (possible) advantage of using tables to control the entire layout is if there are specific concerns about cross-browser compatibility and rendering. I prefer to work directly with the HTML source file, and for me using CSS makes that easier than using tables for the entire layout.