Background in entire table row (including empty space where there is no td element)

I have problem in which I have some rows which I want there to b开发者_StackOverflow中文版e a uniform background color but not all rows have a equal number of td elements so there are some which are longer then others and the shorter ones thusly end up with empty space. This is ok except the empty space, even when CSS style background-color is applied to the tr element, has no background. How can I apply background to an entire table row, including empty space?

You're not doing it right if you're not accounting for a uniform number of columns across each row. Either make use of colspan or add the appropriate cells.

Put the td element in there and you'll be fine. Is there a reason you need to leave it out?