How to alternate HTML table row colors using JSP?

Question

How do I alternate HTML table row colors using JSP?

My CSS looks something like:

tr.odd {background-color: #EEDDEE}
tr.even {background-color: #EEEEDD}

I want to use <c:forEach> to iterate over a collection.

<c:forEach items="${element}" var="myCollection">
  <tr>
    <td><c:out value="${element.field}"/></td>
    ...
  </tr>
</c:forEach>

I need an int count variable or boolean odd/even variable to track the row. Then my <tr> tag would look something like:

<tr class="odd or even depending on the row">

Answer 1

Use the varStatus attribute on your forEach tag and JSTL will manage an instance of a javax.servlet.jsp.jstl.core.LoopTagStatus for you in the variable name you specify.

You can then use a ternary operator to easily output the appropriate class name:

<c:forEach items="${element}" var="myCollection" varStatus="loopStatus">
  <tr class="${loopStatus.index % 2 == 0 ? 'even' : 'odd'}">
    ...
  </tr>
</c:forEach>

This JSTL primer from IBM has more information about the core tag library and what it gives you.