How to convert columns to rows using CSS

DEMO

Css Solution: Simply turn your td & th to display:block; & your tr to display:table-cell;

CSS:

@media screen and (max-width:767px) {
    table tr > *{
        display: block;
    }
    table tr {
        display: table-cell;
    }
}

Drawback: If your cells have too much data the layout will break Example.

jQuery Solution: We can keep track of element height to stay the same DEMO

JS:

$(function () {
    switchRowsAndCols("table", 767);
});

function switchRowsAndCols(thisTable, resolution) {
    if ($(window).width() < resolution) {
        switchRowsAndColsInnerFun(thisTable);
    }
    $(window).resize(function () {
        if ($(window).width() < resolution) {
            switchRowsAndColsInnerFun(thisTable);
        }else{
            switchRowsAndColsRemove(thisTable);
        }
    });
};

function switchRowsAndColsRemove(thisTable) {
    $("tr > *", thisTable).css({
        height: 'auto'
    });
};

function switchRowsAndColsInnerFun(thisTable) {
    var maxRow = $("tr:first-child() > *", thisTable).length;

    for (var i = maxRow; i >= 0; i--) {

        $("tr > *:nth-child(" + i + ")", thisTable).css({
            height: 'auto'
        });

        var maxHeight = 0;

        $("tr > *:nth-child(" + i + ")", thisTable).each(function () {
            var h = $(this).height();
            maxHeight = h > maxHeight ? h : maxHeight;
        });

        $("tr > *:nth-child(" + i + ")", thisTable).each(function () {
            $(this).height(maxHeight);
        });
    };
};

Well, figured I'd offer a slightly different jQuery solution to your dilemma for other people looking for additional help.

If you have to use a script, might as well make it do everything (the following script takes 4.2ms to run, which seems pretty reasonable to me :-)

Essentially what the below is doing is taking your tabular-data and converting it to a multidimensional array.

1, 2, 3, 4
5, 6, 7, 8 
9, 10, 11, 12

Becomes:

[[1,5,9],[2,6,10],[3,7,11],[4,8,12]]

Then, it's just a matter of having it rewrite your table based on the new array with a couple for-loops.

One thing to note, you would have to bind this to a media query or window.resize handler to get the acquired affect you're looking for. That is as easy as changing the on.click handler I have assigned.

Take a look! It's pretty nifty:

http://jsfiddle.net/jsR7n/1/

HTML:

<input type="button" id="switch" value="switch" \>
<table id="switchItems">
<tr>
    <td>a</td>
    <td>b</td>
    <td>c</td>
    <td>d</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>...etc

jQuery Script:

$(function(){
    $('#switch').on('click', function(){
        var items = [];
        var itemsConv = [];
        var table = $('#switchItems');
        var row,cell;

// FIND ALL OF THE DATA
        $("tr").each(function(){
            var trRow = [];
            $(this).children().each(function() {
                trRow.push($(this).text());
            });
            items.push(trRow);
        });
        for(var j=0;j<items[0].length;j++){
            var newRow = [];
            for(var i=0;i<items.length;i++){
                newRow.push(items[i][j]);
            }
            itemsConv.push(newRow);
        }

// KILL OUR CURRENT DATA IN THE TABLE
        table.empty();

// REWRITE OUR TABLE WITH NEW DATA
        for(var i=0; i<itemsConv.length; i++){
            row = $( '<tr />' );
            table.append( row );
            for(var j=0; j<itemsConv[i].length; j++){
                cell = $('<td>'+itemsConv[i][j]+'</td>');
                row.append( cell );
            }
        }
    });
});

Hope this was helpful!

http://jsfiddle.net/jsR7n/1/