How is the padding of display:table-cell determined - html

Question

I'm trying to come out with a table-like layout, with medicine names appearing on the left and the data occupy the rest of the table. Simply put:
+-------------+------------+
medicine 1 | some data | some data |
+-------------+------------+
medicine 2 | some data | some data |
+-------------+------------+
Since I want to keep the data grid dynamic, I use two <div>'s with the style display:table-cell as two containers, the left one for all the medicine names, and the right one for the data grid. There are several inner <div>'s inside these two table-cell <div>'s, but I'm not sure why the left one has a big padding area on the top when I use Chrome inspect interface to investigate it (please see the image below):
I'm not quite sure which part went wrong, and the inspect interface didn't give me information that seems relevant. I want to learn how to approach this situation. Here is the html code for your reference:
<div style="display:table">
<div style="display:table-row">
<div style="display:table-cell">
<div style="height:85px; width:170px; text-align:right; font-size:13px; margin-right:5px">
Dexedrine Spansules (Dextroamphetamine, ER) <br/><span style="font-style:italic">(20mg)</span>
</div>
<div style="height:85px; width:170px; text-align:right; font-size:13px; margin-right:5px">
Methamphetamine (Desoxyn, IR) <br/><span style="font-style:italic">(15mg)</span>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell; overflow:hidden; max-width:800px">
<div id="medicine_table_container_2" class="medicine-table-container" style="position:relative; left:0">
<div style="white-space:nowrap; font-size:0px">
<div style="display:inline-block; background-color:yellow; width:130px; height:85px; border:1px solid #999; font-size: 12px; white-space:normal">
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:45px">
Morning<br/>-
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:45px">
Noon<br/>5mg
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:35px">
Afternoon<br/>12mg
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:35px">
Evening<br/>-
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="white-space:nowrap; font-size:0px">
<div style="display:inline-block; background-color:yellow; width:130px; height:85px; border:1px solid #999; font-size: 12px; white-space:normal">
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:45px">
Morning<br/>-
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:45px">
Noon<br/>5mg
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:35px">
Afternoon<br/>12mg
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:35px">
Evening<br/>-
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

This is about vertical alignment. The default one is set to baseline and produce this output. Simply change the alignment to top on the table-cell and you won't have this issue:
<div style="display:table">
<div style="display:table-row">
<div style="display:table-cell;
vertical-align: top;">
<div style="height:85px; width:170px; text-align:right; font-size:13px; margin-right:5px">
Dexedrine Spansules (Dextroamphetamine, ER) <br/><span style="font-style:italic">(20mg)</span>
</div>
<div style="height:85px; width:170px; text-align:right; font-size:13px; margin-right:5px">
Methamphetamine (Desoxyn, IR) <br/><span style="font-style:italic">(15mg)</span>
</div>
</div>
<div style="display:table-cell;
vertical-align: top; overflow:hidden; max-width:800px">
<div id="medicine_table_container_2" class="medicine-table-container" style="position:relative; left:0">
<div style="white-space:nowrap; font-size:0px">
<div style="display:inline-block; background-color:yellow; width:130px; height:85px; border:1px solid #999; font-size: 12px; white-space:normal">
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:45px">
Morning<br/>-
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:45px">
Noon<br/>5mg
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:35px">
Afternoon<br/>12mg
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:35px">
Evening<br/>-
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="white-space:nowrap; font-size:0px">
<div style="display:inline-block; background-color:yellow; width:130px; height:85px; border:1px solid #999; font-size: 12px; white-space:normal">
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:45px">
Morning<br/>-
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:45px">
Noon<br/>5mg
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:70px; height:35px">
Afternoon<br/>12mg
</div>
<div style="display:inline-block; width:50px; height:35px">
Evening<br/>-
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Since your code is a bit complex, here is a basic one to reproduce the issue and better understand what's happening:
.table {
display: table;
border: 1px solid;
margin: 5px;
}
.table>div {
display: table-row;
}
.table>div>span {
display: table-cell;
padding: 0 5px;
}
.table>div>span span {
display: inline-block;
}
baseline
<div class="table">
<div>
<span>one line</span>
<span><span>two <br> line (inline-block)</span></span>
</div>
</div>
baseline
<div class="table">
<div>
<span>two<br> line</span>
<span><span>two <br> line (inline-block)</span></span>
</div>
</div>
baseline (with overflow:hidden)
<div class="table">
<div>
<span>one line</span>
<span><span style="overflow:hidden;">two <br> line</span></span>
</div>
</div>
baseline (with overflow:hidden)
<div class="table">
<div>
<span>one line</span>
<span><span style="overflow:hidden;">another line</span></span>
</div>
</div>
top will fix all the cases
<div class="table">
<div>
<span style="vertical-align:top;">one line</span>
<span><span>two <br> line</span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="table">
<div>
<span style="vertical-align:top;">one line</span>
<span><span style="overflow:hidden;">two <br> line</span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="table">
<div>
<span style="vertical-align:top;">one line</span>
<span><span style="overflow:hidden;">another line</span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="table">
<div>
<span style="vertical-align:top;">two<br> line</span>
<span><span>two <br> line (inline-block)</span></span>
</div>
</div>
You can clearly see how the use of inline-block (and overflow:hidden) is the culprit here as it make the calculation of the baseline counter intuitive and unexpected.

Answer 2

I see that Temani Afif has already provided solution to your original problem. But in case if it helps you in anyway or anyone else, here is the basic structure of a table with sub-tables
Styles
<style>
.table {
display:table; border:1px solid #ccc; border-collapse:collapse
}
.table .row {
display:table-row; border:1px solid #ccc; border-collapse:collapse
}
.table .row .headercell {
display:table-cell; border:1px solid #ccc; height: 80px; width: 150px; border-collapse:collapse
}
.table .row .cell {
display:table-cell; border:1px solid #ccc; height: 80px; Width: 300px; border-collapse:collapse
}
</style>
Table structure
<div class="table">
<div class="row">
<div class="headercell">
Row1
</div>
<div class="cell">
<div class="table">
<div class="row">
<div class="cell">
Cell1
</div>
<div class="cell">
Cell2
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="cell">
Cell3
</div>
<div class="cell">
Cell4
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="headercell">
Row2
</div>
<div class="cell">
<div class="table">
<div class="row">
<div class="cell">
Cell1
</div>
<div class="cell">
Cell2
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="cell">
Cell3
</div>
<div class="cell">
Cell4
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>