Solución que maneja colspan
Tengo una solución basada en hacer coincidir el borde tdizquierdo del borde izquierdo del correspondiente th. Debe manejar colspans arbitrariamente complejos.
Modifiqué el caso de prueba para mostrar que arbitrario colspanse maneja correctamente.
JS
$(function($) {
"use strict";
$(document).on('mouseover mouseout', 'td', function(event) {
var td = $(event.target).closest('td'),
th = thFromTd(td);
th.parent().find('.highlight').removeClass('highlight');
if (event.type === 'mouseover')
th.addClass('highlight');
});
function thFromTd(td) {
var ofs = td.offset().left,
table = td.closest('table'),
thead = table.children('thead').eq(0),
positions = cacheThPositions(thead),
matches = positions.filter(function(eldata) {
return eldata.left <= ofs;
}),
match = matches[matches.length-1],
matchEl = $(match.el);
return matchEl;
}
function cacheThPositions(thead) {
var data = thead.data('cached-pos'),
allth;
if (data)
return data;
allth = thead.children('tr').children('th');
data = allth.map(function() {
var th = $(this);
return {
el: this,
left: th.offset().left
};
}).toArray();
thead.data('cached-pos', data);
return data;
}
});
CSS
.highlight {
background-color: #EEE;
}
HTML
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th colspan="3">Not header!</th>
<th id="name" colspan="3">Name</th>
<th id="address">Address</th>
<th id="address">Other</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">X</td>
<td>1</td>
<td>Bob</td>
<td>J</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>1 High Street</td>
<td colspan="2">Postfix</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>