Do not skip empty table entries while importing data from HTML string?

Question

Consider importing the following table from an HTML string:

ImportString["<table>
   <tr>
     <th>Firstname</th>
     <th>Lastname</th> 
     <th>Age</th>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>Jill</td>
     <td>Smith</td> 
     <td>50</td>
   </tr>
 </table>", {"HTML", "Data"}]

{{"Firstname", "Lastname", "Age"}, {"Jill", "Smith", 50}}

above, all fields are imported and we end up with a proper 2x3 table.

However, in a case where one of the entries is empty, we instead get:

ImportString["<table>
   <tr>
     <th>Firstname</th>
     <th>Lastname</th> 
     <th>Age</th>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td> </td>
     <td>Smith</td> 
     <td>50</td>
   </tr>
 </table>", {"HTML", "Data"}]

{{"Firstname", "Lastname", "Age"}, {"Smith", 50}}

Here the "Firstname" field was left empty in the table, and so mathematica did not register that field. The resulting list now has 3 entries in the first dimension and only 2 entries in the second, so that the whole table structure is broken. I would prefer the output to instead read e.g.

{{"Firstname", "Lastname", "Age"}, {"","Smith", 50}}

so that table dimensions are preserved.

Is there a way to import table data from HTML string without skipping empty fields?

Answer 1

HTML >> Import Elements

So you can use "FullData" in place of "Data":

ImportString["<table>
    <tr>
      <th>Firstname</th>
      <th>Lastname</th> 
      <th>Age</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td> </td>
      <td>Smith</td> 
      <td>50</td>
    </tr>
  </table>", {"HTML", "FullData"}]

{{{{"Firstname", "Lastname", "Age"}, {"", "Smith", 50}}}}