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datadamnation
datadamnation

Reputation: 1892

Force table column widths to always be fixed regardless of contents

I have an html table with table-layout: fixed and a td with a set width. The column still expands to hold the contents of text that doesn't contain a space. Is there a way to fix this other than wrapping the contents of each td in a div?

Example: http://jsfiddle.net/6p9K3/29/

<table>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td style="width: 50px;">Test</td>
            <td>Testing 1123455</td>
        </tr><tr>
            <td style="width: 50px;">AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA</td>
            <td>B</td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

table
{
    table-layout: fixed;
}

td
{
    border: 1px solid green;
    overflow: hidden;
}

In the example, you can see that the column with AAAAAAAAAAAA... expands despite being explicitly set to 50px wide.

Upvotes: 127

Views: 404805

Answers (8)

MikeyMo
MikeyMo

Reputation: 105

This works for me

td::after { 
  content: ''; 
  display: block; 
  width: 30px;
}

Upvotes: -3

Alex
Alex

Reputation: 105

I would try setting it to:

max-width: 50px;

Upvotes: 0

PfunnyGuy
PfunnyGuy

Reputation: 928

You can also use percentages, and/or specify in the column headers:

<table width="300">  
  <tr>
    <th width="20%">Column 1</th>
    <th width="20%">Column 2</th>
    <th width="20%">Column 3</th>
    <th width="20%">Column 4</th>
    <th width="20%">Column 5</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <!--- row data -->
  </tr>
</table>

The bonus with percentages is lower code maintenance: you can change your table width without having to re-specify the column widths.

Caveat: It is my understanding that table width specified in pixels isn't supported in HTML 5; you need to use CSS instead.

Upvotes: 5

kelly johnson
kelly johnson

Reputation: 1636

Make the table rock solid BEFORE the css. Figure your width of the table, then use a 'controlling' row whereby each td has an explicit width, all of which add up to the width in the table tag.

Having to do hundreds html emails to work everywhere, using the correct HTML first, then styling w/css will work around many issues in all IE's, webkit's and mozillas.

so:

<table width="300" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <tr>
    <td width="50"></td>
    <td width="100"></td>
    <td width="150"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>your stuff</td>
    <td>your stuff</td>
    <td>your stuff</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Will keep a table at 300px wide. Watch images that are larger than the width by extremes

Upvotes: 18

Stefan Brendle
Stefan Brendle

Reputation: 1564

You can also work with "overflow: hidden" or "overflow-x: hidden" (for just the width). This requires a defined width (and/or height?) and maybe a "display: block" as well.

"Overflow:Hidden" hides the whole content, which does not fit into the defined box.

Example:

http://jsfiddle.net/NAJvp/

HTML:

<table border="1">
    <tr>
        <td><div>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa</div></td>
        <td>bbb</td>
        <td>cccc</td>
    </tr>
</table>

CSS:

td div { width: 100px; overflow-y: hidden; }

EDIT: Shame on me, I've seen, you already use "overflow". I guess it doesn't work, because you don't set "display: block" to your element ...

Upvotes: 3

Drew Anderson
Drew Anderson

Reputation: 542

Try looking into the following CSS: 

word-wrap:break-word;

Web browsers should not break-up "words" by default so what you are experiencing is normal behaviour of a browser. However you can override this with the word-wrap CSS directive.

You would need to set a width on the overall table then a width on the columns. "width:100%;" should also be OK depending on your requirements.

Using word-wrap may not be what you want however it is useful for showing all of the data without deforming the layout.

Upvotes: 26

Arie Xiao
Arie Xiao

Reputation: 14082

Specify the width of the table:

table
{
    table-layout: fixed;
    width: 100px;
}

See jsFiddle

Upvotes: 226

John Fisher
John Fisher

Reputation: 22721

You can add a div to the td, then style that. It should work as you expected.

<td><div>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA</div></td>

Then the css.

td div { width: 50px; overflow: hidden; }

Upvotes: 10

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