How Can I Limit Table Column Width? - Stack Overflow

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Learn more about Labs How can I limit table column width? Ask Question Asked 13 years, 3 months ago Modified 5 years, 11 months ago Viewed 187k times 100

One of the columns in my table can contain a long text without whitespaces. How can I limit its width to, say, 150px? I don't want it to be 150px always (if it's empty it should be narrow), but if there is a long text I want it to be limited with 150px and the text to be wrapped.

Here is a test example: http://jsfiddle.net/Kh378/ (let's limit the 3rd column).

Thank you in advance.

Update: Setting this styles:

word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 150px;

does not work in IE8 (tested on different computers) and I suppose it does not work in any version of IE.

• html
• css
• internet-explorer
• css-tables

Share Improve this question Follow edited Jan 20, 2019 at 10:29 Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩 5,8757272 gold badges6161 silver badges133133 bronze badges asked Sep 14, 2011 at 2:56 nightcodernightcoder 13.5k1818 gold badges6767 silver badges7373 bronze badges 5

• As this question is almost three years old and it currently does not have a bounty, I was wondering whether it still needs an answer? – Frank Conijn - Support Ukraine Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 22:14
• 1 The question was answered in another StackOverflow thread. In short, you should just use width instead of max-width. – Mikhail Larionov Commented Dec 30, 2014 at 0:08
• 1 @Frank Conijn, Yes, it does! :) – nightcoder Commented Mar 11, 2016 at 19:38
• That 2 years later reply though – Developer Commented Feb 16, 2017 at 16:06
• The answer won't change, so the age does not matter :) – Reversed Engineer Commented Jun 7, 2017 at 15:19

Add a comment |

7 Answers 7

Sorted by: Reset to default Highest score (default) Trending (recent votes count more) Date modified (newest first) Date created (oldest first) 101

Updated

On the table's td and th tags I added:

word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 150px;

Not fully compatible in every browser but a start.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Sep 14, 2011 at 3:01 BrandonBrandon 2,11544 gold badges2525 silver badges3333 bronze badges 2

• 1 Unfortunately, it doesn't work in IE8 (and I suppose it does not work in any version of IE...). – nightcoder Commented Sep 14, 2011 at 3:19
• 2 Can this be done as a percentage, because it only takes effect as px on my end... – User Commented Oct 28, 2018 at 18:09

Add a comment | 15

You need to use width instead.

<table> <thead> <tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Age</th> <th style="width: 150px;"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> </tbody> </table>

But just in the <thead> section.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 26, 2017 at 18:53 answered Aug 14, 2015 at 21:09 Carlos ToledoCarlos Toledo 2,6552626 silver badges2525 bronze badges 2

• 4 What if you don't have a <thead> section? – Timmmm Commented May 18, 2020 at 10:08
• just in case anyone wonders what to do without a <thead>, you can use column element: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/col or just set width on the first row's td. – Long Nguyen Commented May 17 at 4:45

Add a comment | 8

You should be able to style your column with:

max-width: 150px; word-wrap: break-word;

Note that word-wrap is supported in IE 5.5+, Firefox 3.5+, and WebKit browsers (Chrome and Safari).

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Aug 27, 2017 at 19:40 Taylor D. Edmiston 13k66 gold badges5858 silver badges7676 bronze badges answered Sep 14, 2011 at 3:03 isNaN1247isNaN1247 18.1k1313 gold badges7474 silver badges119119 bronze badges 1

• See this in more detail, especially the max-width and (currently) the problems there, in the similar/equivalent solution this page stackoverflow.com/a/24620364/2255628 – Destiny Architect Commented Jul 7, 2014 at 21:54

Add a comment | 5

After some experimentation in Chrome I came to the following:

• if your table has a <th> that should have either a "width" or a "max-width" set
• the <td>'s must have set a "max-width" and "word-wrap: break-word;"

If you use a "width" in the <th> its value will be used. If you use a "max-width" in the <th> the "max-width" value of the <td>'s is used instead.

So this functionality is quite complex. And I didn't even study tables without headers or without long strings that need a "break-word".

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Oct 11, 2017 at 7:48 answered Oct 10, 2017 at 18:34 user2587656user2587656 41944 silver badges77 bronze badges 1

• Can I have a reference of this? – Ziyuan Commented Aug 18, 2023 at 14:38

Add a comment | 3

there is an option to simulate max-width:

simulateMaxWidth: function() { this.$el.find('th').css('width', ''); // clear all the width values for every header cell this.$el.find('th').each(function(ind, th) { var el = $(th); var maxWidth = el.attr('max-width'); if (maxWidth && el.width() > maxWidth) { el.css('width', maxWidth + 'px'); } }); }

this function can be called on $(window).on('resize', ...) multiple times

this.$el

represents parent element, in my case I have marionette

for those th elements which should have max-width, there should be a max-width attribute like:

<th max-width="120"> Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jun 28, 2016 at 10:12 user2846569user2846569 2,83222 gold badges2525 silver badges2525 bronze badges Add a comment | 1

1) Specify width for each column in <th> according to your need.

2) Add word wrap for each <td> in <tr> of the <table>.

word-wrap: break-word; Share Improve this answer Follow edited Aug 27, 2017 at 19:14 Taylor D. Edmiston 13k66 gold badges5858 silver badges7676 bronze badges answered May 9, 2017 at 11:43 Amay KulkarniAmay Kulkarni 8281414 silver badges1616 bronze badges Add a comment | -7

it's very easy

You could add attributes like these

max-width

max-height

They can be set in html as an attribute or in CSS as a style

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Oct 11, 2017 at 8:07 KanoKano 311 bronze badge Add a comment |

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