How To Make A Table With Equal Column Widths In CSS?

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Learn more about Labs How to make a table with equal column widths in CSS? Ask Question Asked 10 years, 11 months ago Modified 1 year, 11 months ago Viewed 158k times 90

I have a document containing a table like this:

<table> <tr> <td> Word </td> <td> Definition </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Word </td> <td> Definition </td> </tr> <tr> <td> Word </td> <td> Definition </td> </tr> </table>

Using CSS, I need to set all of the cells to 50% width, with text in the left "column" being right-aligned and text in the left column being left-aligned. I've tried many different options, e.g. width: 50%; text-align: left, but the results are always unusual. The results should look like this:

_________________________ | word | definition | |____________|____________| | word | definition | |____________|____________|

• I cannot adjust the table's actual code directly. I can only modify the CSS style.
• The answer in Make columns of equal width in <table> is not suitable, because I do not know the width of the page, and that width might vary.

How can I set equal-width cells in a two-column table in CSS with everything aligned to the middle?

• html
• css
• html-table

Share Improve this question Follow edited Nov 11, 2018 at 10:00 Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩 5,8757272 gold badges6161 silver badges133133 bronze badges asked Feb 1, 2014 at 7:58 VillageVillage 24.3k5151 gold badges127127 silver badges167167 bronze badges 4

• 1 Do you have a fiddle with your attempts? Setting fixed widths and the text alignment on the cells should work – helion3 Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 8:00
• 17 Use table-layout: fixed; – Mr. Alien Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 8:01
• 50% width always works on cells, I'm guessing your problem is really with the table not being 100% in width. – slash197 Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 8:03
• Oh, I see. I had put padding on the outsides and between the cells. Also, some text that has really long words was pushing some tables to not be 50%/50%. – Village Commented Feb 1, 2014 at 8:35

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3 Answers 3

Sorted by: Reset to default Highest score (default) Trending (recent votes count more) Date modified (newest first) Date created (oldest first) 176

You can set table-layout: fixed; on your table. Using this you can override the browser's automatic column resizing. Then column widths will be set based on the widths that you assign to the cells in the first row.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Jan 29, 2023 at 3:38 Cam Jackson 12.3k88 gold badges4747 silver badges7979 bronze badges answered Feb 1, 2014 at 8:04 TechGuyTechGuy 4,5601515 gold badges5959 silver badges9494 bronze badges 2

• 1 MDN link: developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/table-layout – Flimm Commented Jan 13, 2021 at 14:18
• This doesn't work for me with a dynamic width: width: auto. It has to be a static value. – RokeJulianLockhart Commented Aug 14, 2024 at 22:52

Add a comment | 49

I had the same issue in one of my projects, however it got fixed when I combined both the solutions above (Thanks to them). Here is my code snippet :

.Table{ width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; } Share Improve this answer Follow answered Nov 27, 2018 at 5:42 Mazhar MIKMazhar MIK 1,1721313 silver badges1414 bronze badges Add a comment | 31

The table should have width: 100% property. See example here

table{ width: 100%; border-collapse:collapse; } td{ width: 50%; text-align: left; border: 1px solid black; }

About the text alignment you said two different things:

Using CSS, I need to set all of the cells to 50% width, with text in the left "column" being right-aligned and text in the left column being left-aligned.

and then

How can I set equal-width cells in a two-column table in CSS with everything aligned to the middle?

If the first is what you want and you cannot change your HTML you can use td:first-child to style your first column differently.

If the second is your best option, just change the text-align value to center.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Feb 1, 2014 at 9:25 answered Feb 1, 2014 at 8:04 Itay GalItay Gal 10.8k66 gold badges4242 silver badges7777 bronze badges 2

• 24 What if I have a dynamic number of columns? – Shimmy Weitzhandler Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 20:10
• override this property and set it using javascript with the average when you are rendering them – Jackal Commented Aug 28, 2020 at 12:55

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