Setting Table Column Width - Html - Stack Overflow

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Learn more about Labs Setting table column width Ask Question Asked 15 years, 6 months ago Modified 1 year ago Viewed 889k times 352

I've got a simple table that is used for an inbox as follows:

<table border="1"> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

How do I set the width so the From and Date are 15% of the page width and the Subject is 70%. I also want the table to take up the whole page width.

• html
• css
• html-table

Share Improve this question Follow edited Mar 13, 2022 at 12:08 Alberto 12.8k33 gold badges2727 silver badges6363 bronze badges asked May 30, 2009 at 2:41 alamodeyalamodey 14.9k2525 gold badges8888 silver badges116116 bronze badges Add a comment |

13 Answers 13

Sorted by: Reset to default Highest score (default) Trending (recent votes count more) Date modified (newest first) Date created (oldest first) 566

You can set the width of a table column using the CSS width property of the col element. The width value is most commonly specified in pixels (width: 200px;), or as a percentage of the width of the parent element (width: 50%;). Example with inline style attribute:

<table style="width: 100%"> <colgroup> <col span="1" style="width: 15%;"> <col span="1" style="width: 70%;"> <col span="1" style="width: 15%;"> </colgroup> <!-- Put <thead>, <tbody>, and <tr>'s here! --> <tbody> <tr> <td style="background-color: #777">15%</td> <td style="background-color: #aaa">70%</td> <td style="background-color: #777">15%</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Nov 12, 2023 at 0:37 answered May 30, 2009 at 2:48 Gordon GustafsonGordon Gustafson 41.1k2525 gold badges118118 silver badges159159 bronze badges 13

• 10 Like the cleanliness of this solution. However, please close out the col e.g <col span="1" style="width: 15%;" /> or <col span="1" style="width: 15%;"></col> – lsu_guy Commented Aug 25, 2013 at 0:22
• 40 @Isu_guy you only close <col> when using XHTML -- in HTML, <col> tag has no closing... see link for more info. In HTML5, <col> is a void element, meaning it MUST NOT be closed – Matija Nalis Commented Aug 31, 2013 at 14:22
• 5 @Zulu according to w3schools.com/tags/att_col_width.asp "The <col> width attribute is not supported in HTML5." – Caltor Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 13:46
• 53 @Caltor: the code is not using the <col> width attribute; it is using a CSS *style* width, which is what replaced the <col> width attribute. (despite the multiple people up-voting that comment!!) – ToolmakerSteve Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 19:02
• 17 span="1" is superfluous since 1 is the default. – Madbreaks Commented Jan 4, 2017 at 21:28

| Show 8 more comments 177

table { width: 100%; border: 1px solid #000; } th.from, th.date { width: 15% } th.subject { width: 70%; /* Not necessary, since only 70% width remains */ } <table> <thead> <tr> <th class="from">From</th> <th class="subject">Subject</th> <th class="date">Date</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>[from]</td> <td>[subject]</td> <td>[date]</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

The best practice is to keep your HTML and CSS separate for less code duplication, and for separation of concerns (HTML for structure and semantics, and CSS for presentation).

Note that, for this to work in older versions of Internet Explorer, you may have to give your table a specific width (e.g., 900px). That browser has some problems rendering an element with percentage dimensions if its wrapper doesn't have exact dimensions.

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Jul 5, 2020 at 21:13 Ahmad Shahbaz 22222 gold badges55 silver badges2020 bronze badges answered May 30, 2009 at 2:47 Ron DeVeraRon DeVera 14.6k66 gold badges4242 silver badges3636 bronze badges 4

• 1 this solution fails if you have colspans in the first row – mark1234 Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 15:52
• 8 Good because <col width=""> is obsolete in HTML5: developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/HTML/Element/col – Richard Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 12:19
• I had to use min-width. – Paul John Leonard Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 22:46
• I had to use min-width instead of width for it to work, but overall great, thanks. – K.Mat Commented Oct 13, 2022 at 9:35

Add a comment | 42

Use the CSS below, the first declaration will ensure your table sticks to the widths you provide (you'll need to add the classes in your HTML):

table{ table-layout:fixed; } th.from, th.date { width: 15%; } th.subject{ width: 70%; } Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jun 14, 2011 at 13:40 PetePete 1,0441111 silver badges77 bronze badges 2

• Actually you only need to specify width of the two columns. The third one will be calculated automatically, so table{table-layout:fixed};.from,.date{width:15%} is enough. Unless the classes are used on other elements too, writing th.from is redundant and can be shortened to just .from. – tomasz86 Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 1:44
• 1 Oh my, this table-layout: fixed is a real gotcha! This answer should really be higher up. – corwin.amber Commented Jul 18, 2021 at 20:35

Add a comment | 19

Alternative way with just one class while keeping your styles in a CSS file, which even works in IE7:

<table class="mytable"> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table> <style> .mytable td, .mytable th { width:15%; } .mytable td + td, .mytable th + th { width:70%; } .mytable td + td + td, .mytable th + th + th { width:15%; } </style>

More recently, you can also use the nth-child() selector from CSS3 (IE9+), where you'd just put the nr. of the respective column into the parenthesis instead of stringing them together with the adjacent selector. Like this, for example:

<style> .mytable tr > *:nth-child(1) { width:15%; } .mytable tr > *:nth-child(2) { width:70%; } .mytable tr > *:nth-child(3) { width:15%; } </style> Share Improve this answer Follow edited Sep 23, 2014 at 12:21 answered Oct 11, 2013 at 10:49 DanManDanMan 11.5k44 gold badges4242 silver badges6161 bronze badges 6

• The proposed :nth-child solution is horrible in terms of performance. There is no valid reason to use it (especially with the universal selector) in this example where there are only three elements (th or col) to style. Additionally, you only need to set width to the th in the first row. The .mytable td in the first example is redundant. – tomasz86 Commented Apr 25, 2016 at 16:29
• 2 "The proposed :nth-child solution is horrible in terms of performance." - citation needed. – DanMan Commented Apr 25, 2016 at 21:10
• This should be enough: Efficiently Rendering CSS. With your use of the universal selector the browser will first check ALL elements whether they are nth child of another element, then if their direct parent is tr and then whether they belong to .mytable. If you really want to use "nth" then something like this will probably be much better: .mytable th:nth-of-type(1) {width: 15%}; .mytable th:nth-of-type(2) {width: 70%};. There is also no need to specify the third column width in this case. – tomasz86 Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 1:27
• Personally I would use classes or just .mytable th+th{width: 70%}.mytable th+th+th{width:15%}. The "nth" selectors themselves may be very useful but in this particular case (a tiny table with only 3 columns) are not really needed. When using table-layout: fixed you can even do just this: table{table-layout:fixed}th:first-child+th{width:70%}. – tomasz86 Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 2:23
• I'm aware of that. But those articles are from years back, and there are bigger problems today that CSS selectors, like huge amounts of images and JS code. – DanMan Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 19:58

| Show 1 more comment 15

These are my two suggestions.

1. Using classes. There is no need to specify width of the two other columns as they will be set to 15% each automatically by the browser.

   table { table-layout: fixed; } .subject { width: 70%; } <table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th class="subject">Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

2. Without using classes. Three different methods but the result is identical.

   a)

   table { table-layout: fixed; } th+th { width: 70%; } th+th+th { width: 15%; } <table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

   b)

   table { table-layout: fixed; } th:nth-of-type(2) { width: 70%; } <table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

   c) This one is my favourite. Same as b) but with better browser support.

   table { table-layout: fixed; } th:first-child+th { width: 70%; } <table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

Share Improve this answer Follow edited Apr 26, 2016 at 2:32 Mogsdad 45.7k2121 gold badges160160 silver badges283283 bronze badges answered Apr 26, 2016 at 2:14 tomasz86tomasz86 9091010 silver badges99 bronze badges Add a comment | 9

Add colgroup after your table tag. Define width and number of columns here, and add the tbody tag. Put your tr inside of tbody.

<table> <colgroup> <col span="1" style="width: 30%;"> <col span="1" style="width: 70%;"> </colgroup> <tbody> <tr> <td>First column</td> <td>Second column</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Share Improve this answer Follow edited Dec 28, 2021 at 18:00 kunigami 3,04644 gold badges2727 silver badges4242 bronze badges answered Mar 7, 2019 at 6:24 Abdus Salam AzadAbdus Salam Azad 5,4425050 silver badges3636 bronze badges 1

• colgroup seems to only works when you set table-layout: "fixed" on the table using css. You also dont need the styles on the col. Afterwards, you specify the width as the colspan on the individual td cells eg <td colspan="3"></td> – Gilbert Commented May 27 at 21:33

Add a comment | 5

Depending on your body (or the div which is wrapping your table) 'settings' you should be able to do this:

body { width: 98%; } table { width: 100%; } th { border: 1px solid black; } th.From, th.Date { width: 15%; } th.Date { width: 70%; } <table> <thead> <tr> <th class="From">From</th> <th class="Subject">Subject</th> <th class="Date">Date</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Me</td> <td>Your question</td> <td>5/30/2009 2:41:40 AM UTC</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Demo

Share Improve this answer Follow edited May 30, 2009 at 2:54 answered May 30, 2009 at 2:49 Boris GuéryBoris Guéry 47.6k88 gold badges5555 silver badges8888 bronze badges Add a comment | 5 <table> <col width="130"> <col width="80"> <tr> <th>Month</th> <th>Savings</th> </tr> <tr> <td>January</td> <td>$100</td> </tr> <tr> <td>February</td> <td>$80</td> </tr> </table>

Demo

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jan 28, 2015 at 9:35 Srinivas ErukullaSrinivas Erukulla 8111 silver badge66 bronze badges 2

• 9 The col width attribute is not supported in HTML5. – Rune Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 10:51
• width attribute is indeed deprecated, still you can use width in CSS style as replacement. – nouveu Commented Aug 31 at 16:12

Add a comment | 5

Try this instead.

<table style="width: 100%"> <tr> <th style="width: 20%"> column 1 </th> <th style="width: 40%"> column 2 </th> <th style="width: 40%"> column 3 </th> </tr> <tr> <td style="width: 20%"> value 1 </td> <td style="width: 40%"> value 2 </td> <td style="width: 40%"> value 3 </td> </tr> </table> Share Improve this answer Follow edited Feb 6, 2016 at 9:18 answered Jul 4, 2014 at 9:31 MilanMilan 3,01311 gold badge2626 silver badges2828 bronze badges Add a comment | 5

table { table-layout: fixed; } .subject { width: 70%; } <table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th class="subject">Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> </table>

Share Improve this answer Follow answered Aug 24, 2016 at 2:46 Hector DavidHector David 5111 silver badge22 bronze badges Add a comment | 4

Here's another minimal way to do it in CSS that works even in older browsers that do not support :nth-child and the like selectors: http://jsfiddle.net/3wZWt/.

HTML:

<table> <tr> <th>From</th> <th>Subject</th> <th>Date</th> </tr> <tr> <td>Dmitriy</td> <td>Learning CSS</td> <td>7/5/2014</td> </tr> </table>

CSS:

table { border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; } tr > * { border: 1px solid #000; } tr > th + th { width: 70%; } tr > th + th + th { width: 15%; } Share Improve this answer Follow answered Jul 5, 2014 at 5:20 DRDDRD 5,7951616 silver badges1515 bronze badges Add a comment | 3

Don't use the border attribute, use CSS for all your styling needs.

<table style="border:1px; width:100%;"> <tr> <th style="width:15%;">From</th> <th style="width:70%;">Subject</th> <th style="width:15%;">Date</th> </tr> ... rest of the table code... </table>

But embedding CSS like that is poor practice - one should use CSS classes instead, and put the CSS rules in an external CSS file.

Share Improve this answer Follow answered May 30, 2009 at 2:49 Etienne PerotEtienne Perot 4,87688 gold badges4242 silver badges5050 bronze badges 1

• 1 I would suspect that the example code the OP and helpful stackoverflowians posted was for legibility and simplicity's sake, by no means an encouragement for inline styles. – Tass Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 20:58

Add a comment | -3 style="column-width:300px;white-space: normal;" Share Improve this answer Follow edited Sep 20, 2018 at 20:27 jwheron 2,56222 gold badges3030 silver badges4040 bronze badges answered Sep 20, 2018 at 18:26 Wut WorawitWut Worawit 5 1

• Hi - welcome to Stack Overflow. In general, answers with text (instead of just code) and some explanation are viewed as better than just code-only answers. Since this question is older and has a lot of other answers, they may help guide you in future answers. – jwheron Commented Sep 20, 2018 at 20:27

Add a comment |

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