What is the widest a table column can be?

My attempt to establish a maximum width for a column in a table failed, as all cells in that column did not adhere to the same maximum width. Here's what I tried initially:

<table border="1">
    <tr><td style="max-width:100px">a bunch of text here, it should get wrapped</td></tr>
    <tr><td>a bunch of text here, it should get wrapped</td></tr>
</table>

(You can also view this at http://jsfiddle.net/Le6H6/4/)

I anticipated that specifying the maximum width for one cell would automatically apply it to all cells in the same column. Yet, the cell in the second row exceeded the set maximum width, leaving both cells wider than intended.

I have two questions:

  1. Why did this occur?
  2. I understand that setting the max width on every cell in the column individually or through CSS can achieve my desired outcome. But is there a method to set the maximum width for the entire column without altering each cell individually?

Answer №1

1) The reason for this occurrence is due to the inherent nature of HTML tables. The table will adjust its size based on the maximum cell width, which actually makes logical sense upon further consideration.

2) While there are potential workarounds available, none of them align with your specific requirement of applying a single style to a single cell.

We apologize if this response does not fully meet your expectations. :/

Answer №2

It is not possible to apply max-width to an entire table as it can only be applied to individual cells. You can achieve the desired formatting by using <div> specifically for the cell, or by applying it to the <table> element.

Consider the following example:

<table border="1" style="max-width:100px;">
    <tr>
        <td>a bunch of text here, it should get wrapped</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>a bunch of text here, it should get wrapped</td>
    </tr>
</table>

You can also achieve this using CSS:

tr td { max-width: 100px; }

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