table-layout property

Sets or retrieves a string that indicates whether the table layout is fixed.

CSS 2.1, Section 17.5.2Internet Explorer 9

 

Syntax

table-layout: auto | fixed

Property values

A variable of type String that specifies or receives one of the following values:

auto

Default. Column width is set by the widest unbreakable content in the column cells.

fixed

Table and column widths are set either by the sum of the widths on the col objects or, if these are not specified, by the width of the first row of cells. If no width is specified for the table, it renders by default with width=100%.

CSS information

Applies ToAll elements
Mediavisual
Inheritedno
Initial Valueauto

Standards information

Remarks

You can optimize table rendering performance by specifying the table-layout property. This property causes the table to be rendered one row at a time, providing users with information at a faster pace. The table-layout property determines column widths for a table in the following order:

  1. By using information in the width property for the col or colGroup element.
  2. By using information in the width property for the td elements in the first row.
  3. By dividing the table columns equally, regardless of the size of the content.

If the content of a cell exceeds the fixed width of the column, the content is wrapped or, if wrapping is not possible, it is clipped. If the table-layout property is set to fixed, the overflow property can be used to handle content that exceeds the width of a td element. If the row height is specified, wrapped text is clipped when it exceeds the set height.

Setting the property to fixed significantly improves table rendering speed, particularly for longer tables.

Setting row height further improves rendering speed, again enabling the parser to begin rendering the row without examining the content of each cell in the row to determine row height.

Examples

This example uses the CSS table-layout attribute to set the table layout to fixed.

HTML
Copy 

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <title>table-layout</title>
</head>
<body>
  <table style="table-layout: fixed;">
    <tr>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
      <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>

See also

CSSStyleDeclaration
currentStyle
runtimeStyle
style
Reference
width
Conceptual
Enhancing Table Presentation

 

 

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