How can I truncate long texts in a table using CSS?

Question

Can anyone give a CSS example of how can I create a table where long texts are truncated to texts ending with "..."?

Here is the example: http://jsfiddle.net/NpABe/

<table>
    <tr>
        <td>aaaa</td>
        <td>ssssssss</td>
        <td>dddddddddddd</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>ffffffffffffffff</td>
        <td>gggggggggggggggggggg</td>
        <td>hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj</td>
        <td>kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk</td>
        <td>llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll</td>
    </tr>
</table>

Answer 1

Use text-overflow: ellipsis. You will need to fix the width of the cells and prevent line wrapping:

td {   width: 100px;   white-space: nowrap;   overflow: hidden;   text-overflow: ellipsis; } 

EDIT: actually this won't work. It seems you need a container div to apply the styles to:

<table>   <tr>     <td><div>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa</div</td> (snip) 

And then:

 td div {    width: 100px;    white-space: nowrap;    overflow: hidden;             text-overflow: ellipsis;  } 

EDIT 2 Ah there is a way, but only if you use table-layout: fixed:

table {   table-layout: fixed;   width: 100px; }  td {   white-space: nowrap;   overflow: hidden;         /* <- this does seem to be required */   text-overflow: ellipsis; } 

Answer 2

2021 UPDATE - PURE CSS WORKING VERSION

The accepted answer wasn't doing the trick for me...

The ONLY way to do it without specifying a min-width is achieved by using line-clamp.

.clamp {
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
  display: -webkit-box;
  -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
  line-clamp: 1;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 1;
}
.clamp-2 {
  line-clamp: 2!important;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 2!important;
}
.clamp-3 {
  line-clamp: 3!important;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 3!important;
}

As IE is (Finally) dying-off, and being replaced by Edge, support is now (nearly) global at 96-ish %.

IE support can be achieved by specifying a max-height based on line-height and overflow-y: hidden.

---

Example

.clamp {
  overflow: hidden;
  text-overflow: ellipsis;
  display: -webkit-box;
  -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
  line-clamp: 1;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 1;
}
.clamp-2 {
  line-clamp: 2!important;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 2!important;
}
.clamp-3 {
  line-clamp: 3!important;
  -webkit-line-clamp: 3!important;
}

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th scope="col">Title</th>
      <th scope="col">Context</th>
      <th scope="col">Date</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>

  <tr>
    <th scope="row">French Revolution</th>
    <td class="clamp clamp-3"><span style="color:red;">Clamp 3 lines</span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.
    </td>
    <td>1789</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <th scope="row">First Republic</th>
    <td class="clamp clamp-2"><span style="color:red;">Clamp 2 lines</span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</td>
    <td class="text-center text-decoration-line-through">1792</td>
  </tr>

  <tr>
    <th scope="row">Star Wars: A New Hope</th>
    <td class="clamp clamp-1"><span style="color:red;">Clamp 1 lines</span> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</td>
    <td>1977</td>
  </tr>

  </tbody>
</table>

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Learn more

• Caniuse @ https://caniuse.com/#search=line-clamp
• Codepen @ https://codepen.io/amarinediary/full/wvoKdzO