Table with 3 columns. Fixed center column width. How to have shared width on other two columns?

Question

i have a 100% width table with 3 columns. The center column must be 600px width. How can I have the other two equal width while using up the remaining space?

<table style="width: 100%">
    <tr>
        <td>left</td>
        <td style="width: 600px">center</td>
        <td>right</td>
    </tr>
</table>

Currently, depending on the content of left or right columns, they are always uneven. I have tried setting 50% width on the left and right as well as other numbers and min-width trials.

Please no jQuery/Javascript.

Answer 1

New answer to this old question.

1. Give the middle column th a max-width and min-width instead of width
2. Give the left and right th a width of 50%.
3. Don't give the table a width at all.

I have fixed this examples middle column width at 300px.

jsBin Example!

CSS

table {
    border-collapse: collapse;
}
th, td {
    border: solid 1px #CCC;
    padding: 10px;
}
.fixed {
    max-width: 300px;
    min-width: 300px;
}
.fluid {
        width: 50%;
}

HTML

<table>
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th class="fluid">First Column</th>
            <th class="fixed">Fixed Column</th>
            <th class="fluid">Third Column</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <td></td>
            <td></td>
            <td></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>