I'm trying to make a simple header using a one-row table and hr elements - CSS

rossmcm
April 24, 2023
378 views
2 votes
4 Answers

Specifically, what I’m trying to achieve is this (try to imagine it without the table borders):

where:

the first column is fixed width and has a <hr> element the full column width.
the second column has the text of the title, and the column width expands to suit.
the third column has a width that uses all remaining table width and has a <hr> element the full column width.

I got this far:

<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="table-layout: fixed; width:100%;">
  <tr>
    <td style="width:40px;"><hr></td>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap;overflow: hidden;"><strong>Some Title</strong></td>
    <td style="width:90%"><hr></td>
  </tr>
</table>

but this plainly is only "correct" for one table width, and incorrect for all others:

How can I prevent column 2 from being overwritten by column 3, or force column 3 to only use as much width as it needs?

Answers

Changing table-layout: fixed to table-layout: auto and then adding a min-width: 40px to your first columns and width: 100% to your 3rd columns should do the trick.
Doing so, the last column will fill the available space.

One thing should be noted: Tables are "stiff", so as far as I know it’s not possible to give the 3rd column a different width for each row.

See the below example, where the 2nd column "pulls" away the 3rd column to fit the longest row:

<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="table-layout: auto; width:100%;">
  <tr>
    <td style="width:40px;min-width: 40px;"><hr></td>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap;overflow: hidden;"><strong>Some Title</strong></td>
    <td style="width:100%"><hr></td>
  </tr>
    <tr>
    <td style="width:40px;min-width: 40px;"><hr></td>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap;overflow: hidden;"><strong>Someas longer title</strong></td>
    <td style="width:100%"><hr></td>
  </tr>
    <tr>
    <td style="width:40px;min-width: 40px"><hr></td>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap;overflow: hidden;"><strong>Some very long title to show off</strong></td>
    <td style="width:100%"><hr></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Just add width: max-content; to the second column:

<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="table-layout: auto; width:100%;">
  <tr>
    <td style="width:40px;min-width:40px;"><hr></td>
    <td style="white-space: nowrap;overflow: hidden; width: max-content;"><strong>Some Title</strong></td>
    <td style="width: 100%;"><hr></td>
  </tr>
</table>

If you just want to create this effekt "header with line in background" variants like this one might be an alternative for responsive designs:

.MyH1 {
  position: relative;
 }
.MyH1 h1 {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 6rem;
  background-color: white;
}
.MyH1 hr {
  position: absolute;
  top: 2.2em;    /* has to fit to the padding + font-size of <h1> */
  width: 100%;
}

<div class="MyH1">
    <hr>
    <h1>Some Title</h1>
</div>

Using a table for this purpose is really inadequate semantically. Instead, you can use a flex container with three children and the following settings which will also solve your width problems:

.header1 {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
}

.header1>span {
  height: 2px;
  border-bottom: 2px solid #000;
}

.header1>span:first-child {
  flex: 0 0 40px;
}

.header1>h1 {
  padding: 0 10px;
}

.header1>span:last-child {
  flex-grow: 1;
}

<div class="header1">
  <span></span>
  <h1>Some Title</h1>
  <span></span>
</div>

If you want the horizontal lines higher, add position: relative and a bottom value to the spans:

.header1 {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
}

.header1>span {
  height: 2px;
  border-bottom: 2px solid #000;
  position: relative;
  bottom: 3px;
}

.header1>span:first-child {
  flex: 0 0 40px;
}

.header1>h1 {
  padding: 0 10px;
}

.header1>span:last-child {
  flex-grow: 1;
}

<div class="header1">
  <span></span>
  <h1>Some Title</h1>
  <span></span>
</div>

I recommend not using a <table> element for data that is not tabular (if you are showing tabular data in the <table>, and this is a heading for that <table>, then use the <caption> element to contain that heading).

So, instead of that table approach, I’d suggest the following, using a semantic <header> element along with CSS flex layout:

/* using the <header> element to contain the
   custom CSS properties for the 'line': */
header {
  --line-color: #aab;
  --line-size: 0.1rem;
  /* specifying flex-layout on the children: */
  display: flex;
  /* aligning those children to the start of
     the inline-axis (the horizontal axis in
     English, and the axis upon which inline
     elements are laid out): */
  justify-content: start;
}

/* using the pseudo-elements, ::before and
   ::after, to contain the horizontal line: */
header::before,
header::after {
  background-image:
  /* a linear gradient on a vertical axis, going
     downwards (180deg): */
    linear-gradient(
      180deg,
      /* the first color is transparent, and continues
         until the 50% point, minus half of the line-size,
         so the line is centered at 50% on the vertical
         axis: */
      transparent calc(50% - var(--line-size)/2),
      /* we then switch to the --line-color custom property,
         which starts 50% - minus half the line-size and
         continues until a point at 50% plus half the line-size: */
      var(--line-color) calc(50% - var(--line-size)/2) calc(50% + var(--line-size)/2),
      /* and then switching back to transparent: */
      transparent calc(50% + var(--line-size)/2));
  content: '';
}

header::before {
  /* this gives the 'inset' size of the <h1> element,
     adjust to your preference: */
  flex-basis: 4rem;
}

header::after {
  /* this causes the ::after element to expand to take
     up all available space on the line: */
  flex-grow: 1;
}

h1 {
  padding-inline: 1rem;
}

<header>
  <h1>Title content</h1>
</header>

JS Fiddle demo.

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I'm trying to make a simple header using a one-row table and hr elements – CSS

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