How to work with ellipsis in bootstrap responsive table

Question

In a responsive table text-overflow:ellipsis is not working when the data increases in the th (as the col-xs-2 width increases).

Code below:

<link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">

<div class="table-responsive">
  <table class="table">
    <thead>
      <tr>
        <th class="col-xs-2" style="text-overflow: ellipsis;">Lorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem Ipsum</th>
        <th class="col-xs-1">Firstname</th>
        <th class="col-xs-1"> Lastname</th>
        <th class="col-xs-4">Age</th>
        <th class="col-xs-2">City</th>
        <th class="col-xs-2">Country</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td>1</td>
        <td>Anna</td>
        <td>Pitt</td>
        <td>35</td>
        <td>New York</td>
        <td>USA</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>

Answer 1

The text-overflow property only affects content that is overflowing a block container element in its inline progression direction MDN

For text-overflow to work, specifying text-overflow: ellipsis alone will not do any good - you should use the following styles together:

overflow: hidden;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;

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

<span>Inline element overflow ellipsis do not work</span>
<div>Block elements overflow ellipsis works</div>
<table>
  <tr><th>Table - Overflow test</th></tr>
  <tr><td>This is a long text</td><td>This is a long text</td></tr>
</table>

---

Text Overflow in Table Layout

So text-overflow applies to block elements but td is a table-cell element - tables are always tricky to deal with because they are rendered using the default table layout algorithm. The widths of the table and its cells are adjusted to fit their content.

1. Normally specifying the usual property for getting ellipsis may work:

   overflow: hidden;
   white-space: nowrap;
   text-overflow: ellipsis;
   

2. If they do not work or you begin to see the table algorithm do tricks on you, then you can use them along with max-width: 0

   overflow: hidden;
   white-space: nowrap;
   text-overflow: ellipsis;
   max-width: 0;
   

   .table .text {
     overflow: hidden;
     white-space: nowrap;
     text-overflow: ellipsis;
     max-width: 0;
   }

   <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
     <div class="table-responsive">
       <table class="table">
         <thead>
           <tr>
             <th class="col-xs-2 text">
             Lorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem Ipsum
             </th>
             <th class="col-xs-1">Firstname</th>
             <th class="col-xs-1">Lastname</th>
             <th class="col-xs-4">Age</th>
             <th class="col-xs-2">City</th>
             <th class="col-xs-2">Country</th>
           </tr>
         </thead>
         <tbody>
           <tr>
             <td>1</td>
             <td>Anna</td>
             <td>Pitt</td>
             <td>35</td>
             <td>New York</td>
             <td>USA</td>
           </tr>
         </tbody>
       </table>
     </div>

3. Another hack is to wrap the text in a span positioned absolute inside the td with width: 100% along with an inline-block pseudo element.

   .table .text {
     position: relative;
   }
   
   .table .text span {
     overflow: hidden;
     white-space: nowrap;
     text-overflow: ellipsis;
     position: absolute;
     width: 100%;
   }
   
   .text:before {
     content: '';
     display: inline-block;
   }

   <link href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet">
     <div class="table-responsive">
       <table class="table">
         <thead>
           <tr>
             <th class="col-xs-2 text">
               <span>
             Lorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem IpsumLorem Ipsum</span>
             </th>
             <th class="col-xs-1">Firstname</th>
             <th class="col-xs-1">Lastname</th>
             <th class="col-xs-4">Age</th>
             <th class="col-xs-2">City</th>
             <th class="col-xs-2">Country</th>
           </tr>
         </thead>
         <tbody>
           <tr>
             <td>1</td>
             <td>Anna</td>
             <td>Pitt</td>
             <td>35</td>
             <td>New York</td>
             <td>USA</td>
           </tr>
         </tbody>
       </table>
     </div>

Answer 2

As of Bootstrap 4 you can do the following using the .text-truncate class.

<th class="col-xs-2 d-inline-block text-truncate" style="max-width: 150px;">

More details found at https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/utilities/text/#text-wrapping-and-overflow

Answer 3

With Bootstrap 4, you can use the .text-truncate class. It automatically adds these styles for the relevant components.

.text-truncate{
    overflow: hidden;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    white-space: nowrap;
}

then you can set the max-width for the element to get more reliable output.

Answer 4

Another suggestion for bootstrap 4:

Github Docs

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