# How to Have 46 Characters Show up In A Table Cell

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 19, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914 "2008-06-19T20:10:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/1 "2008-06-19T20:10:53Z")

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So I have a background primarily in server side + basic front end. I  
dont know if this is very relevant to rails or if I should ask some  
design forum (if you know any please share!) My client however has an  
unusual request. He wants to have 46 characters show up in a table cell.  
This means he wants to have 46 letters show up in a table cell. How do I  
define that for a table cell?

I am guessing 46 px for width would not do, right?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 8:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/2 "2008-06-19T20:53:41Z")

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_That’s not really a Ruby question, now, is  
it?_

🙂

2008/6/19 Ather S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/3 "2008-06-19T21:01:04Z")

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Yes please accept my apologies again but I mentioned it because there  
are more web designers in the ror community than anywhere else (in the  
java community for example).

Bryan JJ Buckley wrote:

> _That’s not really a Ruby question, now, is  
> it?_
> 
> 🙂
> 
> 2008/6/19 Ather S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid):

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/4 "2008-06-19T21:06:39Z")

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- Ather S., 2008-06-20, 03:09:

> So I have a background primarily in server side + basic front end. I  
> dont know if this is very relevant to rails or if I should ask some  
> design forum (if you know any please share!) My client however has an  
> unusual request. He wants to have 46 characters show up in a table  
> cell. This means he wants to have 46 letters show up in a table cell.  
> How do I define that for a table cell?
> 
> I am guessing 46 px for width would not do, right?

fixed-width font and 46em should do ^^

Josef ‘Jupp’ Schugt

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/5 "2008-06-19T22:28:14Z")

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Josef ‘Jupp’ Schugt wrote:

> - Ather S., 2008-06-20, 03:09:
> 
> > So I have a background primarily in server side + basic front end. I  
> > dont know if this is very relevant to rails or if I should ask some  
> > design forum (if you know any please share!) My client however has an  
> > unusual request. He wants to have 46 characters show up in a table  
> > cell. This means he wants to have 46 letters show up in a table cell.  
> > How do I define that for a table cell?
> > 
> > I am guessing 46 px for width would not do, right?
> 
> fixed-width font and 46em should do ^^
> 
> Josef ‘Jupp’ Schugt

I tried 46em as width tag of the table td tag but sometimes its ok and  
sometimes its really narrow. I had to end up usign 350px ; where could I  
get an understanding of why this is happening?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e19adc/32.png) [@ror\_arch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ror_arch)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 10:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-have-46-characters-show-up-in-a-table-cell/140914/6 "2008-06-19T22:52:15Z")

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I usually use HTML dog as a reference:  
[http://htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/table-layout/](http://htmldog.com/reference/cssproperties/table-layout/)  
There are probably better write-ups on this somewhere, though.