HTML table last td to take remaining width

Question

I have a table with one TR and 2 TD\'s. I want the first TD to adjust width automatically depending on its content, and the second TD to use up the remainder of the width.

Answer 1

You can give the first td a small width, e.g. 1px, with white-space: nowrap;

table {
  width: 100%;
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
  border: 1px solid red;
}
td:first-child {
  width: 1px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>short content</td>
    <td>long content</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Or, give the last td a large width, e.g. 100%.

table {
  width: 100%;
  border-collapse: collapse;
}
td {
  border: 1px solid red;
}
td:first-child {
  white-space: nowrap;
}
td:last-child {
  width: 100%;
}

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>short content</td>
    <td>long content</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Answer 2

Setting white-space: nowrap on all cells except for the last one, and giving the last one 100% width, worked for me:

    td:not(:last-child), th:not(:last-child) {
      white-space: nowrap;
    }

    td:last-child, th:last-child {
      width: 100%;
    }

This will make sure that text wrapping still works while still filling the table when space is available.