html设置锚元素,如何限制锚HTML元素（<a> tag)?

I am trying to limit the width of an A html element which so it would be snortened and avoid taking too much space on screen.

At this moment I do not have the flexibility of changing the structure of the document so I am looking for a pure CSS solution.

I tried this but it didn't had any effect, the text still takes all the space available.

a.data {

color: red;

text-overflow: ellipsis;

width: 4ch;

max-width: 4ch;

overflow: hidden;

}

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and some other text