This property controls the layout algorithm used to render table structures.
Using the “automatic” layout algorithm (the table algorithm used by default in most browsers today), all of the table content is required in order to determine the final table layout. For larger quantities of tabular data, this can be MUCH slower than the “fixed” table layout algorithm, especially since more than one analysis might need to be performed on the table data. However, this algorithm does find sufficient minimum and maximum widths for each column, allowing all content in the table’s data cells to be appropriately rendered as specified by the author.
Under the “fixed” layout method, the entire table can be rendered once the first table row has been downloaded and analyzed. This can drastically speed up rendering time over the “automatic” layout method, but subsequent cell content may not fit in the column widths provided (the ‘clip’ and ‘overflow’ properties control the cell appearance in such a case.)
Example
table {
table-layout: fixed
}