Html table: keep the same width for columns

Digging the table behavior

Remember, your computer is not psychic. Browsers will have their own flavorful way of manipulating column widths. Understand these key behaviors:

• Auto resize: Surprise, surprise! By default, columns flex to accommodate content size. May lead to a motley crew of column widths.
• The sturdy fixed layout: Enabling table-layout: fixed; on your table body-blocks the auto resizing feature for uniform column widths. Talk about keeping things in line!

Custom widths with <colgroup>

For more say in your columns' destiny, try <colgroup> and <col>. Set your widths in percentage for more flexible layouts or in pixels for more steadfast dimensions:

<table style="table-layout: fixed;">
  <colgroup>
    <col style="width: 50px;">
    <col style="width: 100px;">
    <col style="width: 30%;">
    <!-- More <col> elements go here, if you have any spare -->
  </colgroup>
  <!-- Remaining part of your semantic table goes here-->
</table>
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Side note: In case percentages are your cup of tea, ensure they add up to a 100% and not a byte more.

Conveniently hiding columns

Although playing hide and seek with columns may sound fun, employing visibility: collapse; results in a hideout that retains place ensuring your layout remains uncompromised:

.hidden-column {
  visibility: collapse;
}
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The result aligns tables accurately ensuring visibility changes do not mess up your hard-worked layout.

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Save your sanity with these nuggets on ensuring consistent column width across all browsers:

• The Testing Tale: No assumptions here. Test your table layouts in quirky places like Firefox and other browsers like Chrome and Safari.
• Fallback for the falling: For browser compatibility, have alternatives for features like visibility: collapse;—just to keep everyone happy!
• Caption magic: Here's a tip. Use <caption> instead of <thead> for a sensible header and to achieve more consistent widths across the plot.

Responsive designs

Responsive design needs your table to adapt to different device sizes:

• Use percentage widths to allow the table to fit into various viewports.
• Maintain readability on smaller screens by using media queries for column width adjustments or vertical stacking of columns.

@media (max-width: 600px) {
  table {
    /* Smaller screens: say goodbye to horizontal scrolling */
  }
}
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Dealing with large datasets

Large datasets call for specific tricks to optimize load time and display efficiency:

• Pagination or infinite scrolling restricts the number of rows on display, maintaining suspense (and browser health) at the same time.
• Lazy loading for image or embedded content in tables boosts the page load time. Remember, patience is not everyone's virtue.

Building table semantically

While creating your tables, ensure semantic correctness:

• Nothing screams amateur louder than using tables for positioning - use CSS!
• Stick to semantics by ensuring <td> elements are not used inside <caption>.
• Descriptive headers and <th> elements for header cells help create accessible tables.