Setup table column width - php

Question

I am trying to setup a table column width to only 200px or 10%. However, when I populate the data from the database, the column seems to ignore the column width and expand it as much as it can. Here is my table html.
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th><a href='#'>City</a></th>
<th width='200' class='table_width'><a href='#'>name</a></th>
<th><a href='#'>Agent</a></th>
<th>...
//I have tried class and width attribute. both don't work.
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
//these column data were popluated from database
<td><?= $row->city; ?></td>
<td width='200' class='table_width'><?= $row->_name; ?></td>
//ignore the width and expand the table cell.
<td><?= $row->agent; ?></td>
<td>...
</tr>

Answer 1

You want to use word-wrap:break-word;.
http://jsfiddle.net/RF4F6/1/
HTML
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Col 1</th>
<th>Col 2</th>
<th>Col 3</th>
<th>Col 4</th>
<th>Col 5</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Normal Width</td>
<td>Normal Width</td>
<td class="forcedWidth">hiThisIsAreallyLongStringThatWillHaveToWrapAt200PixelsOrI'llBeUnhappyAndYouWon'tLikeMeWhenI'mUnhappy.</td>
<td>Normal Width</td>
<td>NormalWidth</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
CSS
table td{
padding:.5em; /* Not essential for this answer, just a little buffer for the jsfiddle */
}
.forcedWidth{
width:200px;
word-wrap:break-word;
display:inline-block;
}

Answer 2

This is the standard behaviour of a table cell.
One way to do this is place a div inside your cells with style="width: 200px; overflow-hidden;"

Answer 3

Using table-layout: fixed for table will force browser to maintain specified dimensions.