Insert ellipsis (...) into HTML tag if content too wide

The following CSS only solution for truncating text on a single line works with all browers listed at http://www.caniuse.com as of writing with the exception of Firefox 6.0. Note that JavaScript is totally unnecessary unless you need to support wrapping multiline text or earlier versions of Firefox.

.ellipsis {
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    -o-text-overflow: ellipsis;
}

If you need support for earlier versions of Firefox check out my answer on this other question.

I've got a solution working in FF3, Safari and IE6+ with single and multiline text

.ellipsis {
    white-space: nowrap;
    overflow: hidden;
}

.ellipsis.multiline {
    white-space: normal;
}

<div class="ellipsis" style="width: 100px; border: 1px solid black;">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>
<div class="ellipsis multiline" style="width: 100px; height: 40px; border: 1px solid black; margin-bottom: 100px">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit</div>

<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery.ellipsis.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(".ellipsis").ellipsis();
</script>

jquery.ellipsis.js

(function($) {
    $.fn.ellipsis = function()
    {
        return this.each(function()
        {
            var el = $(this);

            if(el.css("overflow") == "hidden")
            {
                var text = el.html();
                var multiline = el.hasClass('multiline');
                var t = $(this.cloneNode(true))
                    .hide()
                    .css('position', 'absolute')
                    .css('overflow', 'visible')
                    .width(multiline ? el.width() : 'auto')
                    .height(multiline ? 'auto' : el.height())
                    ;

                el.after(t);

                function height() { return t.height() > el.height(); };
                function width() { return t.width() > el.width(); };

                var func = multiline ? height : width;

                while (text.length > 0 && func())
                {
                    text = text.substr(0, text.length - 1);
                    t.html(text + "...");
                }

                el.html(t.html());
                t.remove();
            }
        });
    };
})(jQuery);

I made a really cool jQuery plugin for handling all varieties of ellipsis of text is one called ThreeDots @ http://tpgblog.com/threedots

It's much more flexible than the CSS approaches, and supports much more advanced, customizable behaviors and interactions.

Enjoy.

There's actually a pretty straightforward way to do this in CSS exploiting the fact that IE extends this with non-standards and FF supports :after

You can also do this in JS if you wish by inspecting the scrollWidth of the target and comparing it to it's parents width, but imho this is less robust.

Edit: this is apparently more developed than I thought. CSS3 support may soon exist, and some imperfect extensions are available for you to try.

• http://www.css3.info/preview/text-overflow/
• http://ernstdehaan.blogspot.com/2008/10/ellipsis-in-all-modern-browsers.html

That last one is good reading.

Well, one simple solution, that doesn't quite add the "...", but does prevent the <h2> from breaking into two lines would be to add this bit of css:

h2 {
    height:some_height_in_px; /* this is the height of the line */
    overflow:hidden; /* so that the second (or third, fourth, etc.)
                        line is not visible */
}

I gave it some more thought, and I came up with this solution, you have to wrap the textual contents of your h2 tag with another tag (e.g. a span) (or alternatively wrap the h2s with something that has the given height) and then you can use this sort of javascript to filter out the unneeded words:

var elems = document.getElementById('conainter_of_h2s').
                     getElementsByTagName('h2');

    for ( var i = 0, l = elems.length; i < l; i++) {
        var span = elems.item(i).getElementsByTagName('span')[0];
        if ( span.offsetHeight > elems.item(i).offsetHeight ) {
            var text_arr = span.innerHTML.split(' ');
            for ( var j = text_arr.length - 1; j>0 ; j--) {
                delete text_arr[j];
                span.innerHTML = text_arr.join(' ') + '...';
                if ( span.offsetHeight <= 
                                        elems.item(i).offsetHeight ){
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
    }

I'd done something similar for a client recently. Here's a version of what I did for them (example tested in all latest browser versions on Win Vista). Not perfect all around the board, but could be tweaked pretty easily.

Demo: http://enobrev.info/ellipsis/

Code:

<html>
    <head>
        <script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
        <script>            
            google.load("jquery", "1.2.6");
            google.setOnLoadCallback(function() {
                $('.longtext').each(function() {
                    if ($(this).attr('scrollWidth') > $(this).width()) {
                        $more = $('<b class="more">&hellip;</b>');

                        // add it to the dom first, so it will have dimensions
                        $(this).append($more);

                        // now set the position
                        $more.css({
                            top: '-' + $(this).height() + 'px',
                            left: ($(this).attr('offsetWidth') - $more.attr('offsetWidth')) + 'px'
                        });
                    }
                });
            });
        </script>

        <style>
            .longtext {
                height: 20px;
                width: 300px;
                overflow: hidden;
                white-space: nowrap;
                border: 1px solid #f00;
            }

            .more {
                z-index: 10;
                position: relative;
                display: block;
                background-color: #fff;
                width: 18px;
                padding: 0 2px;
            }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <p class="longtext">This is some really long text.  This is some really long text.  This is some really long text.  This is some really long text.</p>
    </body>
</html>

There is a simple jQuery solution by Devon Govett:

https://gist.github.com/digulla/5796047

To use, just call ellipsis() on a jQuery object. For example:

$("span").ellipsis();

I rewrote Alex's function to use to the MooTools library. I changed it a bit to word jump rather than add the ellipsis in the middle of a word.

Element.implement({
ellipsis: function() {
    if(this.getStyle("overflow") == "hidden") {
        var text = this.get('html');
        var multiline = this.hasClass('multiline');
        var t = this.clone()
            .setStyle('display', 'none')
            .setStyle('position', 'absolute')
            .setStyle('overflow', 'visible')
            .setStyle('width', multiline ? this.getSize().x : 'auto')
            .setStyle('height', multiline ? 'auto' : this.getSize().y)
            .inject(this, 'after');

        function height() { return t.measure(t.getSize).y > this.getSize().y; };
        function width() { return t.measure(t.getSize().x > this.getSize().x; };

        var func = multiline ? height.bind(this) : width.bind(this);

        while (text.length > 0 && func()) {
            text = text.substr(0, text.lastIndexOf(' '));
            t.set('html', text + "...");
        }

        this.set('html', t.get('html'));
        t.dispose();
    }
}
});

Here is a nice widget/plugin library which has ellipsis built in: http://www.codeitbetter.co.uk/widgets/ellipsis/ All you need to do it reference the library and call the following:

<script type="text/javascript"> 
   $(document).ready(function () { 
      $(".ellipsis_10").Ellipsis({ 
         numberOfCharacters: 10, 
         showLessText: "less", 
         showMoreText: "more" 
      }); 
   }); 
</script> 
<div class="ellipsis_10"> 
   Some text here that's longer than 10 characters. 
</div>