use initial width for element not working in IE

Question

I have a graph plugin that inserts canvas and a legend <table> to its container. In this plugin the table has no width defined and in my CSS there is a width for tables inside that container were my plugin gets inserted.

So, the new div is inheriting table{ width: 100%} from the CSS and rendering wrong.

I tried to use width: initial;, looks good on Chrome but IE doesn't like it ^{check browser compatibility}

I admit changing/forcing a inline CSS in the script/plugin since it has to work in any enviroment.

What is the best solution here?

Solution 1

Like you said, generally width: auto will have a similar effect. Having the rules:

.my-selector {
    width: auto;
    width: initial;
}

Should cause it to use initial if it's supported and auto otherwise.

Solution 2

Using width: auto; inline, inside the script solves the problem on Chrome, FIrefox and IE 11. Just not sure if there is a better way.

Comments

[BuddhistBeast]

Have you tried just setting a minimum width? Does it work?

[Rikard]

@BuddhistBeast, didn't think about that! But tried that now and didn't work on Chrome either.

[gtramontina]

As a note, initial is a valid property value (developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/initial). But (if you scroll down to "Browser compatibility" in the previous link), no IE version supports it.

[chharvey]

this is known as a fallback and is a very common coding pattern in CSS. also, using width: auto will not only have a similar effect, but it will have the exact same effect, because auto is defined to be the initial value for the width property.