Restricting Text to a Single Line

In web development, sometimes you may encounter the need to prevent text from wrapping onto multiple lines. This can be useful for maintaining the aesthetics of your layout or for ensuring data is displayed in a compact manner.

The white-space Property

A simple yet effective solution is to use the white-space property. By setting white-space to nowrap, you instruct the browser to prohibit text from breaking across multiple lines.

div {
  white-space: nowrap;
}

Overflow and Height Control

To prevent the wrapped text from extending beyond the designated height, combine white-space: nowrap with overflow: hidden. This combination truncates the text horizontally and vertically.

div {
  white-space: nowrap;
  overflow: hidden;
}

Compatibility Considerations

It's important to note that this approach works consistently across all major browsers before CSS3 was introduced. However, for modern browsers, it's recommended to use the text-wrap property for wider compatibility.