Table Automatic Column Width Issue

💬 App Building
1

Hi, I'm kind of curious whether this is an intended or not.

I used a table component and mapped the data of my firestore query which run behavior is set 'Manual'.

After triggering query, when datas are displayed in the table, column width expands too wide automatically even the content of the cell is not that long enough.

Weirdly, this kind of column width expansion happens in a certain table while other table column width fits well.

Does anyone have issue like me?

Thanks!

2

Hello @Jaemoon_Lee,

You're absolutely right I’ve encountered this issue as well in certain tables, and the behavior can definitely feel inconsistent.

  • One possible reason for this is how Retool determines column widths. It typically uses only the first few rows (often around 10) to auto-calculate width. So if the first row contains unusually long text in a particular field, the corresponding column may expand to fit that, even if the rest of the data is shorter.

  • As shown in my screenshot, even though I’ve set the column width to "Automatic," the first column appears disproportionately wide.

  • In my opinion, It’s likely not a bug, just how Retool handles sizing. Setting manual widths per column can fix it reliably.

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4 Likes
3

Hi @Jaemoon_Lee, thanks for reporting this! Appreciate @WidleStudioLLP for chiming in as well. I was able to check in with the engineers about this, and we put together a quick summary of how the 'automatic column widths' setting works on the Table component.

The Table component expands each column based on the widest cell in that column so content fits, but it also ensures all columns fit within the total table width. If the table isn’t wide enough, some content may still get cut off. Column widths are calculated using only the rows currently rendered on screen, not the full dataset, which is why the sizing behavior reflects just the first 10 rows.

TLDR: Column widths are based on the widest visible cell, but only from currently rendered rows. If the table isn’t wide enough, content may get cut off.

Let me know if this makes sense to you, and thanks so much for your patience! :sunglasses: