How to determine the fixed width I can use to generate html columns in java

Question

I have a jsp where I dynamically generate menus for a web page.
Table's cells are generated with different width, making the menus look differently.
When clicking on menus, cells changing sizes.
What is the best way to implement that, so I have a fixed width for every column?
Thank you

Answer 1

That's what I do.
The code determines the width of the column now.
The only drawback is that I manually assign values to the width depending on the menu item length.
Is there any way how to do it dynamically, by determining how many px width will be by having the menu item lenght?
<TABLE cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 border=0 width="100%">
               <!--<TR>-->
                    <!--<td width="251"><img src="images/Menu1L.gif" width="8" height="25"></td>-->
               <%
                    int gs = menu.getSelectedGroupNum();
                    MenuGroup menuGroup = menu.getMenuGroup(gs);
                    int is = menu.getSelectedItemNum();
                    int maxScr = 10; //10 screens buttons per line
                    int totScr = menuGroup.getSize(); //total number of screens for the selected menu
                    int rowsNum = 0;
                    rowsNum = (int)Math.ceil((double)totScr/maxScr);
                    System.out.println("Num of scr per line: " + maxScr +
                                             " Num of scr/menu: " + totScr +
                                             " Num of rows: " + rowsNum);
               for(int     screenRow = 0; screenRow < rowsNum; screenRow ++){
                    //for (int item = 0; item < menuGroup.getSize(); item++)%>
               <tr><td>
                    <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" height="20">
                     <tr>
                       <td width="251"><img src="images/Menu1L.gif" width="8" height="25">
                    <%
                    for(int item = screenRow*maxScr; item < (screenRow + 1)*maxScr && item < totScr; item ++)
                         MenuItem menuItem = menuGroup.getMenuItem(item);
                         String title = menuItem.getDisplay();
                         String link = null;
                         String cssClass = null;
                         System.out.println(title + ":" + title.length());
                         if(!menu.isDisabled())
                              link = "<A href=\"Menu.do?top=" + gs + "&side=" + item + "\">";
                         %>
                         <%
                         else{
                              link = "";
                              title = "<i>" + title + "</i>";
                         MenuItem subMenuItem = null;
                         boolean isSubMenu = menuItem.containsSubMenuItem();
                         String subText = null;
                         //determine the width of the column
                         int width = 0;
                         if(title.length() > 5 && title.length()<20)
                              width = 158;
                         if(title.length() > 20)
                              width = 193;
                         if(title.length() <=5)
                              width = 60;
                         if (is == item){
                              //link = "<A href=\"Menu.do?top=" + gs + "&side=" + item + "\">";
                              cssClass = "ScreenItemSel A";
                         else
                              cssClass = "ScreenItem";
                         %>
                         <TD align = "center" nowrap class = "<%= cssClass%>"  background ="images/Menu1F.gif" width="<%=width%>"> <%=link%><%=title%></TD>
                         <TD class="Screen" nowrap><img src="images/Menu1Sep.gif" height=25 width=16></TD>
                    <%                         
                    }%>
                              <TD width="100%" valign=top align=right class="ScreenName" background="images/Menu1F.gif"><%--<%=mode%>--%></TD>
                              <TD><IMG src="images/Menu1R.gif" width="8" height="25"></TD>
                         </td>
                    </tr>
                    </table>
               </td>
               </tr>
               <%}
               %>
               <!--</TR>-->
</TABLE>