[FIXED] Why use long decimal point values in CSS percentage widths?

Issue

I've noticed in my own work that 3 fluid columns fill out their parent element much better when their widths are set to 33.333% as opposed to just 33%. I've also noticed when researching various CSS frameworks (i.e. bootstrap.css) that they have 14 decimal places specified on their column widths! That seems like it would be either excessive or clever... but I don't know which.

So what is the value/benefit of having so many decimal places? From what I have gathered, there is an open debate on whether you should avoid decimal places or take advantage of them and I want to know if this should be of interest to me or to just not worry about it.

Solution

It is required in some cases. I'm working on a site using the Twitter Bootstrap which has 6 divs stretching the full width of the site. If I just make the width of each one 16.66% a noticeable gap is left at the end, if I make the width 16.67% one of the divs is pushed onto the line below. This meant to get the divs to fill the full space, I had to set the width to 16.6667% which works perfectly in Chrome and Firefox but it seems that Safari and IE round the decimal point down to 2 places so I'm left with a gap when using them. So sometimes it might seem excessive but other times it is actually needed.

Dave

Answered By - Dave Marshall

Answer Checked By - Pedro (PHPFixing Volunteer)