Aligning On The Decimal Point

HTML 4 promised to line up a column of prices on the decimal point. No browser ever did.

In 2026: Dead on arrival. align="char" with char="." was specified for table columns in HTML 4.0 and no major browser ever implemented it, so the numbers below sit ragged exactly as they would have in 1998. A rarity for this library: not a relic that died, a relic that never lived. The practical substitute then and now is right alignment.

Where it came from: HTML 4.0 tables, W3C, 1997. Listed in every reference for years; implemented by nobody.
HTML 4.01 tables ↗

<table border="1" cellpadding="4">
<colgroup><col align="char" char="."></colgroup>
<tr><td>4.5</td></tr>
<tr><td>122.75</td></tr>
<tr><td>0.9</td></tr>
</table>

<p style="font:13px Verdana">The decimal points were meant to stack. They never
have, in any browser. The workable version is <code>text-align: right</code>
and tabular figures.</p>