I am displaying text strings of varying characters and length in a div of fixed width. I'd like to fit as much text as possible in the allotted space. My current approach is to limit the number of text characters in the following way

```
var n = //some number
string = string.substr(0,n);

```

The problem with this approach is that different characters have different widths so while it can cap over spill it often leaves unused space. I've tried giving the containing div the following css properties.

```
div{
   width:200px
   white-space:nowrap
}

```

But the text still wraps to the next line down once it over spills the width. Can someone help me out with a good practice way of addressing this problem.