Wrap a text within only two lines inside div

Question

I want to wrap a text within only two lines inside div of specific width. If text goes beyond the length of two lines then I want to show elipses. Is there a way to do that using CSS?

e.g.

Sample text showing wrapping
of text in only two line...

Thanks

Answer 1

Limiting output to two lines of text is possible with CSS, if you set the line-height and height of the element, and set overflow:hidden;:

#someDiv {
    line-height: 1.5em;
    height: 3em;       /* height is 2x line-height, so two lines will display */
    overflow: hidden;  /* prevents extra lines from being visible */
}

--- jsFiddle DEMO ---

Alternatively, you can use the CSS text-overflow and white-space properties to add ellipses, but this only appears to work for a single line.

#someDiv {
    line-height: 1.5em;
    height: 3em;
    overflow: hidden;
    white-space: nowrap;
    text-overflow: ellipsis;
    width: 100%;
}

And a demo:

--- jsFiddle DEMO ---

Achieving both multiple lines of text and ellipses appears to be the realm of javascript.