how can I place a html table inside a css div such that the div is always bigger than the table, no matter how big the table might get?.  (the rows of the table are populated dynamically)

anyone?

I thought div is an abstract container which doesn't really have any attributes other than those you might design. By default, wouldn't it be "bigger" than the table by virtue of being the tables parent in the DOM?
  -tim

Tim is right.  The "size" of a div is meaningless.

unless you set it

You could set the table's width as 100%, the div as relative and set the padding of the div as big as you want
It will look something like


______Div_______
|                |
|  ____________  |
| |            | |
|      Table    |

Ohh crap.

Copy that to a monospace font :P

I thought span would work?