Tabs in a Select list?

[Martin]

Is there any way I can get a drop-down list in a Select tag to display
it's contents in two columns? Say, for example, I wanted to display a
list of people's names with the last name aligned to the left side and
the first name aligned to the center.

Maybe a tab character between them?

I've tried a couple of things but I can't get anything to work.

 

[Jim Moe]

Is there any way I can get a drop-down list in a Select tag to display
it's contents in two columns? Say, for example, I wanted to display a
list of people's names with the last name aligned to the left side and
the first name aligned to the center.

select, option {
white-space: pre;
font-family: monospace;
}
The whitespace in the <select> is still collapsed but at least the
<option>s align like you would like. The backend processor decides how
many spaces to put in the list to get it to look columnar.
The font has to be monospace, else the spacing does not work like you
expect.