tables for tabular data

seperating structure from presentation

[fwordboy]

this is not a question regarding css-p vs table based design but merely a question about when using tables for tabular data and which attributes should be used in the css and which should be expressed in the html. e.g.
which is better

<table width="80%" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<td width="250px">&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
</table>
or
<table id="maths">
<tr>
<td class="fat">&nbsp;</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
</table>
linked to
#maths{
 width: 80%;
}
#maths td{
 padding: 2px;
}
.fat{
 width: 250px;
}

if style and content are to be seperated then surely the latter is correct, yet more more laborious.

[ronin]

The latter looks more correct to me, personally.

Arguably less laborious too, especially if you have similar tables across ten or so pages and at a later date you want to shrink the tables from 80% to 72%.

[Purple Martin]

What Ronin said.
Also...
You'll find in the future that changing to XHTML will be much easier if you do it the second way.