<td class="long-data">
        <span class="tooltip">16 This Street Avenue, That Suburb, Some City, 1000</span>
    </td>
    <script>
        // shorten data and display the full content as a tooltip
        // code based on this JSFiddle http://jsfiddle.net/Handyman/fNjFF/11/
        var longdatacellvalue;
        $(document).on("ready", function () {
            var longdatacell = $("td.long-data");
            longdatacellvalue = longdatacell.html();

            // shorten data to 20 characters long
            longdatacell.html(longdatacellvalue.substring(0, 20));
            $(".tooltip").attr("title", longdatacellvalue);
        });

        $(".long-data").tooltip({ // errors here "Object doesn't support this property or method"
            items: 'span.tooltip',
            content: longdatacellvalue,
            show: null,
            open: function (event, ui) {
                if (typeof (event.originalEvent) === "undefined") {
                    return false;
                }

                var $id = $(ui.tooltip).attr("id");

                // close any lingering tooltips
                $("div.ui-tooltip").not("#" + $id).remove(); // don't know where this div comes from?
            },
            close: function (event, ui) {
                ui.tooltip.hover(function () {
                    $(this).stop(true).fadeTo(400, 1);
                },
                function () {
                    $(this).fadeOut("400", function () {
                        $(this).remove();
                    });
                });
            }
        });
    </script>