User:Edgars2007/tables

A table is an arrangement of columns and rows used to organize and position data. Tables can be created on Wikipedia pages using special wikitext syntax, and there are many different styles and tricks that can be used to customise them.

Using the toolbar


To automatically insert a table, click or  (Insert a table) on the edit toolbar. If "Insert a table" is not on the toolbar follow these directions to add it.

The following text is inserted when Insert a table is clicked: 

This code produces the following table:

The sample text ("Header N" or "row N, cell N") is intended to be replaced with actual data.

Pipe syntax tutorial
Although HTML table syntax also works, special wikicode can be used as a shortcut to create a table. The pipe (vertical bar) codes function exactly the same as HTML table markup, so a knowledge of HTML table code helps understand pipe code. The shortcuts are as follows:  {|    table code goes here  |}  produces this table (which is probably not what you expected): However, the format modifier is useful:
 * The entire table is encased with curly brackets and a vertical bar character (a pipe). So use   to begin a table, and   to end it. Each one needs to be on its own line:
 * An optional table caption is included with a line starting with a vertical bar and plus sign " " and the caption after it:
 * To start a new table row, type a vertical bar and a hyphen on its own line: " ". The codes for the cells in that row start on the next line.
 * Type the codes for each table cell in the next row, starting with a bar:
 * Cells can be separated with either a new line and a single bar, a new line and a double bar, or by a double bar " " on the same line. All three produce the same output:
 * Cell code that contains a single bar in the text fail to render as expected: cell code between the first two single bars, or between a double bar and the first single bar becomes (optional) row formatting code. Any subsequent single bars are treated as part of the text. For example, this code:

Just remember: no more than 2 single pipes on a line! The final table would display like this:
 * a row of column headings is identified by using " " instead of " ", and using " " instead of " ". Header cells typically render differently from regular cells, depending on the browser. They are often rendered in a bold font and centered.  is unnecessary in wikitables styled with class markup:   and so on.
 * the first cell of a row is identified as a row heading by starting the line with " " instead of " ", and starting subsequent data cells on a new line.  is unnecessary in wikitables styled with class markup:   and so on.
 * Optional parameters can modify the behavior of cells, rows, or the entire table. For instance, a border could be added to the table:

If you want narrow one-pixel wide borders around all the cells use this in the top line of the table:

Here is the revised table:

The simplest way is to use Wikipedia's external style sheet for tables:  and so on.

It produces this:

The table parameters and cell parameters are the same as in HTML, see http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/tables.html#edef-TABLE and Table (HTML). However, the  and   elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki. ,  and   are supported from MediaWiki version 1.18 on (current version on Wikipedia: ).

A table can be useful even if none of the cells have content. For example, the background colors of cells can be changed with cell parameters, making the table into a diagram, like meta:Template talk:Square 8x8 pentomino example. An "image" in the form of a table is much more convenient to edit than an uploaded image.

Each row must have the same number of cells as the other rows, so that the number of columns in the table remains consistent. For empty cells, use the non-breaking space  as content to ensure that the cells are displayed. To show a visible pipe in a cell, use  or.

With colspan and rowspan cells can span several columns or rows, see the Mélange example further on. However, this has the disadvantage that sorting does not work properly anymore.

Minimalist table
Both of these generate the same output. Choose a style based on the number of cells in each row and the total text inside each cell.

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser (note that there are no borders):



Multiplication table
Note that in this example  is used to style the table with Wikipedia's external style sheet for tables. It adds borders, background shading, and bold header text.

Wiki markup: 

As it appears in a browser: 

Width, height
The width and height of the whole table can be specified, as well as the height of a row. To specify the width of a column one can specify the width of an arbitrary cell in it. If the width is not specified for all columns, and/or the height is not specified for all rows, then there is some ambiguity, and the result depends on the browser.

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: 

Setting borders
Table borders default to a complex shaded double-line (the default in HTML); however, those borders can be set to a thin solid line by using a style-parameter (style="border: 1px solid darkgray"), as in the following (Note: if you intend to use the 'cellpadding' or 'cellspacing' options along with a border, you MUST use this format):

Wiki markup: Note the bottom-row texts are centered by 'align="center"' while star-images were not centered.



As long as the "Image:" specs omit the parameter "thumb|" they don't show the caption lines in the table (only during mouse-over). The border color "darkgray" matches typical tables or infoboxes in articles; however, it could be any color name (such as style="border: 1px solid darkgreen;") or use a hex-color (such as: #DDCCBB).

A column format-specifier (enclosed in "|...|") can have a style-parameter to set borders on each cell, as follows:

Wiki markup:

Note only the image cells, here, have individual borders, not the text.  The lower hex-colors (such as: #616161) are closer to black. Typically, all borders in a table would be one specific color.

Positioning
You can position the entire table, the contents of a row, and the contents of a cell, but not with a single parameter for all the contents of the table. See m:Template talk:Table demo.

Prior to April 2009, using "float" to position a table was discouraged; however, it no longer always breaks page rendering at large font sizes. See a floated image, below, under "Floating images in the center".

Floating table
Two table classes  and   (case sensitive) help floating the table and adjusting table margins so that they do not stick to the text. floats the table to the left and adjusts right margin. does the opposite. Example:  This paragraph is before the table. The text in column 2 spans both rows due to format specifier "rowspan=2" so there is no coding for "Col 2" in the 2nd row, just Col 1 and Col 3. Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

As it appears in a browser:  This paragraph is before the table. The text in column 2 spans both rows due to format specifier "rowspan=2" so there is no coding for "Col 2" in the 2nd row, just Col 1 and Col 3. Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Note that although there are other ways to float a table, such as  and ,   and   are the only parameters that you position the table under a floated multimedia object. For example:

Aligning the table with  produces: 

Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

But aligning it with  produces:

 Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur?

Centering tables
Centered tables can be achieved, but they don't "float"; that is to say no text appears to either side. The trick is

Wiki markup: Text before table... ...text after table

As it appears in a browser:  Text before table... ...text after table

Nested tables
Note: because they cause accessibility issues, nested tables should be avoided whenever possible.

Seven different (blue) tables are shown nested inside the cells of a table. Automatically the two tables |A| and |B|B| are vertically aligned instead of the usual side by side of text characters in a cell. "float" is used to fix each of tables |C| and |D| to their own position within one cell of the table. This may be used for charts and schemes. Nested tables must start on a new line.

Wiki markup



As it appears in a browser: 

Scrolling
The whole table can be placed within a scrolling list so that new table lines appear on the screen as old table lines disappear. Although MOS:SCROLL disfavors scrolling tables in article space because article content should be accessible on a variety of devices whereas a scrolling table hides some text, a scrolling table may be used in other Wikipedia namespaces.

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: 

Color; scope of parameters
Two ways of specifying color of text and background for a single cell are as follows:

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: 

Like other parameters, colors can also be specified for a whole row or the whole table; parameters for a row override the value for the table, and those for a cell override those for a row. (Note that there is no easy way to specify a color for a whole column—each cell in the column must be individually specified. Tools can make it easier.)

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

To make the table blend in with the background, use  or. (Warning:, does not work with some browsers, including IE6!)

To force a cell to match one of the default colors of the  template, use   for the darker header, and   for the lighter body.

See: style, background color, list of colors, web colors and the template Coltit.

Setting cell parameters
At the start of a cell, add your parameter followed by a single pipe. For example  sets that cell to a width of 300 pixels. To set more than one parameter, leave a space between each one.

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Vertical alignment in cells
By default, data in tables is vertically centrally aligned, which results in odd-looking layouts like this:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

To fix this, apply the valign="top" attribute to the rows (unfortunately it seems to be necessary to apply this individually to every single row).

Wiki markup:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Cell content indenting
The contents of a cell can be indented using a CSS style of.

Wiki markup:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Height
See: Whole table operations|Width, height

Border
See: Whole table operations|Setting borders

Alignment
See: Whole table operations|Setting borders

Setting column widths
To force column widths to specific requirements, rather than accepting the width of the widest text element in a column's cells, follow this example. Note that wrap-around of text is forced.

Wiki markup:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

To set column widths in a table without headers, specify the width in the first cell for each column.

Wiki markup:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

You can also use percentages, such as to equalize the widths of a two-column table by setting one of them to.

One application of setting the widths is aligning columns of consecutive tables. The following are separate tables, with columns set to 350px and 225px.

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Nowrap
In a table that spans the entire width of a page, cells narrower than the widest cell tend to wrap. To keep an entire column from wrapping, use  in a non-header cell on the longest/widest cell to affect the entire column.

Without 'nowrap', as it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

With 'nowrap', as it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Mélange
''Note: This example is not accessible, and should be avoided as much as possible. For example, nested tables (tables inside tables) should be separated into distinct tables when possible.''

Here is a more advanced example, showing some more options available for making up tables. Note however that with colspan and rowspan sorting does not work properly anymore.

Users can play with these settings in their own table to see what effect they have. Not all of these techniques may be appropriate in all cases; just because colored backgrounds can be added, for example, does not mean it is always a good idea. Try to keep the markup in tables relatively simple—remember, other people are going to be editing the article too! This example should give an idea of what is possible, though.

Wiki markup: Text before centered table... ...text after centered table

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px"> Text before centered table... ...text after centered table

Floating images in the center
A table can be used to wrap an image, so that the table can float towards the center of the page (such as using: style="float: right;"). However, the table margins, border and font-size must be precisely set to match a typical image display. The Image-spec parameter "thumb|" (although auto-thumbnailing to user-preference width) forces a wide left-margin that squeezes the nearby text, so the parameter "center|" can be added to suppress the left-margin padding. However, "center" sometimes shoves the caption to a 2nd line (under a centered box "[]"), so "thumb|" could be omitted and just hard-code the image size, adding a gray (#BBB) border. Using precise parameters to match other images, a floating-image table can be coded as follows:

The text inside the floating-table is sized by style="font-size: 86%;". That floating-image table floats a typical image-box, but allows adjusting the left-hand margin of the image (see temple-example floating below).

The caption-text can be omitted, or remove the parameter "thumb|" so the caption is hidden until "mouse-over display". Unfortunately the parameter "thumb|" (used for displaying the caption) also controls the auto-thumbnailing to re-size images by user-preferences size. To have auto-thumbnail sizing while also concealing the caption, use  instead of.

An image set with parameter "left|" has a wide right-side margin (opposite margin of parameter "right|"), so floating toward the left requires an image set as "center|" inside a table with style="float:left; margin:0.46em 0.2em".

Recall that, outside an image-table, the parameter "right|" causes an image to align (either) above or below an infobox, but would not float alongside the infobox.

Note the order of precedence: first come infoboxes or images using "right|", then come the floating-tables, and lastly, any text wraps that can still fit. If the first text-word is too long, no text will fit to complete the left-hand side, so beware creating a "ragged left margin" when not enough space remains for text to fit alongside floating-tables.

If multiple single image-tables are stacked, they float to align across the page, depending on page-width. The text squeezes to allow as many floating-tables as can fit, as auto-aligned, then wrap whatever text (can still fit) at the left-hand side.

That auto-aligning feature can be used to create a "floating-gallery" of images: a set of 20 floating-tables wrap (backward, right-to-left), as if each table were a word of text to wrap across and down the page. To wrap in the typical direction (wrapping left-to-right) define all those floating-tables, instead, as left-side tables using the top parameter style="float:left; margin:0.46em 0.2em". Multiple floating-images empower more flexible typesetting of images around the text.

Combined use of COLSPAN and ROWSPAN
Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

Note that using  for cell G combined with   for cell F to get another row below G and F won't work, because all (implicit) cells would be empty. Likewise complete columns are not displayed if all their cells are empty. Borders between non-empty and empty cells might be also not displayed (depending on the browser), use  to fill an empty cell with dummy content.

Decimal point alignment
The following is a method to get columns of numbers aligned at the decimal point.

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

If the column of numbers appears in a table with cell padding or cell spacing, you can still align the decimal points without an unsightly gap in the middle. Embed a table in each number's cell and specify its column widths. Make the embedded tables' column widths the same for each cell in the column. (If decimal points are still misaligned using this method, the main table's column may be too narrow. Add a parameter to increase the column's width.)

Wiki markup:

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px">

In the case of preformatted text, you can dispense with the table feature entirely and simply start the lines with a space, and put spaces to position the numbers:

Wiki markup (just spaces!): 432.1 43.21   4.321

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px"> 432.1 43.21   4.321

However, there should be a good reason to use pre-formatted text in an article.

Centering tables
See: Whole table operations|Centering tables

Classes
In the first line of table code, after the "{|", instead of specifying a style directly, you can also specify a class, which may be used to apply styles. The style for this class can be specified in various ways:
 * in the software itself, per skin (for example the class sortable)
 * collectively for all users of one wiki in MediaWiki:Common.css (for example, on this and some other projects there is or was the class wikitable, later moved to shared.css)
 * separately per skin in MediaWiki:Monobook.css etc.
 * individually on one wiki in a user subpage
 * individually, but jointly for tables of the class concerned on all web pages, on the local computer of the user.

Instead of remembering table parameters, you just include an appropriate class after the. This helps keep table formatting consistent, and can allow a single change to the class to fix a problem or enhance the look of all the tables that are using it at once. For instance, this:

simply by replacing inline CSS for the table by. This is because the wikitable class in MediaWiki:Common.css contains a number of table.wikitable CSS style rules. These are all applied at once when you mark a table with the class. You can then add additional style rules if desired. These override the class's rules, allowing you to use the class style as a base and build up on it:

Wiki markup <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

Notice that the table retains the gray background of the wikitable class, and the headers are still bold and centered. But now the text formatting has been overridden by the local style statement; all of the text in the table has been made italic and 120% normal size, and the wikitable border has been replaced by the red dashed border.

Collapsible tables
Classes can also be used to collapse tables, so they are hidden by default. Use the style 'collapsible' to enable collapsing behaviour. By default, a collapsible table begins expanded. To change this, include the additional class 'collapsed' or 'autocollapse' (i.e. only collapse if 3 other collapsible tables are present). You must include a header row, where the 'hide' option displayes. Example:

<pre style="display: inline-block;">

Gives:

Using class mw-collapsible
Another way (worked in MediaWiki 1.19rc1) testwiki:User:Krinkle/CollapsingTestpageMw <pre style="display: inline-block;">{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"

<pre style="display: inline-block;">{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"

Sorting
Tables can be made sortable by adding ; for details see Help:Sorting. Since this can be very useful, it is wise to keep the possibilities and limitations of this feature in mind when designing a table. For example:
 * Do not divide a table into sections by subheaders spanning several rows. Instead, an extra column can be made showing the content of these headers on each row, in a short form.
 * Do not have elements spanning several columns; instead, again, repeat the content on each row, in a short form.
 * In a column of numbers, do not put text such as "ca." before or after a number—it will break numerical sorting. Do not put any text or alphabetical characters in any cell of a column to be sorted numerically. Try not to put a range of numbers (it does not affect the sorting position for numeric sorting mode, and in the case of a range, the first number determines the position, but if, possibly after sorting this or another column, the element is at the top, it induces alphabetic sorting mode). Instead, put these texts in a separate column. Alternatively, for the greatest flexibility, alphabetic sorting mode with hidden sortkeys can be used.

A long form of abbreviated content can be put as legend outside the table.

Wiki markup <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

Numerical and year sorting problems
See Help:Sorting.

Sorting and collapsing
It is possible to collapse a sortable table. To do so, you need to use the code . Taking the above table and making it collapsible gives you this:

Wiki markup <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding: 1em;">

If you want the table to default to collapsed state, use the code  in place of.

Section link or map link to a row anchor
To enable a section link's anchor (or a map link's anchor), referencing a specific row within a table, an  parameter needs to be added to the row start   or  : |- id="section link anchor name"

Note that each anchor name must be different from every other in the page (this includes heading names), to create valid XHTML.

When a country label, containing a link, is clicked on the map, the link coded, for example, as  that references the anchor (within the table), coded as , makes the page scroll so the top line of the page (table) is the selected row.
 * Example of a map link to a row

Row template
Regardless of whether wikitable format or HTML is used, the wikitext of the rows within a table, and sometimes even within a collection of tables, has much in common, e.g.: In that case it can be useful to create a template that produces the syntax for a table row, with the data as parameters. This can have many advantages:
 * the basic code for a table row
 * code for color, alignment, and sorting mode
 * fixed texts such as units
 * special formats for sorting
 * easily changing the order of columns, or removing a column
 * easily adding a new column if many elements of the new column are left blank (if the column is inserted and the existing fields are unnamed, use a named parameter for the new field to avoid adding blank parameter values to many template calls)
 * computing fields from other fields, e.g. population density from population and area
 * duplicating content and providing span tags with "display:none" for the purpose of having one format for sorting and another for display
 * easy specification of a format for a whole column, such as color and alignment

Example:

Using <pre style="display: inline-block;"> gives:

Conditional table row
For a conditional row in a table, we can have: <pre style="display: inline-block;"> Which gives the following table: (note how the second row is missing)

Other table syntax
Other types of table syntax that MediaWiki supports:
 * 1) XHTML
 * 2) HTML & wiki-
 * syntax (Do not use)

All three are supported by MediaWiki and create (currently) valid HTML output, but the pipe syntax is the simplest. Also, HTML & wiki- tags) don't necessarily remain browser-supported in the future, especially on handheld internet-accessible devices.
 * syntax (i.e., unclosed
 * and

See also HTML element. Note however that the,  ,  ,  , and   elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki.

Comparison of table syntax
! scope="row" | Pros ! scope="row" | Cons ! scope="col" | ! scope="col" | XHTML ! scope="col" | Wiki-pipe See also Template talk:For.
 * - style="vertical-align: top;"
 * Can preview or debug with any XHTML editor
 * Can be indented for easier reading
 * Well-known
 * Insensitive to newlines
 * No characters like "|", which can collide with template and parser function syntax
 * Easy to write
 * Easy to read
 * Takes little space
 * Can be learned quickly
 * - style="vertical-align: top;"
 * Can be learned quickly
 * - style="vertical-align: top;"
 * Tedious
 * Takes a lot of space
 * Difficult to read quickly
 * Debugging more difficult due to tag pairing requirements
 * Indented code might not match nesting.
 * Confusing newline behaviour as they only occasionally break cells.
 * Unfamiliar syntax for experienced HTML editors
 * Rigid structure
 * Cannot be indented for clarity
 * HTML tag text may be easier to read than pipes, plus signs, dashes, etc.
 * Requires using Template:! to pass a "|" in a parameter.
 * Sensitive to newlines; see Help:Newlines and spaces.
 * Requires using Template:! to pass a "|" in a parameter.
 * Sensitive to newlines; see Help:Newlines and spaces.
 * }

Pipe syntax in terms of the HTML produced
The pipe syntax, developed by Magnus Manske, substitutes pipes ( | ) for HTML. There is an on-line script, which converts html tables to pipe syntax tables.

The pipes must start at the beginning of a new line, except when separating parameters from content or when using  to separate cells on a single line. The parameters are optional.

Tables
A table is defined by which generates "&lt;table params>&lt;/table>".

Rows
For each table, an HTML &lt;tr&gt; tag is generated for the first row. To start a new row, use: |- which generates another "&lt;tr&gt;".

Parameters can be added like this: |- params which generates "&lt;tr params&gt;".

Note:
 * &lt;tr&gt; tags are automatically opened at the first &lt;td&gt; equivalent
 * &lt;tr&gt; tags are automatically closed at &lt;tr&gt; and &lt;/table&gt; equivalents

Cells
Cells are generated either like this: |cell1 |cell2 |cell3 or like this: |cell1||cell2||cell3 which both generate "&lt;td&gt;cell1&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;cell2&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;cell3&lt;/td&gt;". The "||" equals "newline" + "|".

Parameters in cells can be used like this: |params|cell1||params|cell2||params|cell3 which results in &lt;td params&gt;cell1&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td params&gt;cell2&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td params&gt;cell3&lt;/td&gt;

Headers
Produces a TH, functioning the same way as TD, but with different style. "!" is used instead of the opening "|". "!!" can be used instead of "||". Parameters still use "|", though. Example: ! params|cell1

Captions
A tag is created by |+ Caption which generates the HTML <caption >Caption</caption>.

You can also use parameters: |+ params|Caption which generates <caption >Caption</caption>.

Summaries
A summary is produced by adding a summary attribute after the start of the table. It can be used by screen readers to give visually impaired readers the overall gist of the table, without having to listen to the entire table. For example: <pre style="overflow:auto;"> produces:

Table cell templates
Table cell templates provide a set of templates to configure text and color in cells in a standard way, using phrases such as Yes, No or n/a.

Square monitors
To format for a square monitor or window, use a tape measure. Determine the height of your rectangular screen. Using that figure measure under the screen to determine the width your monitor’s screen would be if it were square. Mark that location using ink or tape under the screen. Drag the side of your browser’s window to that location so the window is square based on accurate measurements. Square monitors and reading windows are not able to contain tables and galleries made for rectangular and wide screens. When a table or gallery is wider than the monitor, it makes every line of text wider than the screen as well. The px amounts of the following gallery were determined after measuring the window to make sure it was square:

Type this:

<pre style="display: inline-block;">

For this:

Vertically oriented column headers
Sometimes it is desirable (such as in a table predominantly made of numbers) to rotate text such that it proceeds from top to bottom or bottom to top instead of from left to right or right to left. Currently, browser support for this type of styling as a component of HTML or CSS is sporadic (Internet Explorer is one of the few browsers that supports this in cascading stylesheets, albeit in a non-standard way). An alternative solution that works in most if not all browsers is to use images in place of the text. For instance, the following table uses SVG images instead of text to produce the rotated column headings:

Normally, one problem with this approach is that readers are directed to different pages when they click on the images. To eliminate this problem—or to direct readers to a different page—you can use the  parameter. A column-header can be coded as follows:

<pre style="display: inline-block;"> ! style="width:3em;" | The image wikilinks to article "xxxx".

By setting the link to an empty string (e.g. ), no navigation occurs when visitors click on an image. Note that it might also be a good idea to color the image text blue if you are using the images as links. Also, SVG is the preferred image format in this case because it can be re-scaled to any size without producing artifacts.

A more serious problem is that the "rotated text" is not text that can be used by screen readers and other technologies for visually-disabled users. So those users can't "read" the column headings. Also automated search engine web crawlers would not be able to read the text.

Wikitable as image gallery

 * This section is local to Wikipedia (hard-coded here now).

A wikitable can be used to display side-by-side images, in the manner of an image gallery (formatted by "&lt;gallery>"), but with larger images and less vacant area around photos.

A simple framed gallery can be formatted using class="wikitable" to generate the minimal thin-lines around images/photos within the table:

Note the result below (with thin-lined cells): Another issue about the standard "&lt;gallery>" tag, in 2007 to 2008, was that it put 4 images per line, overrunning the right margin of a wiki article displayed in portrait-style width (like 800x600), unless the gallery had only 3 images. However, a wikitable uses typical image-links with sizes, such as "" so 4 images could be displayed on a wikitable line within a 600px width (for 800 × 600 resolution screens).

Another advantage about wikitable images, compared to "&lt;gallery>" formatting, is the ability to "square" each image when similar heights are needed, so consider putting 2-number image sizes (such as "199x95px"), where the 2nd number limits height:

Note the 3 images sized "199x95px" appear identical height, of 95px (4th image purposely smaller). The "95px" forces height, while "199x" fits the various widths (could even be "999x"): Therefore, the use of size "199x95px" (or "999x95px") produces the auto-height-sizing beyond the "&lt;gallery>" tag, and with the option to set taller thumbnails ("199x105px"), or even to have some images purposely smaller than other images of "95px" height. A very short height ("70px") allows many more images across the table:

The above wikitable-coding produces the result below, of 6 columns:

Once images have been placed in a wikitable, control of formatting can be adjusted when more images are added.

Shifting/centering
Images within a wikitable can be shifted by inserting non-breaking spaces ("&amp;nbsp;") before or after the image-link ("&amp;nbsp;"). However, auto-centering simply requires use of center-tags to be placed around an image-link for centering in a cell (" ").

In the example below, note how Col2 uses &lt;center>, but Col3 uses "&amp;nbsp;": The above coding generates the table below: note the middle garden image is centered (but not the left image), and the right image has 2 spaces before "View...": Also note that the tag "&lt;small>" made a smaller text-size caption. However, fonts also can be sized by percent (style="font-size: 87%;"), where the actual percent-size as displayed depends on the various sizes allowed for a particular font. | style="font-size: 87%;" | View from bell tower The column attribute, above, uses "style=" to set the font-size for the caption, following the 2nd vertical-bar "|".

A font-size: 65% is very small, while style="font-size: 87%;" is a mid-size font, larger than the tag small.

Generate a chart with a table
Using visualizer or another template that uses metavisualizer.

Converting spreadsheet to wikitable format
To convert from spreadsheets such as Gnumeric, MS Excel or OpenOffice.org Calc, you can use the Copy & Paste Excel-to-Wiki converter or the MediaWiki Tables Generator.

csv2wp – converts comma-separated values (CSV) format to pipe syntax. You may use this to import tables from Excel etc. (more information)

Tables and WYSIWYG
Due to the complexity of wikimarkup (especially tables), a common question is if there is any visual editor to make creating and modifying tables easier. Unfortunately at the moment no such editor exists, however it is possible to create a table with an HTML editor (like Adobe Dreamweaver or Amaya) and then copy the html code generated by this into the page.

It is possible that in the future, a WYSIWYG editor will be adopted (there has been much discussion about this in the past. However, many technical hurdles must be solved). For the more technically inclined/adventurous tools such as WYSIFTW exist, however they do not incorporate the complete WYSIWYG experience and currently do not support tables (although they may do so in the future).