Help:Table

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

Tables can be used as formatting instrument, but consider using a multi column list instead.

Video Help:Table

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:

  {| class="wikitable"  |-  ! Header 1  ! Header 2  ! Header 3  |-  | row 1, cell 1  | row 1, cell 2  | row 1, cell 3  |-  | row 2, cell 1  | row 2, cell 2  | row 2, cell 3  |}  

This code produces the following table:

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

Maps Help:Table

Basic table markup summary

• The above marks must start on a new line, except the double marks (|| and !!) for optionally adding consecutive cells to a single line.

• Blank spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored.

• Content may either follow its cell mark on the same line (after any optional HTML attributes); or on lines below the cell mark. Content that uses wiki markup that itself needs to start on a new line, such as with lists, headings, or nested tables, must be on its own new line.

• To insert a pipe character (|) into a table caption or cell, use the <nowiki>|</nowiki> escaping markup.

HTML attributes

Each mark, except table end (|}), optionally accepts one or more HTML attributes. Attributes must be on the same line as the mark.

• Cells and caption (| or ||, ! or !!, and |+) hold content. So separate any attributes from content with a single pipe (|), with attributes preceding content.

• Table and row marks ({| and |-) do not directly hold content. Do not add a pipe (|) after any attributes.

Commonly included attributes in tables include: class, for example class="wikitable"; style, for CSS styling; scope, to indicate row or column header cells; rowspan, to extend cells by more than one row; colspan, to extend cells by more than one column; and border, for borders for non-wikitable tables.

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Pipe syntax tutorial

Although HTML table syntax also works, special wikicode can be used as a shortcut to create a table. The vertical bar or "pipe" symbol ( | ) 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:

• 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:

  {|    table code goes here  |}  

• An optional table caption is included with a line starting with a vertical bar and plus sign "|+" and the caption after it:

  {|  |+ caption    table code goes here  |}  

• 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.

  {|  |+ The table's caption  |-    row code goes here  |-    next row code goes here  |}  

• Type the codes for each table cell in the next row, starting with a bar:

  {|  |+ The table's caption  |-  | cell code goes here  |-  | next row cell code goes here  | next cell code goes here  |}  

• 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:

  {|  |+ The table's caption  |-  |Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3  |-  |Cell A  |Cell B  |Cell C  |}  

• A row of column headers is identified by using "! scope="col" |" instead of "|", and using "!! scope="col" |" instead of "||". Header cells typically render differently from regular cells, depending on the browser. They are often rendered in a bold font and centered. The scope="col" markup is not technically necessary in wikitables styled with class markup: class="wikitable" and so on. However, it is easier for other editors to understand the markup when it is present, and the Manual of Style recommends using it because it directly associates header with corresponding cells, a boon to accessibility.

  {|  |+ The table's caption  ! scope="col" | Column header 1  ! scope="col" | Column header 2  ! scope="col" | Column header 3  |-  | Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3  |-  | Cell A  | Cell B  | Cell C  |}  

• The first cell of a row is identified as a row header by starting the line with "! scope="row" |" instead of "|", and starting subsequent data cells on a new line. The scope="row" code, as with scope="col", is not technically required in wikitables styled with class markup like class="wikitable", but it is recommended by the Manual of Style for both accessibility and code readability reasons.

  {|  |+ The table's caption  ! scope="col" | Column header 1  ! scope="col" | Column header 2  ! scope="col" | Column header 3  |-  ! scope="row" | Row header 1  | Cell 2 || Cell 3  |-  ! scope="row" | Row header A  | Cell B  | Cell C  |}  

• The final table displays like this:

• Optional parameters can modify the display and styling of cells, rows, or the entire table. The simplest way to add styling is to set the wikitable CSS class, which in Wikipedia's external style sheet is defined to apply a gray color scheme and cell borders to tables using it:

  {| class="wikitable"  |+ The table's caption  ! Column header 1  ! Column header 2  ! Column header 3  |-  ! Row header 1  | Cell 2 || Cell 3  |-  ! Row header A  | Cell B  | Cell C  |}  

Which 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 thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, and col elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki, as of April 2017.

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.

With colspan and rowspan cells can span several columns or rows; (See § Mélange, below.)

Rendering the pipe

When cell content that contains a pipe character does not render correctly, simply add an empty format for that cell. The second pipe character in a line of |cell code will not display; it is reserved for adding a format. Wikicode between the first and second pipe is a format, but since emptiness or an error there is ignored, it just disappears. When this happens add a dummy format. (For a real format, see § HTML attributes, below.) Use a third pipe character to render your first pipe character.

The third and later pipe characters will render, but to display two adjacent pipe characters in a cell, (instead of having them act as the first pipe at the start of a new cell), other pipe-rendering options are needed. Instead of using a dummy format to render a pipe, you can render it directly by 1) <nowiki>|</nowiki> (preferred) or 2) html: | or |. Each line of cell code in the following table has one wikicode pipe.

Template {{!}}, because of the order in which things are parsed, is equivalent to typing in a single | pipe character. The single <nowiki />| parser-tag does not apply here. See how they do not escape the second pipe, as &#124 and <nowiki>|</nowiki> did above:

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Examples

Simple straightforward tables

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:

  {|  |-  | A  | B  |-  | C  | D  |}  

  {|  |-  | A || B  |-  | C || D  |}  

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

Multiplication table

Note that in this example class="wikitable" 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:

  {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 200px; height: 200px;"  |+ Multiplication table  |-  ! ×  ! 1  ! 2  ! 3  |-  ! 1  | 1 || 2 || 3  |-  ! 2  | 2 || 4 || 6  |-  ! 3  | 3 || 6 || 9  |-  ! 4  | 4 || 8 || 12  |-  ! 5  | 5 || 10 || 15  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Whole table operations

Captions and summaries

Explicit table captions are recommended for data tables as a best practice; the Wikipedia Manual of Style considers them a high priority for accessibility reasons, as a caption is explicitly associated with the table, unlike a normal wikitext heading or introductory sentence. A caption is provided with the |+ markup, similar to a table row (|-), but it does not contain any cells, and is not within the table border. Captions are always displayed, appearing as a title centered (in most browsers), above the table. A caption can be styled (with inline, not block, CSS), and may include wikilinks, reference citations, etc.

A summary provides an overview of the data of a table for text and audio browsers, and does not normally display in graphical browsers. The summary (also a high Manual of Style priority for tables) is a synopsis of content, and does not repeat the caption text; think of it as analogous to an image's alt description. A summary is added with summary="Summary text here.", on the same line as the {| that opened the table, along with any class= and other parameters for the table as a whole. The summary= attribute is, however, obsolete in HTML5.

Wiki markup example showing left-aligned caption with a source citation:

  {| class="wikitable"  |+ style="text-align: left;" | Data reported for 2014-2015, by region<ref name="Garcia 2005" />  |-  ! scope="col" | Year !! scope="col" | Africa !! scope="col" | Americas !! scope="col" | Asia & Pacific !! scope="col" | Europe  |-  ! scope="row" | 2014   | 2,300 || 8,950 || ''9,325'' || 4,200  |-  ! scope="row" | 2015  | 2,725 || ''9,200'' || 8,850 || 4,775  |}  

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:

  {| class="wikitable" style="width: 60%; height: 14em;"  |-  | Top-left-cell || Top-center-cell || Top-right-cell  |- style="height: 7em;"  | Middle-left-cell || style="width: 14em;" | Middle-center-cell || Middle-right-cell  |-  | Bottom-left-cell || Bottom-center-cell || Bottom-right-cell  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Setting borders

Add a border around a table using the CSS property border: thickness style color;, for example border:3px dashed red. This example uses a solid (non-dashed) gray border that is one pixel wide:

Wiki markup:

  {| style="border-spacing: 2px; border: 1px solid darkgray;"  ! style="width: 140px;" | Left  ! style="width: 150px;" | Center  ! style="width: 130px;" | Right  |-  | [[File:StarIconBronze.png|120px|Bronze star icon]]  | [[File:StarIconGold.png|120px|Gold star icon]]  | [[File:StarIconGreen.png|120px|Green star icon]]  |- style="text-align: center;"  | Bronze star || Gold star || Green star  |}  

Note the bottom-row texts are centered by style="text-align: center;" while the star images are not centered (i.e. left aligned).

As long as the File: 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 (as in style="border: 1px solid darkgreen;") or use a hex-color (such as: #DDCCBB).

The same CSS can be used in a cell's format specifier (enclosed in |...|) to put a border around each cell:

Wiki markup:

  {| style="border-spacing: 2px; border: 1px solid darkgray;"  ! style="width: 140px;" | Left  ! style="width: 150px;" | Center  ! style="width: 130px;" | Right  |-  |- style="text-align: center;"  | style="border: 1px solid blue;"|  [[File:StarIconBronze.png|120px|Bronze star icon]]  | style="border: 1px solid #777777;"|  [[File:StarIconGold.png|120px|Gold star icon]]  | style="border: 1px solid #22AA55;"|<!--greenish border-->  [[File:StarIconGreen.png|120px|Green star icon]]  |- style="text-align: center;"  |Bronze star || Gold star || Green star  |}  

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.

If all cells have the same border color, the resulting double borders may not be wanted; add the border-collapse: collapse; CSS property on the table opening tag to reduce them to single ones (cellspacing=... is obsolete).

Additionally, the W3C allows the use of the otherwise obsolete border= attribute on the table root ({|) if its value is "1". This adds a one-pixel border, in the default color, to the table and all of its cells at once:

  {| border="1"  |-  | A || B || C  |-  | D || E || F  |}  

Using the border-collapse property to combine the double borders, as described above:

  {| border="1" style="border-collapse: collapse;"  |-  | A || B || C  |-  | D || E || F  |}  

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 floatleft and floatright (case sensitive) help floating the table and adjusting table margins so that they do not stick to the text. floatleft floats the table to the left and adjusts right margin. floatright does the opposite. Example:

  This paragraph is before the table. The text in column 2 spans both rows because of format specifier "rowspan=2" so there is no coding for "Col 2" in the 2nd row, just Col 1 and Col 3.  {| class="wikitable floatright"  | Col 1, row 1  | rowspan="2" | Col 2, row 1 (and 2)  | Col 3, row 1  |-  | Col 1, row 2  | Col 3, row 2  |}  {| class="wikitable floatleft"  | Col 1, row 1  | rowspan="2" | Col 2, row 1 (and 2)  | Col 3, row 1  |-  | Col 1, row 2  | Col 3, row 2  |}  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:

Note that although there are other ways to float a table, such as style="float:left;", style="float:right;", the only parameters that allow you to position the table under a floated multimedia object are floatleft and floatright. For example:

Aligning the table with floatleft produces:

But aligning it with style="float:left;" produces:

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
{| style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"

Wiki markup:

  Text before table...  {| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"  |+ '''Cells left-aligned, table centered'''  ! scope="col" | Duis  ! scope="col" | aute  ! scope="col" | irure  |-  | dolor || in reprehenderit || in voluptate velit  |-  | esse cillum dolore || eu fugiat nulla || pariatur.  |}  ...text after table  

As it appears in a browser:

Nested tables

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. And 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 schematics, though as noted above, this is deprecated. 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:

  {|  |-  | style="background: red; color: white;" | abc  | def  | style="background: red;"| <span style="color: white;"> ghi </span>  | jkl  |}  

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:

  {| style="background: yellow; color: green;"  |-  | stu || style="background: silver;" | vwx || yz  |- style="background: red; color: white"  | stu || style="background: silver;" | vwx || yz  |-  | stu || style="background: silver;" | vwx || yz  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

To make the table blend in with the background, use style="background: none;" or style="background: transparent;". (Warning: style="background: inherit;", does not work with some older browsers, including IE6, so ensure that the table will be intelligible if the coloring preference fails.)

To force a cell to match one of the default colors of the class="wikitable" template, use style="background: #f2f2f2;" for the darker header, and style="background: #f9f9f9;" for the lighter body.

Cell operations

Setting cell parameters

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

Wiki markup:

  {| style="color: white;"  |-  | style="background: red;"|cell1 || style="width: 300px; background: blue;"|cell2  | style="background: green;"|cell3  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Vertical alignment in cells

By default, text is aligned to the vertical middle of the cell:

To align the text to the top of the cell, apply the style="vertical-align: top;" CSS to the rows (unfortunately, it seems to be necessary to apply this individually to every single row). The valign=... attribute is obsolete and should not be used.

Wiki markup:

Cell content indenting

The contents of a cell can be indented using a CSS style of padding-left.

Wiki markup:

  {| class="wikitable"  |-  | Cell content that is not indented || 1  |-  | style="padding-left: 2em;" | Indented content || 2  |}  

Row operations

Height

(See § Width, height, above.)

Border

(See § Setting borders, above.)

Alignment

(See § Positioning, above.)

Column operations

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:

  {| class="wikitable"  ! scope="col" style="width: 50px;" | Name  ! scope="col" style="width: 225px;" | Effect  ! scope="col" style="width: 225px;" | Games found in  |-  | Poké Ball || Regular Poké Ball || All versions  |-  | Great Ball || Better than a Poké Ball || All versions  |}  

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

Wiki markup:

  {| class="wikitable"  |-  | style="width: 100pt;" | This column is 100 points wide  | style="width: 200pt;" | This column is 200 points wide  | style="width: 300pt;" | This column is 300 points wide  |-  | blah || blih || bluh  |}  

You can also use percentages, such as to equalize the widths of a two-column table by setting one of them to style="width: 50%;".

One application of setting the widths is aligning columns of consecutive tables. The following are separate tables, with columns set to 350px and 225px. Warning: Setting specific pixel sizes is deprecated, as it interferes with the ability of the browser to adjust content to suit the browser window, device size, user-end font size limits, and other constraints. It is strongly preferred to use relative sizes, in percentage or em values.

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 style="white-space: nowrap;" in a non-header cell on the longest/widest cell to affect the entire column.

Without nowrap, as it appears in a browser:

With nowrap, on both the Episode and Date columns, as it appears in a browser:

Tooltips

You can add tooltips to columns by using the {{H:title}} template. Simply replace the column-title with {{H:title|The tool tip|Column title}}, which makes it appear like so: Column title.

More complex examples

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.

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:

As it appears in a browser:

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 File-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:

  {| style="float: right; border: 1px solid #BBB; margin: .46em 0 0 .2em;"  |- style="font-size: 86%;"  | style="vertical-align: top;" |[[File:DuraEuropos-TempleOfBel.jpg|180px]]<!--    --><br /> Temple of [[Bel (mythology)|Bel]] (floating).  |}  

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 |frameless|right instead of |thumb.

An image set with parameter |left has a wide right-side margin (opposite margin of parameter |right), so floating toward the left can be achieved with 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 word of the text 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:

  {| class="wikitable"  |-  ! Column 1 !! Column 2 !! Column 3  |-  | rowspan="2" | A  | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | B  |-  | C <!-- column 1 occupied by cell A -->  | D  |-  | E  | rowspan="2" colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |F  |-  | G <!-- column 2+3 occupied by cell F -->  |-  | colspan="3" style="text-align: center;" | H  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Note that using rowspan="2" for cell G combined with rowspan="3" 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.

Below is the same table with the order of the declared rows and cells shown in parentheses. The used rowspan and colspan are also shown.

Note that although cell C is in column 2, C is the 1st cell declared in row 3, because column 1 is occupied by cell A, which was declared in row 2. Cell G is the only cell declared in row 5, because cell F occupies the other columns but was declared in row 4.

Workarounds

Decimal point alignment

Unfortunately, the only way to align columns of numbers at the decimal point is to use two columns, with the first right-justified and the second left-justified.

Wiki markup:

  {| style="border-collapse: collapse;"  | style="text-align: right;" | 432 || .1  |-  | style="text-align: right;" | 43 || .21  |-  | style="text-align: right;" | 4 || .321  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

If the column of numbers appears in a table with cell padding or cell borders, you can still align the decimal points without an unsightly gap in the middle, by forcing the border and padding between those two columns off.

Wiki markup:

  {| class="wikitable"  !colspan=2| Heading  |-  | style="text-align:right; border-right:none; padding-right:0;" | 432  | style="text-align:left;  border-left: none; padding-left: 0;" | .1  |-  | style="text-align:right; border-right:none; padding-right:0;" | 43  | style="text-align:left;  border-left: none; padding-left: 0;" | .21  |-  | style="text-align:right; border-right:none; padding-right:0;" | 4  | style="text-align:left;  border-left: none; padding-left: 0;" | .321  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Or alternatively the {{decimal cell}} template can be used:

  {| class="wikitable"  !colspan=2 |Heading  |-  | {{decimal cell|432.1}}  |-  | {{decimal cell|43.21}}  |-  | {{decimal cell|4.321}}  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

Using two columns like this does have the disadvantage that searching the web page (either with a browser or a search engine) will usually not be able to find text that straddles the column boundary.

Also, if the table has cell spacing (and thus border-collapse=separate), meaning that cells have separate borders with a gap in between, that gap will still be visible.

A cruder way to align columns of numbers is to use a figure space  , which is intended to be the width of a numeral, though is font-dependent in practice:

Wiki markup:

  {|  | 432.1  |-  |  43.21  |-  |   4.321  |}  

As it appears in a browser:

As a last resort, when using pre-formatted text, you can dispense with the table feature entirely and simply start the lines with a space, and put spaces to position the numbers--however, there should be a good reason to use pre-formatted text in an article:

Wiki markup (just spaces!):

  432.1   43.21    4.321  

As it appears in a browser:

Non-rectangular tables

An alternative to using {{diagonal split header|HEADER-FOR-ROW-HEADERS|HEADER-FOR-COLUMN-HEADERS}} to diagonally split a header cell, as in the top-left cell below:

Cell borders can be hidden by adding border: none; background: none; to style attributes of either table or cell (may not work in older browsers). Another use is to implement multi-column aligned tables.

Wiki markup:

  {| class="wikitable" style="border: none; background: none;"  ! colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="border: none; background: none;"|[[File:Pfeil_SO.svg|none|link=|20px]]  ! colspan="3"| To  |-  ! Solid !! Liquid !! Gas  |-  ! rowspan="3"| From  ! Solid  | Solid-solid transformation || Melting || Sublimation  |-  ! Liquid  | Freezing || {{sdash}} || Boiling/evaporation  |-  ! Gas  | Deposition || Condensation || {{sdash}}  |}  {| class="wikitable" style="border: none; background: none;"  ! Year !! Size !! rowspan="5" style="border: none; background: none;"|  ! Year !! Size !! rowspan="5" style="border: none; background: none;"|  ! Year !! Size  |-  | 1990 || 1000<br />(est) || 2000 || 1357 || 2010 || 1776  |-  | 1991 || 1010 || 2001 || 1471 || 2011 || 1888  |-  | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|?  | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|?  | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"|?  |-  | 1999 || 1234 || 2009 || 1616 || 2019 || 1997<br />(est)  |}  

Note that the removal of the link on an image is dependent on it being PD. As it appears in a browser:

Centering tables

(See § Centering tables, above.)

src: thumb7.shutterstock.com

Classes

There are several other CSS classes, besides the basic class="wikitable", documented above.

In the first line of table code, after the {|, instead of specifying a style directly, you can also specify a CSS 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 class="wikitable". 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

As it appears in a browser:

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 class collapsible to enable collapsing behaviour. Collapsible tables can be sortable, too, by also including the sortable class; (See § Sortable tables, above.). By default, a collapsible table begins expanded. To change this, include the additional class collapsed. Alternatively, you can use autocollapse, instead of collapsed, which will automatically collapse the table if three or more collapsible tables are present. As of September 2010, you must include a header row, which is where this generated "[hide]" / "[show]" option displays. Example:

  {| class="wikitable collapsible autocollapse"  |-  ! Header  |-  | Content that starts hidden  |-  | more hidden content  |}  

Gives:

Using class mw-collapsible

Another way is to use class "mw-collapsible". .

  {| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"  

  {| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"   

Tables with captions

Tables with captions will collapse to the table caption. Use {{nowrap}} to keep the caption from being fit into a tiny vertical column when the table is collapsed.

  {| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"   |+{{nowrap|Somewhat long table caption}}  

Sortable tables

Tables can be made sortable by adding the CSS sortable; 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.
• In a column of numbers, do not put text such as "ca." or "approx." 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, use a "data-sort-value" to override the displayed contents in regards to its sortability for this element. see Help:Sorting#Specifying a sort key for a cell.

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

Wiki markup

As it appears in a browser:

Numerical and year sorting problems

Sorting and collapsing

It is possible to collapse a sortable table. To do so, you need to use the code {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible". Taking the above table and making it collapsible gives you this:

Wiki markup

As it appears in a browser:

If you want the table to default to collapsed state, use the code {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" in place of {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible".

mw-datatable

The mw-datatable allows for row highlighting by using the class mw-datatable. When a cursor hovers over the table, that row over which the cursor is on will be highlighted.

  {| class="mw-datatable"  |-  ! 1 ! 2 ! 3  |-  | 1-1 || 2-1 || 3-1  |-  | 1-2 || 2-2 || 3-2  |}  

produces:

It can be used in combination with class wikitable for more similar styling and cell padding, while still allowing hover highlighting of rows.

  {| class="wikitable mw-datatable"  |-  ! 1 ! 2 ! 3  |-  | 1-1 || 2-1 || 3-1  |-  | 1-2 || 2-2 || 3-2  |}  

produces:

src: d1t1u890k7d3ys.cloudfront.net

Cells spanning multiple rows or columns

It is possible to create cells that stretch over two or more columns. For this, one uses |colspan=n | content. Similarly, one can create cells that stretch over two or more rows. This requires |rowspan=m | content. In the table code, one must leave out the cells that are covered by such a span. The resulting column- and row-counting must fit.

  {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"  !col1  !col2  !col3  !col4  |-  !row1  | colspan="2" | A  <!-- column counting: cell 'B' can not exist -->  |C  |-  !row2  |AA  |BB  |CC  |-  !row3  |AAA  | rowspan="2" | BBB  |CCC  |-  !row4  |AAAA  <!-- row counting: cell 'BBBB' can not exist -->  |CCCC  |}  

In the code, the cell | colspan="2" | A spans two columns. Note that, in the next column, a cell expected to contain "B" does not exist.

Similar: in the code, cell | rowspan="2" | BBB spans two rows. A cell expected to contain "BBBB" does not exist.

src: c8.alamy.com

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 id="section link anchor name" parameter needs to be added to the row start |- or <tr>:

  |- id="section link anchor name"  

  <tr id="section link anchor name">  

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

Example of a map link to a row

When a country label, containing a link, is clicked on the map, the link coded, for example, as [[#Table row 11|Slovenia]] that references the anchor (within the table), coded as |- id="Table row 11", makes the page scroll so selected row of the table is at the top of the browser view. Here, we use the template family {{Image label begin}}, {{Image label small}}, and {{Image label end}} to lay out such a table for us:

src: i.pinimg.com

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, may have much in common, e.g.:

• the basic code for a table row
• code for color, alignment, and sorting mode
• fixed texts such as units
• special formats for sorting

In such a 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:

• 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 m:Help:Table/example row template (talk, backlinks, edit)

  {| class="wikitable sortable"  |-  ! scope="col" | a  ! scope="col" | b  ! scope="col" | a/b  {{Help:Table/example row template|  50|200}}  {{Help:Table/example row template|   8| 11}}  {{Help:Table/example row template|1000| 81}}  |}  

gives:

src: c8.alamy.com

Conditional table row

For a conditional row in a table, we can have:

  {| class="wikitable"   {{ #if:1|{{!}}-    ! scope="row" {{!}} row one, column one    {{!}}row one, column two}}   {{ #if: |{{!}}-    ! scope="row" {{!}} row two, column one    {{!}}row two, column two}}   |-    ! scope="row" {{!}} row three, column one    | row three, column two  |}  

With comments to explain how it works:

Which gives the following table: (note how the second row is missing)

src: cdn.arstechnica.net

Other table syntax

The types of table syntax that MediaWiki supports are:

1. Wikicode | syntax
2. HTML (and XHTML)
3. Mixed XHTML and wikicode (Do not use)

All three are supported by MediaWiki and create (currently) valid HTML output, but the pipe syntax is the simplest. Mixed HTML and wikicode | syntax (i.e., unclosed | and |- tags) don't necessarily remain browser-supported in the future, especially on mobile devices.

See also HTML element#Tables. Note, however, that the thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, and col elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki, as of July 2015.

Comparison of table syntax

src: www.hippocampus.org

Pipe syntax in terms of the HTML produced

The pipe syntax, developed by Magnus Manske, substitutes pipes ( | ) and other symbols for HTML. There is an online 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 {| parameters |}, which generates <table params>...</table>.

Rows

For each table, an HTML <tr> tag is generated for the first row. To start a new row, use:

  |-  

which generates another <tr>.

Parameters can be added like this:

  |- params  

which generates <tr params>.

Note:

• <tr> tags are automatically opened before the first <td> equivalent
• <tr> tags are automatically closed at another <tr> equivalent and at the </table> equivalent

Cells

Cells are generated either like this:

  |cell1  |cell2  |cell3  

or like this:

  |cell1||cell2||cell3  

which both generate:

  <td>cell1</td><td>cell2</td><td>cell3</td>.  

The || equals a newline + | .

Parameters in cells can be used like this:

  |params|cell1||params|cell2||params|cell3  

which results in:

  <td params>cell1</td>  <td params>cell2</td>  <td params>cell3</td>  

Headers

The code used produces a <th>...</th>, functioning the same way as <td>...</td>, but with different style and semantic meaning. A ! character is used instead of the opening | , and !! can be used like ||, to enter multiple headers on the same line. Parameters still use "|", though. Example:

  !params|cell1  

Captions

A <caption> tag is created by caption which generates the HTML <caption>caption</caption>.

You can also use parameters:

  caption  

which generates <caption params>caption</caption>.

src: i.vimeocdn.com

Table cell templates

{{Table cell templates}} provide a set of templates to configure text and color in cells in a standard way, producing stock output such as "Yes", "No", and "n/a", on coloured backgrounds.

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. Formerly, browser support for this type of styling as a component of HTML or CSS was sporadic (Internet Explorer was 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 headers:

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 |link= parameter of the File: specification. A column header can be coded as follows:

The image wikilinks to the page Wikipedia:WikiProject Video games.

By setting the link to an empty string (e.g. [[File:wpvg hd date page.svg |link=]]), 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 while producing fewer artifacts.

A more serious potential 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 wouldn't be able to "read" the column headers. Also, automated search engine Web crawlers would not be able to read it either. This is solved by always using the |alt= parameter in the File: specification of each image to provide the same text as in the rotated image; see |alt=VG: Project in the example above.

Wikitable as image gallery

A wikitable can be used to display side-by-side images, in the manner similar to that of an image gallery (formatted by <gallery>...</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 within the table:

   {| class="wikitable"   |-   |<!--col1-->[[File:Worms 01.jpg|130px]]   |<!--col2-->[[File:Worms Wappen 2005-05-27.jpg|125px]]   |<!--col3-->[[File:Liberty-statue-with-manhattan.jpg|125px]]   |<!--col4-->[[File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg|125px]]   |-   |<!--col1-->Nibelungen Bridge to Worms   |<!--col2-->Worms and its sister cities   |<!--col3-->Statue of Liberty   |<!--col4-->New York City   |}<!--end wikitable-->  

An advantage of wikitable image galleries, compared to <gallery> formatting, is the ability to "square" each image when similar heights are needed, so consider putting two-number image sizes (such as 199x95px), where the second number limits height:

   {| class="wikitable"   |<!--col1-->[[File:Worms 01.jpg|199x95px]]   |<!--col2-->[[File:Worms Wappen 2005-05-27.jpg|199x95px]]   |<!--col3-->[[File:Liberty-statue-with-manhattan.jpg|199x95px]]   |<!--col4-->[[File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg|100x95px]]<!--smaller-->   |-   |<!--col1-->Nibelungen Bridge to Worms   |<!--col2-->Worms and its sister cities   |<!--col3-->Statue of Liberty   |<!--col4-->New York City   |}  

Note the three images sized 199x95px appear identical height, of 95px (the fourth image purposely smaller). The "95px" forces height, while 199x fits the various widths (it could even be 999x):

Therefore, the use of size 199x95px (or 999x95px, or whatever) produces the auto-height-sizing beyond the <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 (e.g. 70px) allows many more images across the table:

   {| class="wikitable"   |-   |<!--col1-->[[File:Worms 01.jpg|199x70px]]   |<!--col2-->[[File:Gold star on blue.gif|199x70px]]   |<!--col3-->[[File:Worms Wappen 2005-05-27.jpg|199x70px]]   |<!--col4-->[[File:Gold star on deep red.gif|199x70px]]   |<!--col5-->[[File:Liberty-statue-with-manhattan.jpg|199x70px]]   |<!--col6-->[[File:Gold star on blue.gif|199x70px]]   |<!--col7-->[[File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg|199x70px]]<!--same height-->   |-   |}  

The above wikitable-coding produces the result below, of 7 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 ( ) before or after the image code (e.g.,  [[Image:...]]). However, auto-centering simply requires use of the |center parameter (see WP:Extended image syntax#Location).

In the example below, note how Col2 uses |center, but Col3 uses  :

   {| class="wikitable"   |-   |<!--Col1-->[[File:Domtoren vanaf Brigittenstraat.jpg|299x125px]]   |<!--Col2-->[[File:Utrecht 003.jpg|299x125px|center]]   |<!--Col3-->&nbsp;[[File:Uitzicht--Domtoren.jpg|299x125px]]&nbsp;   |-   |<!--Col1-->Dom tower from Brigittenstraat   |<!--Col2-->Cloister garth of the Utrecht Dom Church   |<!--Col3-->&nbsp;&nbsp;<small>View from bell tower</small>   |}  

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...", to give an approximation of centering:

Also note that the tag <small>...</small> made a smaller-text-size caption. Fonts also can be sized by percent (style="font-size: 87%;"), where the exact percent-size as displayed depends on the various sizes allowed for a particular font; the browser will approximate to the nearest possible size.

   | style="font-size: 87%;" | View from bell tower  

The column attribute, above, uses style= to set the font size for the caption, following the second pipe symbol.

A font-size: 65%; is excessively small, while font-size: 87%; is a mid-size font, slightly larger than that produced by the tag <small>.

Converting spreadsheets and database tables to wikitable format

To convert from spreadsheets (such as those produced by Gnumeric, Microsoft Excel, or LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org/StarOffice Calc), you can use the Copy & Paste Excel-to-Wiki converter, or the MediaWiki Tables Generator.

The online csv2wp script (documentation) converts comma-separated values (CSV) format to wikitable pipe syntax. You may use this to import tables from both spreadsheets and databases (such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, FileMaker, Microsoft SQL Server & Access, Oracle, DB2, etc.).

Indenting tables

To indent an entire table, use one or more colons (":", the normal indent code), immediately before the table:

  :{| class="wikitable"  |-  ! Header 1  ! Header 2  |-  | row 1, cell 1  | row 1, cell 2  |-  | row 2, cell 1  | row 2, cell 2  |}  

which gives this result:

This should not normally be used, but in certain specific cases where surrounding paragraphs are also indented using ":", it can be useful.

Tables and the Visual Editor

It is now possible to copy and paste a table from a web page directly into the Visual Editor (VE). To do so safely, use a sandbox and check the table for proper coding in wikitext source mode and proper display in the Visual Editor and in preview mode. One of the most useful features is the ability to add and delete columns and rows within the VE; while edting, left-click on the left of a row, or the top of a column to see the options.

See also

• Help:Introduction to tables with Wiki Markup: an introduction to tables.
• Help:Basic table markup: the fundamentals of table wiki markup.
• Help:Sorting: information about sortable tables.
• Wikipedia:Advanced table formatting: advanced topics.
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables: the Manual of Style indicates best practices for tables.
  • Wikipedia:Table dos and don'ts: a quick guide to the Manual of Style for tables.
• User:Dcljr/Tables: table tutorials.
• Table (HTML): tags used for HTML tables.
• {{List to table}} template and its maintenance category: Category:Articles requiring tables
• Template:Horizontal TOC: good for country lists in table format.
• Category:Table templates: all the templates that use tables.
• Category:Multi-column templates: templates for using columns without tables.
• {{Table}}: template for specifying table CSS classes such as "wikitable" and "collapsible"
• {{Aligned table}}: for specifying tables as a template, allowing inclusion in other templates and areas where table syntax is problematic
• Examples:
  • Chess board template
  • Go board template

Wikimedia sister projects

• Editing Wikitext/Tables at Wikibooks
• Editing Wikitext/Tables Ready to Use at Wikibooks
• mw:Help:Tables: MediaWiki help page on tables.
• m:Wiki markup tables: Meta-Wiki information on tables.
• m:Help:Sorting: Meta-Wiki information on sortable tables.
• m:Table background colors: MediaWiki background colors table.
• Commons:Chart and graph resources: Chart and graph resources at Commons
• Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files: includes information on converting table markup.

Notes

External links

• VBA-Macro for EXCEL tableconversion, published in German-Wikipediaproject (English translation included)
• Online table builder with mediawiki export
• HTML tables to wiki converter at WMF Labs
• Copy & Paste Excel-to-Wiki converter at WMF Labs
• Wikitable Editor, a visual table editor in wiki code
• HTML-WikiConverter, various versions and languages
• pywikipediabot, can convert HTML tables to wiki
• Table of CSS color names and HEX codes
• Bugzilla request for floating table headers

Source of the article : Wikipedia