Help:Basic table markup

This help page describes basic wiki markup for tables. For a more extensive guide please see Help:Table.

Introduction

The markup for a basic table is the following. All this markup must start on a new line, except for !!, ||, and | (when used as an attribute separator).

{|	Table start	It opens a table
|+	Table caption	It adds a caption.
|-	Table row	It separates rows (but it is optional for the first row).
!	Header cell	It adds a header cell, which can be optionally be placed on the next line.
!!	Header cells on the same line	Header cells may be added on the same line separated by double marks.
|	Data cell	It adds a data cell, which can be optionally be placed on the next line. Also see "attribute separator" below.
||	Data cells on the same line	Data cells may be added on the same line separated by double marks.
|	Attribute separator	It is used to separate HTML attributes from cell contents (both data or header), or caption contents.
|}	Table end	It closes a table.

Example table

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption: example table
|-
! header1
! header2
! header3
|-
| row1cell1
| row1cell2
| row1cell3
|-
| row2cell1
| row2cell2
| row2cell3
|}

This would produce:

Caption: example table

header1	header2	header3
row1cell1	row1cell2	row1cell3
row2cell1	row2cell2	row2cell3

{| opens a table, and |} closes it. class="wikitable" is used with a lot of tables on Wikipedia, and adds some standard formatting, and follows on the same line as {|.

|+ Caption: example table adds the caption "Caption: example table" to the top of the table. The caption is optional.

Columns headers are created by ! column name. Cells are created by | cell text. The divider between rows is |-. You can add an extra column by just sticking ! new column name at the end of the last column name. To fill the cells in that column, you need to add another cell to each row: fill it by typing | cell text. If you want to add an extra row, just add |- to the table, and fill it with however many cells are appropriate.

The important thing to note is that there must be an equal number of cells on each line (unless overridden by rowspan or colspan, see below).

Blank spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored. Thus |row1cell1 and | row1cell1 are identical. To add a pipe (|) character into cell contents, you need to use the <nowiki> markup.

Using double marks with tables

All above markup must start on a new line. This includes the cell markup (| and !). Double cell markup (|| and !!) can be used to avoid this and to add consecutive cells to a single line.

For example, this would produce the same table as above:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption: example table
|-
! header1 !! header2 !! header3
|-
| row1cell1 || row1cell2 || row1cell3
|-
| row2cell1 || row2cell2 || row2cell3
|}

Column and row header cells

Header cells may be column or row header cells. For example, the following table has both:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption: example table
|-
! 
! columnheader1 
! columnheader2
|-
! rowheader1 
| row1cell1 
| row1cell2
|-
! rowheader2 
| row2cell1 
| row2cell2
|}

Which produces:

Caption: example table

	columnheader1	columnheader2
rowheader1	row1cell1	row1cell2
rowheader2	row2cell1	row2cell2

HTML attributes

HTML attributes are often needed to be added to tables for various reasons. Attributes take the basic form:

attribute="value"

Multiple attributes can be applied by repeating this, like attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"

Important points to realize:

• All table markup, except table end (|}), optionally accepts one or more attributes on the same line.
• Cell markup (|, ||, !, !!) and caption markup (|+) hold content. So separate any attributes from content with a single pipe (|), even when cell content is on a new line, which is permissible.
• Table and row markup ({| and |-) do not directly hold content. Therefore, do not add a pipe (|) after any attributes.

Adding HTML attributes to cells and captions

This is how to cell contents, including header cell contents, and also captions.

Cells hold content, e.g. row1cell1. The markup for cells and captions are: |, ||, !, !! and |+. Attributes need to be kept separate from cell content or captions with a single pipe (|). Cell content or captions may follow on the same line, or on a following line.

So attributes can be inserted like this:

| attribute="value" | row1cell1
| attribute="value" | row1cell2
| attribute="value" | row1cell3

Where attribute="value" indicates one or more attribute, for example style="color: red".

If the cells are on the same line, attributes can be added like this: | attribute="value" | row1cell1 || attribute="value" | row1cell2 || attribute="value" | row1cell3

Adding to the header can be done like this:

! attribute="value" | header1
! attribute="value" | header2
! attribute="value" | header3

Or like this: ! attribute="value" | header1 !! attribute="value" | header2 !! attribute="value" | header3

Adding to the caption is done like this: |+ attribute="value" | Caption Title

For example, lets say we wanted to make some cells' text red colored. The attribute to do so is style="color: red". It could be added to some cells in a table like this:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption: some cells red text.
|-
! header1
! header2
! header3
|-
| style="color: red" | row1cell1
| row1cell2
| style="color: red" | row1cell3
|-
| row2cell1
| style="color: red" | row2cell2
| row2cell3
|}

Then it would produce this:

Caption: some cells red text.

header1	header2	header3
row1cell1	row1cell2	row1cell3
row2cell1	row2cell2	row2cell3

As you can see, a red color has been added to some of the cells' text. Note that, optionally, cell contents could be added to new lines if desired.

Adding HTML attributes to whole tables and rows

Tables and rows use the following markup: {|, |- and |}. Attributes can be added to {| and |-. They do not directly hold content. Because of this, they should not have an added pipe (|) after any attributes.

Attributes can be added to the table markup like this: {| attribute="value", where attribute="value" indicates one or more attributes.

Attributes can be added to the row markup like this: |- attribute="value".

An example is the

{| class="wikitable"

used before, that applies a class to an entire table. Likewise you could add a second attribute: for example,

{| class="wikitable" style="color:red"

would apply two attributes, class and style. That style attribute would give text a red color.

An example of an attribute applied to a table row:

|- style="height: 100px"

would apply a style attribute, in this case to make the height of a table row 100px.

Commonly included

Commonly included HTML attributes in tables include:

class

For example class="wikitable". The class attribute is normally applied to a complete table. Other classes include class="wikitable sortable" (sortable tables) and class="wikitable mw-collapsible" (collapsing tables).

style

For example style="color:red". It is used for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) styling, and can be applied to whole tables, table captions, table rows and individual cells.

rowspan

For example rowspan="2". Used for formatting table rows and cells so they extend beyond their normal extent of one row, in this example two rows.

colspan

For example colspan="2". Used for formatting table rows and cells so they extend beyond their normal extent of one column, in this example two columns.

scope

For example scope="col" or scope="row". Not essential, but specifies that the cell is either a header for a column or row. Use scope="colgroup" colspan="2" or scope="rowgroup" rowspan="2" to specify that the cell is a header for a group of columns or rows.

Other HTML attributes are used with tables, but many are deprecated by HTML5. See "table", "caption", "table row", "header cell" and "data cell" for some deprecated attributes.

Cell contents on new lines

Cell content may follow on the same line after its cell markup (which may include attributes); or on lines below the cell markup.

Cell content that uses its own markup may need to start on a new line; this can happen with things like lists, headings, or nested tables.

For example, take the following single row table:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ One row table
| style="color:blue" | cell1
| cell2
| style="color:blue" | cell3
|}

Its output is:

One row table

cell1

cell2

cell3

Cell contents can be added to new lines if so desired:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ One row table
| style="color:blue" | 
cell1
| 
cell2
| style="color:blue" | 
cell3
|}

Its output is similar, but the vertical height is increased:

One row table

cell1

cell2

cell3

How tables are formed

If you use the following wiki markup for a table:

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption: example table
|-
! header1
! header2
! header3
|-
| row1cell1
| row1cell2
| row1cell3
|-
| row2cell1
| row2cell2
| row2cell3
|}

The MediaWiki software translates it into the following HTML:

<table class="wikitable">
<caption>Caption: example table</caption>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th>header1</th>
<th>header2</th>
<th>header3</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row1cell1</td>
<td>row1cell2</td>
<td>row1cell3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>row2cell1</td>
<td>row2cell2</td>
<td>row2cell3</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The ‎<table>...‎</table> tags opens and closes the table. The ‎<caption>...‎</caption> tags adds a caption. The ‎<tr>...‎</tr> tags opens and closes table rows. The ‎<th>...‎</th> tags adds a header cell. The ‎<td>...‎</td> tags adds a data cell. The optional ‎<tbody>...‎</tbody> tags defines where the table body starts and ends.

HTML attributes can be added by insertion within the opening tag. For example <table> can have an attribute added like this: <table attribute="value">, or <table attribute1="value1" attribute2="value2"> for two attributes. All other tags follow the same rule.

You can add a table using HTML coding rather than wiki markup, as described at HTML element#Tables. However it is discouraged due to readability reasons; see the manual of style on tables. Also, note that the ‎<thead>, ‎<tbody>, ‎<tfoot>, ‎<colgroup>, and ‎<col> tags are not supported in wikitext.

See also

For further help with tables, see:

• Help:Introduction to tables with Wiki Markup, a brief introduction to tables
• Help:Table, an in-depth and comprehensive guide to tables
• Help:Sorting, sortable tables typically use class="wikitable sortable"
• Help:Collapsing, collapsing tables typically uses class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
• Editing Wikitext/Tables at Wikibooks
• Editing Wikitext/Tables Ready to Use at Wikibooks
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables, the Manual of Style for best practices for tables
  • Wikipedia:Table dos and don'ts, a quick guide to the Manual of Style for tables
• Wikipedia:Advanced table formatting, some advanced techniques