Help:Table

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.

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.

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   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:, for example  ;  , for CSS styling;  , to indicate row or column header cells;  , to extend cells by more than one row;  , to extend cells by more than one column; and  , for borders for non-wikitable tables.

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:  {|    table code goes here  |} 
 * 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:
 * A row of column headers 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. The  markup is not technically necessary in wikitables styled with class markup:   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 first cell of a row is identified as a row header by starting the line with " " instead of " ", and starting subsequent data cells on a new line. The  code, as with , is not technically required in wikitables styled with class markup like  , but it is recommended by the Manual of Style for both accessibility and code readability reasons.
 * 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  CSS class, which in Wikipedia's external style sheet is defined to apply a gray color scheme and cell borders to tables using it:

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,  ,  ,  , and   elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki,.

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  and   cells can span several columns or rows;

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  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. 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)  (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  parser-tag does not apply here. See how they do not escape the second pipe, as &amp;#124 and  did above:

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: 

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  description. A summary is added with, on the same line as the   that opened the table, along with any   and other parameters for the table as a whole. The  attribute is, however, obsolete in HTML5.

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

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

Wiki markup:

Note the bottom-row texts are centered by  while the star images are not centered (i.e. left aligned).

As long as the  specs omit the parameter   they don't show the caption lines in the table (only during mouse-over). The border color  matches typical tables or infoboxes in articles; however, it could be any color name (as in  ) or use a hex-color (such as:  ).

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

Wiki markup:

Note only the image cells, here, have individual borders, not the text. The lower hex-colors (such as: ) 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  CSS property on the table opening tag to reduce them to single ones (  is obsolete).

Additionally, the W3C allows the use of the otherwise obsolete  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:

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

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  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".

Side by side tables

 * You can also place tables side by side by adding  to the opening of your table. The tables will wrap depending on screen width. Narrow your browser window to see. For example:



Gets:

Side by side tables and images
You can add images to the mix by removing the  styling from within the tables and putting the styling in between each item. Also add  to align every item to the top. The tables and images will wrap depending on screen width. Narrow your browser window to see. For example:

     <li style="display: inline-table; vertical-align:top;"> </li> </li> </ul>

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: <pre style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> 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. 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: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px; text-align: justify;"> 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.

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,  , the only parameters that allow you to position the table under a floated multimedia object are   and. For example:

Aligning the table with  produces: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px; text-align: justify;"> 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:

<div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px; text-align: justify;"> 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: <div style="border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px;"> Text before table...

...text after table

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  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.

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

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

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 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  template, use   for the darker header, and   for the lighter body.

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

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

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

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;">

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

With, on both the Episode and Date columns, as it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px;">

Tooltips
You can add tooltips to columns by using the H:title template. Simply replace the column-title with, which makes it appear like so: Column title.

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: <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: ). However, the table margins, border and font-size must be precisely set to match a typical image display. The File-spec parameter  (although auto-thumbnailing to user-preference width) forces a wide left-margin that squeezes the nearby text, so the parameter   can be added to suppress the left-margin padding. However,  sometimes shoves the caption to a 2nd line (under a centered box "[]"), so   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. 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  (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  has a wide right-side margin (opposite margin of parameter  ), so floating toward the left can be achieved with an image set as   inside a table with style="float:left; margin:0.46em 0.2em;".

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

Note the : first come infoboxes or images using, 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. 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.

Below is the same table with the order of the declared rows and cells shown in parentheses. The used  and   are also shown. <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px;"> 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.

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:

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 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:

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

Or alternatively the decimal cell template can be used:

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

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 ), 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:

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

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

Non-rectangular tables
can be used to diagonally split a header cell, as in the top-left cell below:

Cell borders can be hidden by adding 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: Note that the removal of the link on an image is dependent on it being purely decorative (as it will be ignored by assistive devices). As it appears in a browser: <div style="background: white; border: 2px solid rgb(0, 255, 0); padding: 2px;">

Classes
There are several other CSS classes, besides the basic, 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. This is because the  class in MediaWiki:Common.css contains a number of   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  class, and the headers are still bold and centered. But now the text formatting has been overridden by the local  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 to enable collapsing behaviour. Collapsible tables can be sortable, too, by also including the  class;. By default, a collapsible table begins expanded. To change this, add the additional class. Alternatively, you can add, instead of , which will automatically collapse the table if two or more collapsible elements are present on the page.

Note: Previous versions of this article recommended the  class, but  is now preferred. It is a feature of the MediaWiki software, not a local customization, and can be used to make any element collapsible, not just tables. also does not require a header row in the table, as  did. Tables will show the "[hide]" / "[show]" controls in the first row of the table (whether or not it is a header row), unless a table caption is present.

Example:

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

Gives:

Without a header row
<pre style="display: inline-block;">{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"

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

<pre style="display: inline-block;">{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
 * +Somewhat long table caption

Sortable tables
Tables can be made sortable by adding the CSS ; 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.

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

Wiki markup

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

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.

mw-datatable
The mw-datatable allows for row highlighting by using the class. When a cursor hovers over the table, that row over which the cursor is on will be highlighted. <pre style="display: inline-block;"> produces:

It can be used in combination with class  for more similar styling and cell padding, while still allowing hover highlighting of rows. <pre style="display: inline-block;"> produces:

Cells spanning multiple rows or columns
It is possible to create cells that stretch over two or more columns. For this, one uses. Similarly, one can create cells that stretch over two or more rows. This requires. In the table code, one must. The resulting column- and row-counting must fit.

In the code, the cell  spans two columns. Note that, in the next column,.

Similar: in the code, cell  spans two rows. .

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  :

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.

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 selected row of the table is at the top of the browser view. Here, we use the template family, , and to lay out such a table for us:
 * 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, may have much in common, e.g.: 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:
 * 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  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;">

With comments to explain how it works: Which gives the following table: (note how the second row is missing)

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. 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
 * - 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 because of 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 to pass a   character in a parameter.
 * Sensitive to newlines; see Help:Newlines and spaces.
 * Requires using to pass a   character 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 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, which generates <table ></table>.

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

Parameters can be added like this: |- params which generates.

Note:
 * tags are automatically opened before the first equivalent
 * tags are automatically closed at another equivalent and at the  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 >cell1</td> <td >cell2</td> <td >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 tag is created by caption which generates the HTML <caption >caption</caption>.

You can also use parameters: caption which generates <caption >caption</caption>.

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 page—you can use the   parameter of the   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. ), 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  parameter in the   specification of each image to provide the same text as in the rotated image; see   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  to generate the minimal thin lines around images within the table:

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

Note the three images sized  appear identical height, of   (the fourth image purposely smaller). The "95px" forces height, while  fits the various widths (it could even be  ): Therefore, the use of size  (or , or whatever) produces the auto-height-sizing beyond the  tag, and with the option to set taller thumbnails , or even to have some images purposely smaller than other images of   height. A very short height (e.g. ) allows many more images across the table:

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., ). However, auto-centering simply requires use of the center parameter (see WP:Extended image syntax).

In the example below, note how Col2 uses center, but Col3 uses : 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, 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  to set the font size for the caption, following the second pipe symbol.

A  is excessively small, while   is a mid-size font, slightly larger than that produced by the tag.

Indenting tables
To indent an entire table, use one or more colons (":", the normal indent code), immediately before the table:<pre style="display: inline-block;">
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Header 1 ! Header 2 which gives this result:
 * row 1, cell 1
 * row 1, cell 2
 * row 2, cell 1
 * row 2, cell 2
 * }
 * row 2, cell 2
 * }
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Header 1 ! Header 2 This should not normally be used, but in certain specific cases where surrounding paragraphs are also indented using ":", it can be useful.
 * row 1, cell 1
 * row 1, cell 2
 * row 2, cell 1
 * row 2, cell 2
 * }
 * row 2, cell 2
 * }

Converting spreadsheets and database tables to wikitable format

 * See also the Visual Editor section farther down, and the spreadsheet info there.

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.).

Tables and the Visual Editor (VE)

 * See also: mw: Help:VisualEditor/User guide. And see: Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files.

See T108245: "Fully support basic table editing in the visual editor". See the list of tasks. Finished tasks are struck. It can be difficult to figure out from the technical language there what exactly has been improved, or what features have been added. Please add explanatory info below.

Sandboxes help a lot. For example; your user page: Special:MyPage. Create and bookmark some personal sandboxes too. Visual Editor will load very fast in empty sandboxes: Special:MyPage/Sandbox, Special:MyPage/Sandbox2, Special:MyPage/Sandbox3. As many as you want. Share the link when asking for help. To find all your sandboxes: Special:PrefixIndex/User: - click link, add user name to the spot labeled "Display pages with prefix:"

Insert blank row or column
Click on a column or row header. Then click on the arrow. From the popup menu click on "Insert".

Move or delete columns and rows
Click on a column or row header. Then click on the arrow. From the popup menu click on "Move" or "Delete".

Copy column from one table to another
This is useful for many things. For example; for quickly updating country lists, or adding/updating a rank column. See Help:Sorting about rank columns and row numbers. See also: Commons:Convert tables and charts to wiki code or image files. See the section on updating List of countries by incarceration rate.

In the column you are copying click the header cell. Then shift-click any cell in the column. This will select the column down to that cell. Then click "copy" from the edit menu of your browser. In some browsers you can do this from the popup context menu. Then click any blank spot on the page to deselect the column.

Go to the column you want to replace or fill in (in this table or another one). Be sure visual editor has been launched. Select just the header cell for that column by clicking on it. Then click "paste" from the edit menu of your browser.

You can paste into a blank column the same way. Just select the header cell. Then from your browser: edit menu > paste.

Copy or delete multiple rows
Click on the top corner cell of the area you want to select. Then shift-click on the opposite top corner cell in the same row. Then go straight down and shift-click on the bottom corner cell on the same side of the area you want to select. You will now have a rectangle or square selected of the table.

Click on "copy" or "cut" as needed from the edit menu of your browser. "Delete" will not work for multiple rows and columns.

Click on the top left corner cell of the area you want to paste into in a table. Then click "paste" from the edit menu of your browser. It can take from a few seconds to up to a minute for very large areas. You might want to do this work in a sandbox first. Then save and edit further before putting anything in an article.

"Cut" will empty the selected cells. It does not delete them. Once empty though it is very easy to delete all the empty cells, rows, and columns in the source editor. Switch over to it by clicking the arrow at the top right of the editing window.

It may be even faster to use the Visual Editor to copy the parts you want from the table into a new blank table.

Copy table from web page to Visual Editor
It is now possible to copy and paste a table from a web page directly into the Visual Editor (VE). Use an empty sandbox to do this most quickly. Save it, and edit further before pasting it into an article.

Select the table on the web page. Then click "copy" from the edit menu of your browser. In some browsers you can do this from the popup context menu. Then go to a sandbox page. Launch visual editor. Click on the insert menu, and then "table". It usually has the first header in the table selected. Then click on "paste" from the edit menu of your browser. It may take awhile for the table to show up. It can take 3 seconds, or up to a minute for very large tables. Not all tables work.

Sort table with free spreadsheet program and Visual Editor

 * Note: For more info see Help:Sorting. See the section on putting a table in initial alphabetical order.

Many things can be done in spreadsheet programs that can not be done in the visual editor. Select and copy a table right off of a page (do not go into the wikitext or the HTML). Paste the table into a spreadsheet program such as freeware LibreOffice Calc or another spreadsheet program. See List of spreadsheet software.

In Calc click on any cell in the column you want sorted, and then click on one of the sort options in the data menu at the top of the Calc window. Click on "ascending" or "descending" to sort alphabetically or numerically depending on the column contents. Click on "sort" for more options.

Paste that sorted table into a new table in Visual Editor. Copy directly from the spreadsheet, and then paste directly into a new Visual Editor table where the first header cell has been selected. It may take up to a minute. You can copy the whole table or selected columns.

Copy table from PDF to Visual Editor
Upload PDF to free online PDF-to-Excel site. For example; here. Download the Excel file. Open it in freeware LibreOffice Calc or another spreadsheet program. You can select a table from a long Calc page, and copy the table to a new page in Calc.

Edit and move columns and rows in Calc. To drag a column first select it by clicking its header number. Then click a data cell, and drag the column to a new location. Or right click and delete the column. Rows are similarly moved or deleted. Sort as described in the previous section.

Copy the table to a wiki sandbox. In Calc select the table. Copy directly from it, and then paste into a new Visual Editor table where the first header cell has been selected. It may take up to a minute.

Wikimedia sister projects

 * mw:Help:Tables: MediaWiki help page on tables.
 * Wiki markup tables: Meta-Wiki information on tables.
 * m:Help:Sorting: Meta-Wiki information on sortable tables.
 * 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.
 * 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.