Help:Tables
Tables may be authored in wiki pages using either XHTML table elements directly, or using wikicode formatting to define the table. XHTML table elements and their use are well described on various web pages and will not be discussed here. The benefit of wikicode is that the table is constructed of character symbols which tend to make it easier to perceive the table structure in the article editing view compared to XHTML table elements.
As a general rule, it is best to avoid using a table unless you need one. Table markup often complicates page editing.
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Wiki table markup summary
{| |
table start}
BasicsThe following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure.
The cells in the same row can be listed on one line separated by
Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup, as in the wiki markup below, do not affect the actual table rendering.
You can have longer text or more complex wiki syntax inside table cells, too:
Table headersTable headers can be created by using "
Note: When using attributes as in the heading 'Item' a vertical bar '|' is used for separation. Not an exclamation character '!'. CaptionA table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows.
XHTML attributesYou can add XHTML attributes to tables. For the authoritative source on these, see the W3C's HTML 4.01 Specification page on tables. Attributes on tablesPlacing attributes after the table start tag (
Attributes on cellsYou can put attributes on individual cells. For example, numbers may look better aligned right.
You can also use cell attributes when you are listing multiple cells on a single line. Note that the cells are separated by
Attributes on rowsYou can put attributes on individual rows, too.
Simple one-pixel table borderThe default table formatting uses the "border-collapse: separate" model, which adds table cell spacing (which also separates the table outer border from its content cells). Even with a zero cellspacing, the borders of consecutive cells (and of the overall table container) will add up, so to get a one-pixel separation between cells, you need to selectively remove one or more of the four borders of cells. Such tables may be formatted more simply, using the "border-collapse: collapse" CSS property; in this table formatting model, the cellspacing attribute (or the CSS "border-spacing:" property) and the table's "padding:" CSS property is ignored and only the larger border of adjacent inner cells (or the table border for outer cells) will be used. An example of the above for one-pixel table border, using each model (without need for external extensions):
Notes :
HTML colspan and rowspanYou can use HTML colspan and rowspan attributes on cells for advanced layout.
With HTML attributes and CSS stylesCSS style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes.
AttributesAttributes can be added to the caption and headers as follows.
Column widthColumn width can be added as follows. You type: {| style="color: black; background-color: #ffffcc;" width="85%" class="wikitable" | colspan="2" | This column width is 85% of the screen width (and has a background color) |- | style="width: 30%; background-color: white;"| '''This column is 30% counted from 85% of the screen width''' | style="width: 70%; background-color: orange;"| '''This column is 70% counted from 85% of the screen width (and has a background color)''' |} You get:
Accessibility of table header cellsTable header cells do not explicitly specify which table data cells they apply to (those on their right on the same row, or those below them on the same column). When the table is rendered in a visual 2D environment, this is usually easy to infer. However when tables are rendered on non-visual media, you can help the browser to determine which table header cell applies to the description of any selected cell (in order to repeat its content in some accessibility helper) using a scope="row" or scope="col" attribute on table header cells. In most cases with simple tables, you'll use scope="col" on all header cells of the first row, and scope="row" on the first cell of the following rows:
CaveatsNegative numbersIf you start a cell on a new line with a negative number with a minus sign (or a parameter that evaluates to a negative number), your table can get broken, because the characters CSS vs attributesTable borders specified through CSS rather than the border attribute will render incorrectly in a small subset of text browsers. Common attributes for columns, column groups and row groupsThe MediaWiki syntax for tables currently offers no support for specifying common attributes for columns (with the HTML element All the rows and cells (header or data) of the table are rendered within a single implicit row group (HTML element See also |