Help:Tables

From LLN

You can create a table in a PLN article using HTML table elements directly or using wikitext to define the table. Using wikitext may make it easier to perceive the table structure.

Do you need a table? Table markup can complicate page editing and display. If you do need one, here's how to build one using wikitext.

Table markup summary

• The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !! for adding consecutive cells to a line.
• XHTML attributes. Each mark, except table end, accepts one or more optional XHTML attributes. Attributes must be on the same line as the mark. Separate attributes from each other with a single space.
  • Cells and caption (| or ||, ! or !!, and |+) hold content. Separate attributes from content with a single pipe (|). Cell content may follow on same line or on following lines.
  • Table and row marks ({| and |-) do not directly hold content. Do not add pipe (|) after their optional attributes. If you erroneously add a pipe after attributes for the table mark or row mark the parser will delete it and your final attribute if it was touching the erroneous pipe!
• Content may (a) follow its cell mark on the same line after any XHTML attributes or (b) on lines below the cell mark. Content that uses wiki markup that itself needs to start on a new line, such as lists, headers, or nested tables, must of course be on its own new line.

Simple table

Plain

The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest table structure

{|
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Alternative

For short cells, you can make the wikitext look more like the table by listing multiple cells on one line, separated by ||. This does not scale well for longer cell content such as paragraphs.

Extra spaces within cells in the wikitext can be added, as shown here, to make the wikitext itself look better. Such spaces do not affect the table rendering.

HTML attributes can be added to this table following the examples in other tables on this page but have been left out of this example for simplicity.

{|
|  Orange    ||   Apple   ||   more
|-
|   Bread    ||   Pie     ||   more
|-
|   Butter   || Ice cream ||  and more
|}

With HTML attributes

You can add HTML attributes to make your table look better

border="1"

{| border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

align="center" border="1"

{| align="center" border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

align="right" border="1"

You can add attributes to individual cells. For example, numbers may look better aligned right

{| border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|align="right"|12,333.00
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|align="right"|500.00
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|align="right"|1.00
|}

You can put attributes on individual rows, too.

{| border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|align="right"|12,333.00
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|align="right"|500.00
|- style="font-style:italic;color:green;"
|Butter
|Ice cream
|align="right"|1.00
|}

cellspacing="0" border="1"

{| cellspacing="0" border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"

{| cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

With HTML attributes and CSS styles

CSS style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes

style="color:green;background-color:#ffffcc;" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"

{| style="color:green;background-color:#ffffcc;" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Table with TH headings

TH (HTML table headings) can be created using ! instead of |. Headings appear bold and centered by default.

Top headings

Each column

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!Yummy
!Yummier
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Colspan="2"

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
! colspan="2"|Yummies
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Side headings

Default

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!Fruit
|Orange
|Apple
|-
!Dish
|Bread
|Pie
|-
!Complement
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Right justify

Right justified side headings can be done as follows

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
!align="right" |Fruit
|Orange
|Apple
|-
!align="right" |Dish
|Bread
|Pie
|-
!align="right" |Complement
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Caption

A table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
|+Food complements
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Attributes can be added to the caption as follows

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
|+align="bottom" style="color:#e76700;"|''Food complements''
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Table with H1, H2, H3 etc. headings

H1, H2, H3, H4 etc. headings can be created with ==equal== signs and must be on a line all by themselves to work.

Preview the whole table. If you click on an edit tab for a heading within a table, edit, and preview, the parent table will display erroneously broken because part of it will be missing.

Keep the heading hierarchy consistent with the rest of the page so the table of contents at page top works correctly.

{| border="3"  cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
|colspan="2"|
===Yummiest===
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Caveat

Negative numbers

If a cell contains a negative number (e.g. -6), or a parameter that evaluates to a negative number, and that cell starts on a new line, add a space before the minus sign. Otherwise, your table may display incorrectly because |- is wikicode for a new table row.