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Tables may be set up in wiki pages using either HTML table elements, or wikicode. HTML table elements will not be discussed here (see web pages if you're interested). The benefit of wikicode is that the table is made of character symbols. This makes it easier to imagine the table when you work in the editing box.
As a general rule, it is best to avoid using a table unless you need one. Table markup often complicates page editing.
Wiki table markup summary
{|
table start, required.
Must be entered first.
|+
table caption, optional.
If entered, it must be between table start and the first table row. Only one table caption should be entered. The text will be displayed above the table, and it will be centered.
!
table header cell, optional. Normally entered before data rows.
The text entered in the table header will appear in a bold display, and will be centered.
If entering one table header per line, start each with a single mark (!).
If entering more than one table header per line, start the line with a single mark (!), and separated each table header with a double mark (!!).
|-
table row,required between rows (including any table header row).
Not needed before the first row.
|
table data cell, required.
The text entered in the table data will line-up on the left side.
If entering one table data per line, start each with a single mark (|).
If entering more than one table data per line, start the line with a single mark (|), and separated each table data with a double mark (||).
|}
table end, required.
Must be entered last.
The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !!
Double || and !! marks are used to add more than one cell entry in a line.
XHTML attributes, Each mark, except table end, optionally accepts one or more XHTML attributes.
XHTML attributes must be on the same line as the mark.
Separate XHTML attributes from each other with a single space.
Cells (| or ||, and ! or !!) and the caption (|+) 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 hold content. Do not add pipe (|) after their optional attributes. The pipe mark will be deleted.
If there is no space between the last attribute and the pipe mark, the last attribute will be deleted!
Content may be entered on the same line as its cell mark, or on the lines below the cell mark.
Centent must follow any optional XHTML attributes.
Content that uses wiki markup, such as lists, headers, or nested tables, that needs to start on a new line must be on its own new line.
Simple wiki table
Plain
The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure
For more table-ish looking wiki markup cells can be listed on one line separated by ||. This does not scale well for longer cell content such as paragraphs. It works well for short bits of content however, such as our example table.
Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup can be added, as I have done in the wiki markup below, to make the wiki markup itself look better but they do not affect the actual table rendering.
HTML attributes can be added to tables on this page but have been left out of the following example for simplicity.
Orange
Apple
more
Bread
Pie
more
Butter
Ice cream
and more
{|
| Orange || Apple || more
|-
| Bread || Pie || more
|-
| Butter || Ice cream || and more
|}
Wiki table with XHTML attributes
You can add HTML attributes tables. For the authoriative source on these, see the W3C's HTML 4.01 Specification page on tables.
Attributes on tables
Placing attributes after the table start tag applies attributes to the entire table:
HTML H1, H2, H3, H4 etc. headings can be created the standard wiki markup way 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 that the table of contents at page top works correctly.
Negative value minus sign can break your table (it may display missing some values) if you start a cell on a new line with a negative number or a parameter that evaluates to a negative number (|-6) because that is the wiki markup for table row, not table cell. To avoid this, insert a space before the value (| -6) or use in-line cell markup (||-6).
