</div>
- For MediaWiki's database table structure, see: Manual:Database layout
Tables may be created in wiki pages. As a general rule, it is best to avoid using a table unless you need one. Table markup often complicates page editing.[1]
Wiki table markup summary
{|
|
table start
|
|+
|
table caption, optional; only between table start and first table row
|
|-
|
table row, optional on first row -- wiki engine assumes the first row
|
!
|
table header cell, optional. Consecutive table header cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (!! ) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (! ).
|
|
|
table data cell, required! Consecutive table data cells may be added on same line separated by double marks (|| ) or start on new lines, each with its own single mark (| ).
|
|}
|
table end
|
- The above marks must start on a new line except the double
||
and !!
for optionally adding consecutive cells to a line. However, blank spaces at the beginning of a line are ignored.
- XHTML attributes. Each mark, except table end, optionally accepts one or more 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. So separate any 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 optional 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, headings, or nested tables, must be on its own new line.
- Pipe character as content. To insert a pipe (
|
) character into a table, use the <nowiki>|
</nowiki> escaping markup.
Basics
The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure.
You type
|
You get
|
{|
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
The cells in the same row can be listed on one line separated by ||
(two pipe symbols). If the text in the cell should contain a line break, use <br/>
instead.
You type
|
You get
|
{|
|Orange||Apple||more
|-
|Bread||Pie||more
|-
|Butter||Ice<br/>cream||and<br/>more
|}
|
Orange |
Apple |
more
|
Bread |
Pie |
more
|
Butter |
Ice cream |
and more
|
|
Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup, as in the wiki markup below, do not affect the actual table rendering.
You type
|
You get
|
{|
| Orange || Apple || more
|-
| Bread || Pie || more
|-
| Butter || Ice cream || and more
|}
|
Orange |
Apple |
more
|
Bread |
Pie |
more
|
Butter |
Ice cream |
and more
|
|
You can have longer text or more complex wiki syntax inside table cells, too:
You type
|
You get
|
{|
|Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat,
sed diam voluptua.
At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores
et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren,
no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet.
|
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
* consetetur sadipscing elitr
* sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
|}
|
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consetetur sadipscing elitr,
sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat,
sed diam voluptua.
At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores
et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren,
no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet.
|
- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
- consetetur sadipscing elitr
- sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt
|
|
Table headers can be created by using "!
" (exclamation mark) instead of "|
" (pipe symbol). Headers usually show up bold and centered by default.
You type
|
You get
|
{|
! style="text-align:left;"| Item
! Amount
! Cost
|-
|Orange
|10
|7.00
|-
|Bread
|4
|3.00
|-
|Butter
|1
|5.00
|-
!Total
|
|15.00
|}
|
Item
|
Amount
|
Cost
|
Orange
|
10
|
7.00
|
Bread
|
4
|
3.00
|
Butter
|
1
|
5.00
|
Total
|
|
15.00
|
|
Note: When using attributes as in the heading 'Item' a vertical bar '|' is used for separation. Not an exclamation character '!'.
Caption
A table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows.
You type
|
You get
|
{|
|+Food complements
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|}
|
Food complements
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
class="wikitable"
Basic styling (light gray background, borders, padding and align left) can be achieved by adding class="wikitable".
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+Food complements
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|}
|
Food complements
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
HTML colspan and rowspan
You can use HTML colspan and rowspan attributes on cells for advanced layout.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
!colspan="6"|Shopping List
|-
|rowspan="2"|Bread & Butter
|Pie
|Buns
|Danish
|colspan="2"|Croissant
|-
|Cheese
|colspan="2"|Ice cream
|Butter
|Yogurt
|}
|
Shopping List
|
Bread & Butter
|
Pie
|
Buns
|
Danish
|
Croissant
|
Cheese
|
Ice cream
|
Butter
|
Yogurt
|
|
XHTML attributes
You 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 tables
Placing attributes after the table start tag ({|
) applies attributes to the entire table.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; color: green;"
|Orange
|Apple
|12,333.00
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|500.00
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|1.00
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
12,333.00
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
500.00
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
1.00
|
|
Attributes on cells
You can put attributes on individual cells. For example, numbers may look better aligned right.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
| Orange
| Apple
| style="text-align:right;" | 12,333.00
|-
| Bread
| Pie
| style="text-align:right;" | 500.00
|-
| Butter
| Ice cream
| style="text-align:right;" | 1.00
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
12,333.00
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
500.00
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
1.00
|
|
You can also use cell attributes when you are listing multiple cells on a single line. Note that the cells are separated by ||
, and within each cell the attribute(s) and value are separated by |
.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
| Orange || Apple || style="text-align:right;" | 12,333.00
|-
| Bread || Pie || style="text-align:right;" | 500.00
|-
| Butter || Ice cream || style="text-align:right;" | 1.00
|}
|
Orange |
Apple |
12,333.00
|
Bread |
Pie |
500.00
|
Butter |
Ice cream |
1.00
|
|
Attributes on rows
You can put attributes on individual rows, too.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
| Orange
| Apple
| style="text-align:right;"| 12,333.00
|-
| Bread
| Pie
| style="text-align:right;"| 500.00
|- style="font-style: italic; color: green;"
| Butter
| Ice cream
| style="text-align:right;"| 1.00
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
12,333.00
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
500.00
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
1.00
|
|
Simple one-pixel table border
An example of the above one-pixel table border:[2]
You type
|
You get
|
{| style="border-collapse: separate;
border-spacing: 0;
border: 1px solid #000;
padding: 0"
|-
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0 1px 1px 0"|
Orange
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0 0 1px 0"|
Apple
|-
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0 1px 0 0"|
Bread
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0"|
Pie
|}
|
|
{| style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #000"
|-
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px"|
Orange
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px"|
Apple
|-
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px"|
Bread
| style="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px"|
Pie
|}
|
|
Border width
If "border-width:" has only one number, it is for all four border sides:
You type
|
You get
|
{|style="border-style: solid; border-width: 20px"
|
Hello
|}
|
|
If "border-width:" has more than one number, the four numbers are for top, right, bottom, left:
You type
|
You get
|
{|style="border-style: solid; border-width: 10px 20px 100px 0"
|
Hello
|}
|
|
- When there are fewer than 4 values, the value for left takes its default from the value for right, the value for bottom takes its default from the value for top, and the value for right takes its default from the value for top.
Notes :
- The HTML attributes (such as "width=", "border=", "cellspacing=", "cellpadding=") do not need any length unit (the pixel unit is assumed). The CSS style properties (which override the HTML attributes) require an explicit length unit (if the value is not 0) such as "px" for the pixel.
With HTML attributes and CSS styles
CSS style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable" style="color:green; background-color:#ffffcc;" cellpadding="10"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
Attributes
Attributes can be added to the caption and headers as follows.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ style="caption-side:bottom; color:#e76700;"|''Food complements''
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|}
|
Food complements
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
Column width
Column width can be added as follows.
You type:
{| style="color: black; background-color: #ffffcc;" width="85%"
| 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:
This column width is 85% of the screen width (and has a background color)
|
This column is 30% counted from 85% of the screen width
|
This column is 70% counted from 85% of the screen width (and has a background color)
|
Table 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:
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"| Item
! scope="col"| Quantity
! scope="col"| Price
|-
! scope="row"| Bread
| 0.3 kg
| $0.65
|-
! scope="row"| Butter
| 0.125 kg
| $1.25
|-
! scope="row" colspan="2"| Total
| $1.90
|}
|
Item
|
Quantity
|
Price
|
Bread
|
0.3 kg
|
$0.65
|
Butter
|
0.125 kg
|
$1.25
|
Total
|
$1.90
|
|
Alignment
Table alignment
Table alignment is achieved by using CSS. The table alignment is controlled by margins. A fixed margin on one side will make the table to be aligned to that side, if on the opposite side the margin is defined as auto. To have a table center aligned, you should set both margins to auto
For example, a rigt-aligned table:
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: 0px;"
| Orange
| Apple
|-
| Bread
| Pie
|-
| Butter
| Ice cream
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
And a center-aligned table:
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
| Orange
| Apple
|-
| Bread
| Pie
|-
| Butter
| Ice cream
|}
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
|
Table floating around text
If you align a table to the right or the left side of the page, the text that comes after the table starts at the end of it, leaving an empty space around the table. You can make the text to be wrapped around the table by making the table to float around the text instead of just aligning it. This can be achieved using the float
CSS attribute, which can specify where the table floats to the right side or to the left. When using float, margins doesn't control table alignment and can be used to specify the margin between the table and the surrounding text.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px;"
| Orange
| Apple
|-
| Bread
| Pie
|-
| Butter
| Ice cream
|}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing
elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut
laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi
enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation
ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea
commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor
in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat,
vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero
eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit
praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te
feugait nulla facilisi.
|
Orange
|
Apple
|
Bread
|
Pie
|
Butter
|
Ice cream
|
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing
elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut
laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi
enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exerci tation
ullamcorper suscipit lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea
commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor
in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie consequat,
vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero
eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit
praesent luptatum zzril delenit augue duis dolore te
feugait nulla facilisi.
|
Cell contents alignment
The alignment of cell contents can be controlled with 2 different CSS properties: text-align
and vertical-align
. text-align
can be specified at the table, row or individual cells, while vertical-align
only can be specified at individual rows or cells.
You type
|
You get
|
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:left;" | A
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:center;" | B
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:right;" | C
|- style="vertical-align:middle;"
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:left;" | D
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:center;" | E
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:right;" | F
|- style="vertical-align:bottom;"
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:left;" | G
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:center;" | H
| style="height:100px; width:100px; text-align:right;" | I
|}
|
|
Caveats
Negative numbers
If 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 |-
will be parsed as 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
).
CSS vs attributes
Table 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 groups
The MediaWiki syntax for tables currently offers no support for specifying common attributes for columns (with the HTML element <col />
), column groups (HTML element <colgroup>...</colgroup>
) and row groups (HTML elements <thead>...</thead>
, <tbody>...</tbody><code> and <code><tfoot>...</tfoot>
). Those standard HTML elements are not accepted even in their HTML or XHTML syntax.
All the rows and cells (header or data) of the table are rendered within a single implicit row group (HTML element <tbody>...</tbody>
) without any attributes or styles.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Tables can be created 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.
- ↑ The 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.