Help:Tables

Instructions on how to work with tables using the FCK editor, please go to http://docs.fckeditor.net/FCKeditor_2.x/Users_Guide/Common_Tasks/Tables

Tables may be authored in wiki pages using either HTML table elements directly, or using wikicode formatting to define the table. HTML 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 HTML table elements.

A good general rule of thumb is to avoid using a table unless you need to. Table markup often complicates page editing.

Wiki table markup summary

 * The above marks must start on a new line except the double || and !! for optionally adding consecutive cells to a line.
 * 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, headers, or nested tables, must of course be on its own new line.

Plain
The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Alternative
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. {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

With HTML attributes
You can add HTML attributes to make your table look better

border="1"
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

align="center" border="1"
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Attributes on cells
You can put attributes on individual cells. Numbers for example may look better aligned right {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Attributes on rows
You can put attributes on individual rows, too. {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

cellspacing="0" border="1"
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" border="1"
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Note: This cellpadding example is not currently working properly on mediawiki.org  It is supposed to look like this

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"
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Table with TH headings
TH (HTML table headings) can be created by using ! instead of |. Headings usually show up bold and centered by default.

Each column
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Default
{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Right justify
Right justified side headings can be done as follows {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Caption
A table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows {| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Attributes can be added to the caption as follows

{| width="100%"
 * width="50%"|
 * width="50%"|


 * }

Table with H1, H2, H3 etc. headings
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.

{| width="100%" {| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
 * width="50%"|
 * colspan="2"|

Yummiest
{| border="3" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
 * Orange
 * Apple
 * Bread
 * Pie
 * Butter
 * Ice cream
 * }
 * width="50%"|
 * Ice cream
 * }
 * width="50%"|
 * colspan="2"|

Yummiest

 * Orange
 * Apple
 * Bread
 * Pie
 * Butter
 * Ice cream
 * }
 * Butter
 * Ice cream
 * }
 * }

Tips
A good way of formatting a table would be something of the form:

 {| width="x%" border="1" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em auto;" 

but you could also add:

 cellpadding="4" 

if you wanted more white space around the text within each cell.

Remember that you don't always have to set the width to 100%. This can be an irritation when the table just contains small amounts of data but is forced to stretch to fit the full screen:

but

You can of course leave the width out and let the system decide, but this can result in tables being too narrow!

The best solution is 'trial-and-error'. Keep using the Show preview button and see what it looks like?

Negative numbers
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).