Help:Other Table Formats

Other table syntax

Other types of table syntax that MediaWiki supports:

1. XHTML
2. HTML & wiki-<td> syntax (Do not use)

All three are supported by MediaWiki and create (currently) valid HTML output, but the pipe syntax is the simplest. Also, HTML & wiki-<td> syntax (i.e., unclosed <td> and <tr> tags) will not necessarily remain browser-supported in the upcoming future, especially on handheld internet-accessible devices.

See also Help:Table Editing. Note that some HTML elements such as the thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, and col elements are currently not supported in W:MediaWiki.

Comparison of table syntax

	XHTML	HTML & Wiki-td	Wiki-pipe
Table	<table></table>	<table></table>	{| |}
Caption	<caption>caption</caption>	<caption>caption</caption>	|+ caption
Row	<tr></tr>	<tr>	|-
Data cell	<td>cell1</td> <td>cell2</td>	<td>cell1 <td>cell2	| cell1 | cell2
Data cell	<td>cell1</td> <td>cell2</td> <td>cell3</td>	<td>cell1 <td>cell2 <td>cell3	| cell1 || cell2 || cell3
Header cell	<th>heading</th>	<th>heading	! heading
Sample table	1 2 3 4
	<table> <tr> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3</td> <td>4</td> </tr> </table>	<table> <tr> <td> 1 <td> 2 <tr> <td> 3 <td> 4 </table>	{| | 1 || 2 |- | 3 || 4 |}
Sample table	1 2 3 4 5 6
	<table> <tr> <td>1</td> <td>2</td> </tr> <tr> <td>3</td> <td>4</td> </tr> <tr> <td>5</td> <td>6</td> </tr> </table>	<table> <tr> <td> 1 <td> 2 <tr> <td> 3 <td> 4 <tr> <td> 5 <td> 6 </table>	{| | 1 || 2 |- | 3 || 4 |- | 5 || 6 |}
Pros	Can be previewed/debugged with any XHTML editor Can be formatted for easier reading Well-known Insensitive to newlines No characters like "|" which can collide with template and parser function syntax	Can be previewed/debugged with any HTML editor Can be formatted for easier reading Well-known Takes less space than XHTML Insensitive to newlines No characters like "|" which can collide with template and parser function syntax	Easy to write Easy to read Takes little space
Cons	Tedious Takes a lot of space Difficult to read quickly	May not have browser support in future	Unfamiliar syntax Rigid structure Cannot be indented Text (as in HTML tags) may be easier for some people to read than series of pipes, plus signs, exclamation marks, etc. Is nothing more than a shortcut for HTML-style tags. Not easily understood by those unfamiliar with HTML table concepts Assigning to a template parameter a value containing "|" requires Template:! Sensitive to newlines; since these are automatically stripped from templates and parameters in some cases, special techniques are sometimes needed to avoid this, see Help:Newlines and spaces
	XHTML	HTML & Wiki-td	Wiki-pipe

See also Template talk:For#Tables.

Pipe syntax in terms of the HTML produced

The pipe syntax, developed by Magnus Manske, substitutes pipes (|) for HTML. There is an on-line script which converts html tables to pipe syntax tables.

The pipes must start at the beginning of a new line, except when separating parameters from content or when using || to separate cells on a single line. The parameters are optional.

Tables

A table is defined by {| ''params'' |} which equals <table ''params''>Insert non-formatted text here </table>

Rows

<tr> tags will be generated automatically for the first row. To start a new row, use

|-

which results in

<tr>

Parameters can be added like this:

|- params

which results in

<tr params>

Note:

• <tr> tags will be automatically opened at the first <td> equivalent
• <tr> tags will be automatically closed at <tr> and </table> equivalents

Cells

Cells are generated either like this:

|cell1
|cell2
|cell3

or like this:

|cell1||cell2||cell3

which both equal

<td>cell1</td><td>cell2</td><td>cell3</td>

so "||" equals "newline" + "|"

Parameters in cells can be used like this:

|params|cell1||params|cell2||params|cell3

which will result in

<td params>cell1</td>
<td params>cell2</td>
<td params>cell3</td>

Headers

Functions the same way as TD, except "!" is used instead of the opening "|". "!!" can be used instead of "||". Parameters still use "|", though! Example:

!params|cell1

Captions

A <caption> tag is created by

|+ Caption

which generates

<caption>Caption</caption>

You can also use parameters:

|+ params|Caption

which will generate

<caption params>Caption</caption>