Wikitable

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For style issues, see: .

A wikitable is a box of rows and columns used to show data, on a page. The box can be surrounded by lines (a "border") to show the edges of the box. Tables can use many different styles and tricks to show data in colors, or shifted ("aligned") to the left, right or center. This page shows how to make wikitables in Wikipedia.

There are many tables shown below, so perhaps just scroll down the page, or use the browser find-button, to see a table like what is needed. Otherwise, reading all the tables on the whole page could use over 1 hour of time.

     
BB
DD
     

     
BB
DD
     

This next table will show lines around each cell in the table.

     
BB
EF
     

The other examples, below, have more ways to show text or pictures in a table.

Although HTML table syntax also works, special wikicode markup can be used as a shortcut to create a table. The pipe () codes function exactly the same as markup, so a knowledge of HTML table code will help in understanding pipe code. The shortcuts are as follows:

• The entire table is encased with curly brackets and a vertical bar character (a pipe). So use '''{|''' to begin a table, and '''|}''' to end it. Each one needs to be on its own line:

'''{|'''
  ''table code goes here''
     '''|}'''
     

• An optional table caption is included with a line starting with a vertical bar and plus sign "'''| '''" and the caption after it:

{|
     '''|  ''caption'''''
  ''table code goes here''
|}
     

• To start a new table row, type a vertical bar and a on its own line: "'''|-'''". The codes for the cells in that row will start on the next line.

{|
|  The table's caption
     '''|-'''
  ''row code goes here''
     '''|-'''
  ''row code goes here''
|}
     

• Type the codes for each table in the next row, starting with a bar:

{|
|  The table's caption
|-
     '''|''' ''cell codes go here''
|-
     '''|''' ''cells in the next row go here''
     '''|''' ''more cells in the same row here''
|}
     

• Cells can be separated with either a new line and new bar, or by a double bar " ||" on the same line. Both produce the same output:

{|
|  The table's caption
|-
     '''|Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3'''
|-
     '''|Cell A'''
     '''|Cell B'''
     '''|Cell C'''
|}
     

• If you use single bars, then what might appear to be the first cell is in fact a format modifier applied to the cell, and the rest of your "cells" will be merged into one:

{| border="1"
|-
|format modifier (not displayed) '''|'''These all  '''|'''(including the pipes) '''|'''go into  '''|'''the first cell
|}
     

{| border="1"
|-
| Cell 1 (no modifier — not aligned)
|-
| align="right" | Cell 2 (right aligned)
|}
     

Just remember: no more than 2 single pipes on a line!

• a row of column headings is identified by using "! scope="col" |" instead of "|", and using "!! scope="col" |" instead of "||". Header cells typically render differently from regular cells, depending on the browser. They are often rendered in a bold font and centered.

{|
|  The table's caption
     '''! scope="col" | Column heading 1'''
'''! scope="col" | Column heading 2'''
'''! scope="col" | Column heading 3'''
|-
| Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
| Cell A
| Cell B
| Cell C
|}
     

• the first cell of a row is identified as a row heading by starting the line with "! scope="row" |" instead of "|", and starting subsequent data cells on a new line.

{|
|  The table's caption
! scope="col" | Column heading 1
! scope="col" | Column heading 2
! scope="col" | Column heading 3
|-
     '''! scope="row" | Row heading 1'''
| Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
     '''! scope="row" | Row heading A'''
| Cell B
| Cell C
|}
     

• Optional parameters can modify the behavior of cells, rows, or the entire table. For instance, a border could be added to the table:

{| '''border="1"'''
|  The table's caption
! scope="col" | Column heading 1
! scope="col" | Column heading 2
! scope="col" | Column heading 3
|-
! scope="row" | Row heading 1
| Cell 2 || Cell 3
|-
! scope="row" | Row heading A
| Cell B
| Cell C
|}
     

A table can be useful even if none of the cells have content. For example, the background colors of cells can be changed with cell parameters, making the table into a diagram, like . An "image" in the form of a table is much more convenient to edit than an uploaded image.

Each row must have the same number of cells as the other rows, so that the number of columns in the table remains consistent. For empty cells, use the non-breaking space &amp;nbsp; as content to ensure that the cells are displayed. To show a visible pipe in a cell, use <nowiki>|</nowiki> or &#124;.

With colspan and rowspan cells can span several columns or rows, see the Mélange example below. However, this has the disadvantage that sorting does not work properly anymore.

The wiki markup code:

     
A
B
C
D
     

     
B
D
     

As it appears in a browser (note that there are no borders):

     
Multiplication table

     

As it appears in a browser (see User style):

The wiki markup code:

     
abc
def
 ghi 
jkl
     

As it appears in a browser:

Like other parameters, colors can also be specified for a whole row or the whole table; parameters for a row override the value for the table, and those for a cell override those for a row. (Note that there is no easy way to specify a color for a whole column—each cell in the column must be individually specified. Tools can make it easier.):

The wiki markup code:

     
ghi
pqr
yz
     

As it appears in a browser:

To make the table blend in with the background, use style="background: none;" or style="background: transparent;". (Warning: style="background: inherit;", does not work with some browsers, including IE6!)

To force a cell to match one of the default colors of the class="wikitable" option, use style="background: #f2f2f2" for the darker header, and style="background: #f9f9f9" for the lighter body.

See : , , ,

The wiki markup code:

     
ghi
pqr
yz
     

As it appears in a browser:

Note that style="inline CSS" has no effect with some browsers. If compatibility is important, equivalent older constructs like width="75%" should work on more browsers.

The wiki markup code:

     
All Versions
All Versions
     

To set column widths in a table without headers, specify the width in the first cell for each column, like this:

     
This column is 100 points wide
This column is 200 points wide
This column is 300 points wide
bluh
     

One application of setting the widths is aligning columns of consecutive tables:

That can be done by using as in: "{{nowrap|Words to keep together}}".

     
 
 
 
Green star
     

As long as the "Image:" specs omit the parameter "thumb|" they will not show the caption lines in the table (only during mouse-over). The border color "darkgray" matches typical tables or infoboxes in articles; however, it could be any color name (such as style="border: 1px solid darkgreen;") or use a hex-color (such as: #DDCCBB).

A column format-specifier (enclosed in "|...|") can have a style-parameter to set borders on each cell, as follows:

     
 
 
 
Green star
     

Note only the image cells, here, have individual borders, not the text.

To fix this, apply the valign="top" attribute to the rows (unfortunately it seems to be necessary to apply this individually to every single row). For example:

Prior to April 2009, using "float" to position a table was discouraged; however, it no longer always breaks page rendering at large font sizes. See a floated image, below, under "Floating images in the center".

Here's a more advanced example, showing some more options available for making up tables. Note however that with colspan and rowspan sorting does not work properly anymore.

You can play with these settings in your own table to see what effect they have. Not all of these techniques may be appropriate in all cases; just because you can add colored backgrounds, for example, doesn't mean it's always a good idea. Try to keep the markup in your tables relatively simple -- remember, other people are going to be editing the article too! This example should give you an idea of what is possible, though.

The wiki markup code:

     
An example table
upper left
 
right side
lower left
lower middle
{ border="0"
     
A table in a table
 
 
Two Wikipedia logos
|}
     

As it appears in a browser:

This paragraph is before the table.  Lorem ipsum dolor sit
amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod...
     

     
Col 1, row 1
Col 2, row 1 (and 2)
Col 3, row 1
Col 1, row 2
Col 3, row 2
     

Note the floating-table to the right.
     

This paragraph is after the table.  The text in column 2
will span both rows due to format specifier "rowspan=2" so there
is no coding for "Col 2" in the 2nd row, just: Col 1 & Col 3.
     

As it appears in a browser:

     

 Temple of Bel (floating).
     

The text inside the floating-table is sized by style="font-size: 86%;". That floating-image table floats a typical image-box, but allows adjusting the left-hand margin of the image (see temple-example floating below).

An image set with parameter "left|" will gain a wide right-side margin (opposite margin of parameter "right|"), so floating toward the left would require an image set as "center|" inside a table with style="float:left; margin:0.46em 0.2em".

Recall that, outside an image-table, the parameter "right|" causes an image to align (either) above or below an infobox, but would not float alongside the infobox.

Note the order of precedence: first come infoboxes or images using "right|", then come the floating-tables, and lastly, any text will wrap that can still fit. If the first text-word is too long, no text will fit to complete the left-hand side, so beware creating a "ragged left margin" when not enough space remains for text to fit alongside floating-tables.

If multiple single image-tables are stacked, they will float to align across the page, depending on page-width. The text will be squeezed to allow as many floating-tables as can fit, as auto-aligned, then wrap whatever text (can still fit) at the left-hand side.

That auto-aligning feature can be used to create a "floating-gallery" of images: a set of 20 floating-tables will wrap (backward, right-to-left) as if each table were a word of text to wrap across and down the page. To wrap in the typical direction (wrapping left-to-right) define all those floating-tables, instead, as left-side tables using the top parameter style="float:left; margin:0.46em 0.2em". Multiple floating-images empower more flexible typesetting of images around the text.

Seven different (blue) tables are shown nested inside the cells of a table. Automatically the two tables |A| and |B|B| are vertically aligned instead of the usual side by side of text characters in a cell. "float" is used to fix each of tables |C| and |D| to their own position within one cell of the table. This may be used for charts and schemes. Nested tables must start on a new line.

Wiki markup

{| border="1"
| &alpha;
| style="text-align: center;"| cell2
{| border="2" style="background: #ABCDEF;"
| NESTED
|-
| TABLE
|}
| style="vertical-align:bottom;"| the original table again
| style="width:100px;" |
{| border="2" style="background: #ABCDEF;"
| A
|}
{| border="2" style="background: #ABCDEF;"
| B || B
|}
| style="width:50px;" |
{| border="2" style="background: #ABCDEF; float:left;"
| C
|}
{| border="2" style="background: #ABCDEF; float: right;"
| D
|}
|}

As it appears in a browser:

     
Column 3
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
     

As it appears in a browser:

Note that using rowspan="2" for cell G combined with rowspan="3" for cell F to get another row below G and F won't work, because all (implicit) cells would be empty. Likewise complete columns are not displayed if all their cells are empty. Borders between non-empty and empty cells might be also not displayed (depending on the browser), use &amp;nbsp; to fill an empty cell with dummy content.

Wiki markup

     
Cells left-aligned, table centered
! scope="col"
Duis
! scope="col"
aute
! scope="col"
irure
in voluptate velit
pariatur.
     

As it appears in a browser:

     
cell2
cell3
     

As it appears in a browser:

Wikicode (showing table forces line-break):

: * This is a test table here <table style="border: 1px solid black"><tr><td>HELLO WORLD</table> followed by this text afterward.

Result:

:* This is a test table here

HELLO WORLD

followed by this text afterward.

Wikicode (table-within-table):

: * <table style="background-color: #fafeff"><tr><td>This is a test table here<td><table height=11px><tr><td style="border: 1px solid black; font-size:60%">HELLO WORLD</table></td><td>followed by this text afterward.</table> This line is more text after the outer table.

Result:

:*

This is a test table here

HELLO WORLD

followed by this text afterward.

This line is more text after the outer table.

* This is rare, see: .

''Also see: User style

In the first line of table code, after the "

{| cellpadding="2"
|  Multiplication table
|-
! scope="col" | ×
! scope="col" | 1
! scope="col" | 2
! scope="col" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}
     

{| class="wikitable"
|  Multiplication table
|-
! scope="col" | ×
! scope="col" | 1
! scope="col" | 2
! scope="col" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}
     

simply by replacing inline CSS for the table by class="wikitable". This is because the wikitable class in contains a number of table.wikitable style rules. These are all applied at once when you mark a table with the class. You can then add additional style rules if desired. These override the class's rules, allowing you to use the class style as a base and build up on it:

Wiki markup

{| class="wikitable" style="font-style:italic; font-size:120%; border: 3px dashed red;"
|  Multiplication table
|-
! scope="col" | ×
! scope="col" | 1
! scope="col" | 2
! scope="col" | 3
|-
! scope="row" | 1
| 1 || 2 || 3
|-
! scope="row" | 2
| 2 || 4 || 6
|-
! scope="row" | 3
| 3 || 6 || 9
|-
! scope="row" | 4
| 4 || 8 || 12
|-
! scope="row" | 5
| 5 || 10 || 15
|}
     

As it appears in a browser:

Notice that the table retains the gray background of the wikitable class, and the headers are still bold and centered. But now the text formatting has been overridden by the local style statement; all of the text in the table has been made italic and 120% normal size, and the wikitable border has been replaced by the red dashed border.

Of course this works only for browsers supporting inline CSS, if it's important use XHTML markup like &lt;big&gt; instead of "font-size:120%", or Wiki markup like <nowiki></nowiki> instead of "font-style:italic".

     
Content which starts hidden
more hidden content
     

Gives:

Further information

Tables can be made sortable by adding class="sortable"; for details see Sorting. Since this can be very useful, it is wise to keep the possibilities and limitations of this feature in mind when designing a table. For example:

• Do not divide a table into sections by subheaders spanning several rows. Instead, an extra column can be made showing the content of these headers on each row, in a short form.
• Do not have elements spanning several columns; instead, again, repeat the content on each row, in a short form.
• In a column of numbers, do not put text such as "ca." in front of a number-it will sort like zero. Do not put text after the number, and do not put a range of numbers (it does not affect the sorting position for numeric sorting mode, and in the case of a range, the first number determines the position, but if, possibly after sorting this or another column, the element is at the top, it will induce alphabetic sorting mode). Instead, put these texts in a separate column. Alternatively, for the greatest flexibility, alphabetic sorting mode with hidden sortkeys can be used.

A long form of abbreviated content can be put as legend outside the table.

Wiki markup

''text''

As it appears in a browser:

Wiki markup

{| class="wikitable sortable" border="1"
|  Sortable table
|-
! scope="col" | Alphabetic
! scope="col" | Numeric
! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Unsortable
|-
| d || 20 || 2008-11-24 || This
|-
| b || 8 || 2004-03-01 || column
|-
| a || 6 || 1979-07-23 || cannot
|-
| c || 4 || 1492-12-08 || be
|-
| e || 0 || 1601-08-13 || sorted.
|}
     

As it appears in a browser:

If you want the table to default to collapsed state, use the code {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible collapsed" in place of {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible"

• the basic code for a table row
• code for color, alignment, and sorting mode
• fixed texts such as units
• special formats for sorting

• easily changing the order of columns, or removing a column
• easily adding a new column if many elements of the new column are left blank (if the column is inserted and the existing fields are unnamed, use a named parameter for the new field to avoid adding blank parameter values to many template calls)
• computing fields from other fields, e.g. population density from population and area
• duplicating content and providing span tags with "display:none" for the purpose of having one format for sorting and another for display
• easy specification of a format for a whole column, such as color and alignment

     

 
 
 
 
     
! scope="row"  row three, column one row three, column two
     
     
     

1. XHTML
2. HTML & wiki- {| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" border="1" | Sortable and collapsible table |- ! scope="col" | Alphabetic ! scope="col" | Numeric ! scope="col" | Date ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Unsortable |- | d || 20 || 2008-11-24 || This |- | b || 8 || 2004-03-01 || column |- | a || 6 || 1979-07-23 || cannot |- | c || 4 || 1492-12-08 || be |- | e || 0 || 1601-08-13 || sorted. |} 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 <td> tags) will not necessarily remain browser-supported in the future, especially on handheld internet-accessible devices.

See also . Note however that the thead, tbody, tfoot, colgroup, and col elements are currently not supported in MediaWiki.

caption

|  caption

|-

cell1cell2
     cell3

| cell1 || cell2
| cell3

column heading

row heading

! scope="col" | column heading

! scope="row" | row heading

     

     
1
     
2
     
     

     
3
     
4
     
     
     

2
4

• Can preview or debug with any XHTML editor
• Can be indented for easier reading
• Well-known
• Insensitive to newlines
• No characters like "|" which can collide with template and parser function syntax

• Easy to write
• Easy to read
• Takes little space
• Can be learned quickly

• Tedious
• Takes a lot of space
• Difficult to read quickly
• Accidentally putting "tr" for "td" can cause confusion for hours.
• Indented code might not match nesting.
• In rare cases, newlines can break cells, causing severe confusion since newlines usually are ok.

• 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, dashes, etc.
• Requires using to pass a "|" in a parameter.
• Sensitive to newlines; see Newlines and spaces.

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.

|-
     

Parameters can be added like this:

|- ''params''
     

Note:

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

|cell1
|cell2
|cell3
     

|cell1||cell2||cell3
     

Parameters in cells can be used like this:

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

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

 {| ''params''
 |}
''params''|cell1
     

|  Caption
     

You can also use parameters:

|  ''params''|Caption
     

Type this:

For this:

Normally, one problem with this approach is that readers are directed to different pages when they click on the images. To eliminate this problem—or to direct readers to a different page—you can use the link parameter. A column-header can be coded as follows:

!
     

By setting the link to an empty string (e.g. <nowiki></nowiki>), no navigation will occur when visitors click on an image. Note that it might also be a good idea to color the image text blue if you are using the images as links. Also, SVG is the preferred image format in this case because it can be re-scaled to any size without producing artifacts.

This section is local to Wikipedia (hard-coded here now).

A simple framed gallery can be formatted using class="wikitable" to generate the minimal thin-lines around images/photos within the table:

! style="width:3em;" | [[File:wpvg_vg_project.svg|link=xxxx]]
     

Note the result below (with thin-lined cells):

 {| class="wikitable" border="1"
 |-
 |[[File:Worms 01.jpg|265px]]
 |[[File:Worms Wappen 2005-05-27.jpg|235px]]
 |-
 |Nibelungen Bridge to Worms<br/>across the [[Rhine]]
 |Worms and its sister cities
 |}
     

"[[
     

Note the 3 images sized "199x95px" appear identical height, of 95px (4th image purposely smaller). The "95px" forces height, while "199x" fits the various widths (could even be "999x"):

 {| class="wikitable" border="1"
 |-
 |[[File:Worms 01.jpg|130px]]
 |[[File:Worms Wappen 2005-05-27.jpg|125px]]
 |[[File:Liberty-statue-with-manhattan.jpg|125px]]
 |[[File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg|125px]]
 |-
 |Nibelungen Bridge to Worms
 |Worms and its sister cities
 |Statue of Liberty
 |New York City
 |}
     

Once images have been placed in a wikitable, control of formatting can be adjusted when more images are added.

 {| class="wikitable" border="1"
 |-
 |[[File:Liberty-statue-with-manhattan.jpg|199x70px]]
 |[[File:Gold star on blue.gif|199x70px]]
 |[[File:New-York-Jan2005.jpg|199x70px]]
 |[[File:Gold star on deep red.gif|199x70px]]
 |[[File:Worms 01.jpg|199x70px]]
 |[[File:Gold star on blue.gif|199x70px]]
 |}
     

     
| style="font-size: 87%;" | View from bell tower