Help:Tables

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MediaWiki has its own special codes for creating tables. While this might seem a little inconvenient at start, it only takes a little time to get used to. There are four basic codes required to create a table:

• {| - New table
• | - New column
• |- - New row
• |} - End table

Creating a simple table

The following guide explains how to create a simple table, which looks like the one below:

Heading

Column A	Column B	Column C
Row 2	2B	2C
Row 3	3B	3C

We will first create the beginning and the end of the table:

{|
 Table body
|}

We'll now add the heading of the table. This is done using |+, followed by a space and then the heading:

{|
|+ Heading
 Table body
|}

We will now create the rows. This is done using the |- signs. Since we have 3 rows, we are going to use these signs 3 times:

{|
|+ Heading
|-
 First row here
|-
 Second row here
|-
 Third row here
|}

Let's now create the first row of the table. As this is the heading row, we'll use the ! sign, to make the text bold:

{|
|+ Heading
|-
! Column A !! Column B !! Column C
|-
 Second row here
|-
 Third row here
|}

Notice how one ! is used at the beginning of the line, while two exclamation marks are used separate rows.

Now we know how to create a table row, and we are going to add the contents to the next rows:

{|
|+ Heading
|-
! Column A !! Column B !! Column C
|-
! Row 2 || 2B || 2C
|-
! Row 3 || 3B || 3C
|}

The table is almost complete. Now all we need is to add a border. This is done using "border=#" at the top of the table, similar to HTML.

{| border=1
|+ Heading
|-
! Column A !! Column B !! Column C
|-
! Row 2 || 2B || 2C
|-
! Row 3 || 3B || 3C
|}

The final result is as shown above.

Comparing to HTML

If you are familiar with HTML tables, you'll probably find the following table useful:

Command	MediaWiki	HTML
New table	{-	<table>
New row	|-	<tr></tr>
New cell	|	<td></td>
End of table	|}	</table>
Optional control characters
New Heading cell	!	<th></th>
New heading cell in the middle of a row	!!	<th></th>
New cell in the middle of a row	||	<td></td>
Table heading	|+	<caption></caption>

Table parameters

There are a few parameters available for designing tables. Attributes of the entire table should be added in the first line of the table.

Feature	Attribute	Example	Applies to
Background color	bgcolor	bgcolor="#ABCDEF"	Table, row, cell
Horizontal alignment	align	align="center"	Table, row, cell
Vertical alignment	valign	valign="top"	Row
Border width	border	border="6"	Table
Space outside the cell	cellspacing	cellspacing="8"	Table
Space around the text	cellpadding	cellpadding="2"	Table
A cell extending several columns	colspan	colspan="2"	Cell
A cell extending several rows	rowspan	rowspan="4"	Cell
Constant width in pixels	width	width="400px"	Table, cell
Constant width in percentages	width	width="50%"	Table, row

External links

A tool that converts HTML tables to Wiki source - useful if you are still uncomfortable with the Wiki code.