From YourAssociationWiki

Tables may be authored in wiki pages using wikicode formatting to define the table. The benefit of wikicode is that the table is constructed of character symbols which tend to make it easy to perceive the table structure in the article editing view.

As a general rule, it is best to avoid using a table unless you need one. 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. 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.
• 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.

Basics

The following table lacks borders and good spacing but shows the simplest wiki markup table structure.

{|
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

The cells in the same row can be listed on one line separated by ||.

Extra spaces within cells in the wiki markup, as in the wiki markup below, do not affect the actual table rendering.

{|
|  Orange    ||   Apple   ||   more
|-
|   Bread    ||   Pie     ||   more
|-
|   Butter   || Ice cream ||  and more
|}

Table headers

Table headers can be created by using "!" instead of "|". Headers usually show up bold and centered by default.

{|
! Item
! Amount
! Cost
|-
|Orange
|10
|7.00
|-
|Bread
|4
|3.00
|-
|Butter
|1
|5.00
|-
!Total
|
|15.00
|}

Caption

A table caption can be added to the top of any table as follows.

{|
|+Food complements
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

XHTML attributes

You can add XHTML attributes to tables. For the authoriative 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.

{| border="1"
|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.

{| border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|align="right" | 12,333.00
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|align="right" | 500.00
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream
|align="right" | 1.00
|}

Attributes on rows

You can put attributes on individual rows, too.

{| border="1"
|Orange
|Apple
|align="right"|12,333.00
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|align="right"|500.00
|- style="font-style:italic; color:green;"
|Butter
|Ice cream
|align="right"|1.00
|}

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"
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Attributes can be added to the caption and headers as follows.

{| border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0"
|+ align="bottom" style="color:#e76700;" |''Food complements''
|-
|Orange
|Apple
|-
|Bread
|Pie
|-
|Butter
|Ice cream 
|}

Caveat

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).

For questions regarding tables, please contact editor@YourAssociationWiki.org.