Tables

Offline MediaWiki Code Editor

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Menu of Tables

A menu of assistants for tables.

A table is an arrangement of columns and rows that organizes and positions data. Tables can be created on Wikipedia pages using special wikitext syntax, and many different styles and tricks can be used to customize them.

A table is a complex list shown in a pattern of cells. Tables may be useful to show numerical data, comparative figures or sport results. These are also useful to show equivalent word in two or more languages, award results of other complex data. Before creating a table consider whether the information improves clarity organizing the data in rows and columns.

This menu give access to different assistants conceived for different purposes. The assistants for Tables with Regular Cells and Tables with Combined Cells are based on the wikitable class, which has the following traits:

· Title (optional) in bold type

· Automatic adjustment of the size of the cells to the content.

· Column headings and row headings centered and in bold type.

· Cells with thin frames and light gray background (darker in the headings)

· Cell text vertical align middle.

On the other hand, the assistant for Tables emulating infoboxes is based on the infobox class, which produces tables aligned to the right (by default) and a single column.

Which assistant do you need?

Regular tables with a few cells (up to 5 x 5) can be generated with any of the assistants and the result will be the same. But if you need such a table without column headings, you should better use the assistant for Tables with Combined Cells.

The main advantage of the assistant for Tables with combined cells is the possibility to merge cells to build complex tables. The following comparison table may help you to choose the most suitable assistant for your purposes.

Comparative table	Assistant for REGULAR CELLS	Assistant for COMBINED CELLS
Max number of cells	10 columns × 50 rows	5 columns x 5 rows
Can merge cells	NO	YES (optional)
Customizable cell width	YES	NO
Column headings	Always (not optional)	YES (optional)
Row headings	YES (optional)	YES (optional)

The context help of the assistants include several recommendations to obtain the maximum benefit of them and to improve the aspect of your tables.

Nested tables

Although nested tables may cause accessibility issues and should be avoided whenever possible, may also be useful to build complex tables, like infoboxes.

Infoboxes emulated with tables

An infobox is a panel, usually in the top right of an article, next to the lead section (in the desktop view), or at the very top of an article (in mobile view), that summarizes key features of the page's subject. Infoboxes may also include an image, and/or a map.

The assistant for Infoboxes emulated with tables makes possible to emulate an infobox using table markup of the infobox class, instead of using an infobox template. Consider this alternative only when you have not found a suitable template to your purposes.

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