This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus.

Shortcuts: WP:TABLE WP:TABLES

Tables can be useful for a variety of content presentations on Wikipedia.

Formatting

It is recommended that wikitables be used in place of HTML tables, as they are easier to customize and maintain. A standard "wikitable style" is also available, by adding class="wikitable" to the top row of the table.

Tables can be made sortable by adding class="wikitable sortable" to the top row. Sortable tables cannot contain any merged cells, i.e. using rowspan or colspan.

Captions and headings

Table captions and column/row headings should be succinct and self-explanatory. In most cases, individual words or sentence fragments should be used, and articles (a, an, the) are unnecessary. Only the first word in the caption or heading should be capitalized (except for proper nouns), in keeping with Wikipedia's conventions for capital letters.

When tables are appropriate

Tables are perfect for organizing any information that is best presented in a row-and-column format. This might include:

• Mathematical tables
  • Multiplication tables
  • Tables of divisors
  • Lookup tables
• Lists of information
  • Equivalent words in two or more languages
  • Person, birthdate, occupation
  • Artist, album, year, and label

Often a list is best left as a list. Before you format a list in table form, consider whether the information will be more clearly conveyed by virtue of having rows and columns. If so, then a table is probably a good choice. If there is no obvious benefit to having rows and columns, then a table is probably not the best choice.

Tables should not be used simply for layout, either. If the information you are editing is not tabular in nature, it probably does not belong in a table: Try not to use tables for putting a caption under a photograph, arranging a group of links, or other strictly visual features. It makes the article harder to edit for other Wikipedians. Also, when compared with tables, wikimarkup is more flexible, easier to use, and less esoteric when used for desktop publishing, page elements, and page orientation and positioning.

When tables may not be appropriate

Simple lists

If a list is simple, it is generally better to use one of the standard Wikipedia list formats instead of a table. Lists are easier to maintain than tables, and are often easier to read.

Here is an example of a simple list using list formatting:

• 1980: Ultra Wave
• 1988: What's Bootsy Doin'?
• 1994: Blasters of the Universe
• 1994: Fresh Outta 'P' University

versus table formatting:

Page layout

Page layouts (using multiple columns, positioning elements, adding borders, etc.) should be done via CSS, not tables, whenever possible.

• Images and other embedded media should be positioned using standard image syntax.
• There are several templates available that will create preformatted multi-column layouts: see Help:Columns.
• Other elements can be positioned or given special formatting through the use of the HTML <div> element and CSS styling.

See also

• Wikipedia:Table namespace, an inactive proposal
• Help:Collapsing (show/hide button)
• Wikipedia:Conditional tables
• Table (HTML)