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This page discusses when and how tables should be used on Wikipedia. For technical guidance on how to use tables, see Help:Table.
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Tables are a way of presenting links, data or information in rows and columns. They can be useful for a variety of content presentations on Wikipedia, though should be used only when appropriate; sometimes the information in a table may be better presented as prose paragraphs or as an embedded list.

Contents

[edit] Formatting

Main page: Help:Table

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 using rowspan; extreme caution should be applied if colspan is used.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Appearance

In general, styles for tables and other block-level elements should be set using CSS classes, not with inline style attributes. This is because the site-wide CSS is more carefully tested to ensure compatibility with a wide range of browsers; it also creates a greater degree of professionalism by ensuring a consistent appearance between articles. Deviations from standard conventions are acceptable where they create a semantic distinction (for instance, the infoboxes and navigational templates relating to The Simpsons use a yellow colour-scheme instead of the customary mauve, to tie in with the dominant colour in the series) but should not be used gratuitously.

See WP:Deviations and Wikipedia talk:Consensus/RfC for guidance on use of colouring or non-standard formatting, and for when MoS and WikiProjects guidance is at variance.

[edit] When tables are appropriate

Tables are a way of presenting links, data or information in rows and columns. They are a complex form of list. Tables might be used for presenting mathematical data such as multiplication tables, comparative figures, or sporting results. They might also be used for presenting equivalent words in two or more languages; for awards by type and year; complex discographies; etc.

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.

Examples:

[edit] When tables may not be appropriate

[edit] 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' Uni

Which produces:

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

versus table formatting:

{|class="wikitable1" |1980 |Ultra Wave |- |1988 |What's Bootsy Doin'? |- |1994 |Blasters of the Universe |- |1994 |Fresh Outta 'P' Uni |}

Which produces:

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

[edit] Prose

Prose is preferred in articles as prose allows the presentation of detail and clarification of context, in a way that a table may not. Prose flows, like one person speaking to another, and is best suited to articles, because their purpose is to explain. Tables which are mainly links, which are most useful for browsing subject areas, should usually have their own entries: see Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists for detail. In an article, significant items should normally be mentioned naturally within the text rather than merely tabulated.

[edit] 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.

[edit] See also


Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{Reflist}} template or a <references /> tag; see the help page.

source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110505201408/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style_(tables)
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