Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Tables
![]() | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
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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.
Avoid referring to tables as being on the left or right. Placement is different for viewers of the mobile version of Wikipedia, and is meaningless to people having pages read to them by assistive software. Instead, use captions to identify tables.
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="sortable"
to the top row. Sortable tables cannot contain any merged cells using rowspan; extreme caution should be applied if colspan is used. It is also possible to combine class, as in class="wikitable sortable"
.
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.
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.
Consideration may be given to collapsing tables which consolidate information covered in the prose.
Accessibility
Screen readers and other web browsing tools make use of specific table tags to help users navigate the data contained within them. Use the correct wikitable pipe syntax to take advantage of all the features available.
Do not separate items by leaving blank lines between them, even when using unordered or definition lists.
Size
Splitting lists and tables per summary style is advised against.
Too much statistical data is against policy.
Appropriate
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:
Sporting results
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Discographies
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Filmographies
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Awards
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Mathematical tables
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Flow data
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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' Uni
Which produces:
- 1980: Ultra Wave
- 1988: What's Bootsy Doin'?
- 1994: Blasters of the Universe
- 1994: Fresh Outta 'P' Uni
versus table 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 |
- 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.
- 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
- Help:Table, extensive help
- Help:Table/Introduction to tables, quick guide
- Help:Collapsing (show/hide button)
- Wikipedia:Conditional tables
- Wikipedia:Table namespace, an inactive proposal
- Table (HTML)
References
- ^ a b c d e Turner, Chris. "World Professional Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ a b Turner, Chris. "International Open Goya, Matchroom Trophy". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ Turner, Chris. "Classic". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ a b Turner, Chris. "UK Championship". cajt.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk. Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
- ^ "Top Albums/CDs – Volume 58, No. 25". RPM (Library and Archives Canada). January 10, 1994. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
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(help) - ^ "IFPI Platinum Europe Awards: 2002 Awards". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) – Europe. Retrieved August 15, 2010.