User:Zocky/Table syntax

A simple syntax for simple tables

Here goes:

1) If a line starts and ends with a pipe, it's a table row. Cells are separated by pipes

 |a1|b1|c1|
 |a2|b2|c2|

displays

a1	b1	c1
a2	b2	c2

2) empty lines separate tables

 |a1|b1|c1|

 |a2|b2|c2|

displays

a1

b1

c1

a2

b2

c2

3) If a cell ends with more than one pipe, it's a column span:

 |a1||c1|
 |a2|b2|c2|
 |a3|b3||
 |a4| |c4|

displays

a1		c1
a2	b2	c2
a3	b3
a4		c4

4) If a line starts with more than one pipe, it's continuing rowspans from above:

 |a1|b1|c1|
 |||c2|
 ||b3|c3|
 |||c4|

displays

a1	b1	c1
		c2
	b3	c3
		c4

5) treat

 |a1
 ||b1
 |||c1|d1|e1|

same as

|a1|b1|c1|d1|e1|

This means that

 |mammalia
 ||carnivora
 |||canis
 ||||dog|house|woofs|
 ||||wolf|woods|yelps|
 |||felis
 ||||cat|house|meows|
 ||||lynx|woods|hisses|
 ||rodenta
 |||ratus
 ||||brown rat|sewer|squeaks|
 ||||black rat|middle ages|plagues|

produces

mammalia	carnivora	canis	dog	house	woofs
			wolf	woods	yelps
		felis	cat	house	meows
			lynx	woods	hisses
	rodenta	ratus	brown rat	sewer	squeaks
			black rat	middle ages	plagues

5) Headings are allowed, and are treated as header cells:

 |==Nowheria==||
 |===Capital===|Backendsville|
 |===Surface area===|small|
 |===People===|many|

displays

Nowheria
Capital	Backendsville
Surface area	Small
People	Many

Caveat

• Only one paragraph per cell.
• Row spans can be specified only for leftmost cells in the table

I don't think either is very important - most tables don't need multiple paragraphs per cell and row spans are much more useful on the left side than anywhere else. If any of it is needed, there's < table > to fall back on.

Things to consider:

• Use spacing to specify alignment.

 |left | center | right|

• Caption row, including alignment for the table.

maybe make it should look like section titles?

  |=caption=|
  |a1|b1|c1|
  |a2|b2|c2|