git:20260622.61d1847 to git:20260818.0505c54

---

name: wikipedia-wikitables

description: Create, parse, style, and fix MediaWiki wikitable syntax — delimiters, header/data cells, CSS classes, inline styling, rowspan/colspan, accessibility attributes, sortable and collapsible tables, and programmatic table generation from data

depends_on: [wikimedia-wikitext]

license: MIT

compatibility: opencode

skill_discovery_hints:

- keywords: ["wikitable", "table", "sortable", "colspan", "rowspan", "data table", "table syntax"]

- keywords: ["table generation", "CSV to wikitable", "wikitable styling", "mw-collapsible"]

---

> ⚠️ **Prerequisite:** This skill assumes basic familiarity with wikitext templates.

> See **[wikipedia-templates](../wikipedia-templates/SKILL.md)** for template syntax,

> and **[wikimedia-wikitext](../wikimedia-wikitext/SKILL.md)** for AST parsing with

> `mwparserfromhell`.

>

> ⚠️ **User-Agent required:** API calls to fetch wikitext or render tables need a descriptive `User-Agent` header. See the **[wikimedia-api-access](../wikimedia-api-access/SKILL.md)** skill for the correct format.

---

## Reference: Wikitable Building Blocks

MediaWiki tables use a pipe-based syntax inspired by HTML table markup.

Every table has four structural delimiters:

| Symbol | Meaning | Opens/Closes | HTML equivalent |

|---|---------|------|-----------------|

| `{\|` | Table open | Start of table | `<table>` |

| `\|}` | Table close | End of table | `</table>` |

| `\|-` | Row separator | New row | `<tr>` |

| `\|` | Data cell | Cell content | `<td>` |

| `!` | Header cell | Header content | `<th>` |

| `\|+` | Caption | Table caption | `<caption>` |

### Minimal Complete Table

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Annual revenue

! Year

! Revenue

|-

| 2020

| $1.2M

|-

| 2021

| $1.8M

|}

```

This renders as a single row of headers (`!`) followed by two data rows (`|`).

### Anatomy of a Cell

A cell can have attributes (class, style, scope, colspan, rowspan) before the

content. The pipe separates attributes from the value:

```wikitext

| style="text-align: center;" | centered content

! scope="col" style="text-align: right;" | Header

| rowspan="2" | spans two rows

```

The general pattern is:

```

| [attribute1] [attribute2] ... | cell content

```

Multiple attributes on the same cell are space-separated between the opening

pipe and the final `|` that precedes the content.

---

## SOP: Class-Based Styling

MediaWiki's `common.css` ships with pre-defined table classes. You apply them

on the table-open line:

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable"

```

### Available Classes

| Class | Effect | Notes |

|---|---|---|

| `wikitable` | Standard styling: light gray header, borders, striped rows | The default for most tables |

| `sortable` | Adds clickable column headers for sorting | **Must** be combined with `wikitable` or another base class |

| `mw-collapsible` | Adds a [show]/[hide] toggle | Used in navboxes and data tables |

| `mw-collapsed` | Starts collapsed (requires `mw-collapsible`) | Content hidden by default |

| `mw-datatable` | Alternating row colors, hover highlight | Used by software/database tables |

| `plainlinks` | Removes external link icons inside the table | Useful in infobox-style tables |

### Common Combinations

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Name

! Score

!

|-

| Alice

| 95

|}

```

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"

! Hidden by default, click to expand

|-

| Revealed content

|}

```

### Row-Level Classes

Classes can also go on the row separator:

```wikitext

|- class="sortbottom"

| Total

| $3.0M

```

`class="sortbottom"` pins a summary row to the bottom of a sortable table,

preventing it from being sorted with the data rows.

---

## SOP: Inline CSS Styling

For fine-grained control beyond what the built-in classes provide, use inline

`style=` attributes at the table, row, or cell level.

### Table-Level Styles

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; background-color: #f8f9fa;"

```

| Style | Effect | When to Use |

|---|---|---|

| `width: 100%;` | Full-width table | Dashboard/report tables |

| `width: auto;` | Shrink to content | Small lookup tables |

| `background-color: #f8f9fa;` | Light gray background | Subtle table backdrop |

| `border-collapse: collapse;` | Single borders instead of double | (Default for `wikitable`) |

| `margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;` | Center the table on the page | Standalone tables |

| `font-size: 90%;` | Slightly smaller text | Sidebar/compact tables |

### Row-Level Styles

```wikitext

|- style="background-color: #efe;"

| Highlighted row

```

Useful for section breaks, totals, or status indicators (e.g. green for

"approved", red for "fails").

### Cell-Level Styles

```wikitext

| style="text-align: center;" | Centered

| style="text-align: right; font-weight: bold;" | Right-aligned bold

! style="text-align: left; background-color: #eaecf0;" | Left header

```

### Text Alignment

| Style | Effect |

|---|---|

| `text-align: left;` | Left-align content |

| `text-align: center;` | Center content |

| `text-align: right;` | Right-align content |

| `text-align: justify;` | Justified text |

| `vertical-align: top;` | Align to top of cell |

| `vertical-align: middle;` | Vertically center |

| `vertical-align: bottom;` | Align to bottom of cell |

### Background Colors

```wikitext

! scope="col" style="background-color: #cfe3ff;" | Blue header

|- style="background-color: #ffffcc;"

| Yellow row

| style="background-color: #fee;" | Pink cell

```

### Borders and Spacing

```wikitext

{| style="border: 2px solid #a3bfb1;"

|- style="border-bottom: 3px solid #a3bfb1;"

| style="border-right: 1px dashed #ccc;" | Content

|}

{| style="cellpadding: 10px;"

|- style="padding: 8px;"

| Spacious cell

|}

```

### Legacy HTML Attributes (avoid in new tables)

Older tables use HTML attributes like `align=`, `valign=`, `bgcolor=`.

These still render but are **deprecated in HTML5**. Prefer CSS `style=`:

| Legacy | Modern CSS equivalent |

|---|--------------------|

| `align="center"` | `style="text-align: center;"` |

| `valign="top"` | `style="vertical-align: top;"` |

| `bgcolor="#eee"` | `style="background-color: #eee;"` |

| `width="500"` | `style="width: 500px;"` |

| `border="1"` | `style="border: 1px solid #a2a9b1;"` |

### Shorthand Multi-Value Attributes

You can combine multiple styles on one cell:

```wikitext

| style="text-align: right; background-color: #fdd; white-space: nowrap; font-size: 90%;" | 42

```

---

## SOP: Accessibility with `scope`

For screen readers, header cells must specify which cells they govern:

```wikitext

! scope="col" | Column header

! scope="col" | Another header

! scope="row" | Row header

```

| `scope` value | Meaning |

|---|---|

| `scope="col"` | Header applies to the column below it |

| `scope="row"` | Header applies to the row beside it |

| `scope="colgroup"` | Header applies to a group of columns |

| `scope="rowgroup"` | Header applies to a group of rows |

A table with `class="wikitable"` and proper `scope` attributes passes

WCAG accessibility requirements. A table with no `scope` does not.

---

## SOP: Column Spans and Row Spans

```wikitext

! colspan="2" | Merged header spanning two columns

| rowspan="3" | Content spans three rows

| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Spans both

```

- `colspan="N"` — merge N columns horizontally

- `rowspan="N"` — merge N rows vertically

- Can be combined on the same cell

- Cells covered by a span are omitted (not written with empty `| |`)

### Common Patterns

```wikitext

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2" | Merged header

! scope="col" | Single

|-

! scope="row" | Row header

| Data 1

| Data 2

|-

| rowspan="2" | Vertical span

| A

| B

|-

| C

| D

|}

```

---

## SOP: Inline Cell Content

Cell values support any wikitext — templates, links, images, lists, even

nested tables:

```wikitext

| [[Albert Einstein]] (born 1879)

| {{flag|France}}

| [[File:Example.jpg|50px]]

|

* Item one

* Item two

|

{| class="wikitable"

| Nested table

|}

```

---

## SOP: Parsing Tables with `mwparserfromhell`

```python

import mwparserfromhell

wikitext = """{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Name

! Score

! scope="col" | Rank

|-

| Alice

| 95

| style="text-align: center;" | 1st

|}"""

parsed = mwparserfromhell.parse(wikitext)

tables = parsed.filter_tags(matches=lambda t: str(t.tag) == "table")

for table in tables:

print("Table:", table)

# Extract attributes

if table.has("class"):

print(" Classes:", table.get("class").value)

```

For extracting structured data from tables, use the `style` and `class`

attributes to identify header rows and data cells.

---

## SOP: Generating Tables from Data (Python)

```python

def dicts_to_wikitable(

data: list[dict[str, str]],

*,

classes: str = "wikitable sortable",

caption: str = "",

alignment: str | None = None,

) -> str:

"""Convert a list of dicts to a MediaWiki wikitable string."""

if not data:

return ""

headers = list(data[0].keys())

style = f' style="text-align: {alignment};"' if alignment else ""

lines: list[str] = []

lines.append(f'{{| class="{classes}"{style}')

if caption:

lines.append(f"|+ {caption}")

lines.append("! " + "\n! ".join(f'scope="col" | {h}' for h in headers))

for row in data:

lines.append("|-")

for h in headers:

val = row.get(h, "")

# Auto-align numeric values to the right

try:

float(val.replace(",", "").replace("$", "").replace("%", ""))

cell = f' style="text-align: right;" | {val}'

except ValueError:

cell = f"| {val}"

lines.append(cell)

lines.append("|}")

return "\n".join(lines)

# Example

data = [

{"Name": "Alice", "Score": "95"},

{"Name": "Bob", "Score": "87"},

]

print(dicts_to_wikitable(data, caption="Scores"))

```

---

## Reference: Styling Quick Reference

### Color Palette (Wikimedia Standard)

These are the colors used by `class="wikitable"` and common in Wikipedia tables:

| Color | Hex | Use |

|---|---|---|

| Table header background | `#eaecf0` | Default `wikitable` header |

| Table body background | `#f8f9fa` | Default `wikitable` body |

| Alternating row highlight | `#fafafa` | Hover/alternate shade |

| Border | `#a2a9b1` | Default table border |

| Green row (pass) | `#d5fdf4` | Positive signal |

| Yellow row (warning) | `#fef6e7` | Needs attention |

| Red row (fail/error) | `#fee7e6` | Negative signal |

| Blue header | `#cfe3ff` | Custom header color |

### Alignment Summary

| Target | Inline Style | Class Alternative |

|---|---|---|

| Center the table on page | `style="margin:0 auto;"` | Not available as class |

| Left-align a column | `style="text-align: left;"` | Not available as class |

| Center a column | `style="text-align: center;"` | Not available as class |

| Right-align numeric column | `style="text-align: right;"` | Not available as class |

| Vertically center cells | `style="vertical-align: middle;"` | Not available as class |

| Pin a row to bottom | — | `class="sortbottom"` |

---

## Reference: When to Use Which Approach

| Situation | Approach | Example |

|---|---|---|

| Standard data table | Class only | `class="wikitable sortable"` |

| Report with a color-coded row | Class + inline | `class="wikitable"`, `\|- style="background: #fee;"` |

| One-off alignment override | Inline cell style | `\| style="text-align: center;" \| 42` |

| Table for user scripts/gadgets | Class + accessible | `class="wikitable"` + `scope="col"` on all headers |

| Compact sidebar table | Inline table style | `style="font-size: 90%; width: auto;"` |

---

## Tooling

### 🔧 Wikitable to HTML Preview (`scripts/wikitable-to-html.sh`)

Convert a wikitable to rough HTML for visual verification:

```bash

echo '{| class="wikitable"|! A|! B|-|1|2|}' | ./scripts/wikitable-to-html.sh

```

### 🔧 Generate Table from CSV (`scripts/generate-table.sh`)

```bash

cat data.csv | ./scripts/generate-table.sh --caption "Scores" --classes "wikitable sortable"

```

### 🐍 Wikitable Tools (`assets/wikitable_tools.py`)

```python

from assets.wikitable_tools import (

dicts_to_wikitable,

parse_wikitable,

style_cell,

)

# Generate

table = dicts_to_wikitable(data, caption="Results", alignment="center")

# Parse

rows = parse_wikitable(wikitext)

# Style a single cell

styled = style_cell("42", align="right", bold=True, background="#efe")

```

### 🐍 Test Suite (`assets/test_wikitable_tools.py`)

```bash

python3 -m pytest assets/test_wikitable_tools.py -v

```

Tests cover: generation from dicts, parsing, styling, edge cases (empty

tables, colspan, rowspan, nested tables, multi-word headers, numeric

auto-alignment).

---

## Cross-References

| Related Skill | Why |

|--------------|-----|

| **[wikimedia-wikitext](../wikimedia-wikitext/SKILL.md)** | AST-based wikitext parsing — never parse tables with regex |

| **[wikipedia-templates](../wikipedia-templates/SKILL.md)** | Table-generating templates and template-based table styling |

| **[wikipedia-page-anatomy](../wikipedia-page-anatomy/SKILL.md)** | Tables as article body elements — structure and placement |

| **[wikimedia-api-access](../wikimedia-api-access/SKILL.md)** | User-Agent and API patterns |