Markdown Syntax: Tables

(Requires flag MD_FLAG_TABLES.)

Basic table example of a table with two columns and three lines (when not counting the header) is as follows:

| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|----------|----------|
| foo      | bar      |
| baz      | qux      |
| quux     | quuz     |
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The leading and succeeding pipe characters (|) on each line are optional:

Column 1 | Column 2 |
---------|--------- |
foo      | bar      |
baz      | qux      |
quux     | quuz     |
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

| Column 1 | Column 2
|----------|---------
| foo      | bar
| baz      | qux
| quux     | quuz
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Column 1 | Column 2
---------|---------
foo      | bar
baz      | qux
quux     | quuz
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

However for one-column table, at least one of those has to be used, otherwise it would be parsed as a Setext title followed by paragraph.

Column 1
--------
foo
baz
quux
.
<h2>Column 1</h2>
<p>foo
baz
quux</p>

Leading and trailing whitespace in a table cell is ignored and the columns do not need to be aligned.

Column 1 |Column 2
---|---
foo | bar
baz| qux
quux|quuz
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The table cannot interrupt a paragraph.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
| Column 1 | Column 2
| ---------|---------
| foo      | bar
| baz      | qux
| quux     | quuz
.
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
| Column 1 | Column 2
| ---------|---------
| foo      | bar
| baz      | qux
| quux     | quuz</p>

But paragraph or other block can interrupt a table as a line without any pipe ends the table.

Column 1 | Column 2
---------|---------
foo      | bar
baz      | qux
quux     | quuz
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</p>

The ruling line between head and body of the table must include the same amount of cells as the line with column names, and each cell has to consist of three dash (-) characters. However first, last or both dashes may be replaced with colon to denote column alignment.

Thus this is not a table because there are too few dashes for Column 2.

| Column 1 | Column 2
| ---------|--
| foo      | bar
| baz      | qux
| quux     | quuz
.
<p>| Column 1 | Column 2
| ---------|--
| foo      | bar
| baz      | qux
| quux     | quuz</p>

And this is a table where each of the four column uses different alignment.

| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|----------|:---------|:--------:|---------:|
| default  | left     | center   | right    |
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th align="left">Column 2</th><th align="center">Column 3</th><th align="right">Column 4</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>default</td><td align="left">left</td><td align="center">center</td><td align="right">right</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

To include a literal pipe character in any cell, it has to be escaped.

Column 1 | Column 2
---------|---------
foo      | bar
baz      | qux \| xyzzy
quux     | quuz
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>foo</td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td>baz</td><td>qux | xyzzy</td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td>quuz</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Contents of each cell is parsed as an inline text which may contents any inline Markdown spans like emphasis, strong emphasis, links etc.

Column 1 | Column 2
---------|---------
*foo*    | bar
**baz**  | [qux]
quux     | [quuz](/url2)

[qux]: /url
.
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Column 1</th><th>Column 2</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td><em>foo</em></td><td>bar</td></tr>
<tr><td><strong>baz</strong></td><td><a href="/url">qux</a></td></tr>
<tr><td>quux</td><td><a href="/url2">quuz</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>