Markdown Table Generator

Markdown tables are miserable to type by hand. Copy cells from Excel or Google Sheets, or paste CSV, and this tool builds the table for you, detecting tabs, commas, semicolons or pipes, setting alignment and optionally padding columns so they line up in plain text.

How to use it

1. Copy rows from your spreadsheet and paste them in.
2. Choose left, centre or right alignment.
3. Tick padding if you want the columns to line up in plain text.
4. Copy the Markdown table.

When it helps

• Adding tables to a README.
• Writing documentation or blog posts.
• Posting data in a GitHub issue.
• Sharing tabular data in chat tools that support Markdown.

Good to know

• The first row becomes the header.
• Pipes inside cells are escaped for you.
• Very wide tables are hard to read in plain text, so keep them narrow.

Markdown table syntax

A Markdown table has a header row, a separator row of hyphens and colons that sets alignment, and body rows, each separated by pipes. A colon on the left means left-aligned, on the right means right-aligned, and on both sides means centred.

Pipes inside cells must be escaped with a backslash, which the tool does for you.

Worked example: from a spreadsheet

Copy a range of cells from a spreadsheet and paste them in. Spreadsheet cells arrive tab-separated, which the tool detects. Choose centre alignment and padding, and you get an aligned table you can paste into documentation or an issue tracker.

If your data has commas inside quoted fields, the quotes are respected.

When not to use tables

Markdown tables are fine for small, simple data but awkward for long cells, merged cells or large data sets. In plain text they become hard to edit. For big tables, link to a spreadsheet or use HTML.

Also make sure tables work for screen readers by giving each column a clear header.

Tables versus lists

Use a table when readers compare values across rows, such as features of products or schedule times. Use a list when items are independent. Wide tables can scroll awkwardly on phones, so keep to a few columns, or provide the data in a downloadable file.

Always put the most important column first, and keep headings short.

Importing back to a spreadsheet

To move a Markdown table back into a spreadsheet, copy the rows, paste into a text editor, and replace the pipes with tabs, or use the Delimiter Converter. Remove the separator line of dashes.

Most spreadsheet programs can then split text to columns on the tab character.

Alignment details

Alignment markers in the separator row only affect how the table renders, and padding only affects how it looks in plain text. Both are optional, but they help readers of the raw file.

Questions