Markdown Table Cheatsheet
Every markdown table syntax pattern on one printable page. Bookmark, screenshot, or print. The reference your editor docs will thank you for.
Basic structure
| Header A | Header B | Header C |
|----------|----------|----------|
| A1 | B1 | C1 |
| A2 | B2 | C2 |Alignment
| Left | Center | Right |
|:-----|:------:|------:|
| a | b | c |:---— left-aligned (the default if no colon):---:— center-aligned---:— right-aligned
Escaping a literal pipe
| Code | Meaning |
|:---------------|:-------------|
| a | b | a or b |
| a \| b | a or b (alt) |Both | and \| work in most parsers. Pick one and stay consistent within a document.
Line breaks inside a cell
| Name | Notes |
|:------|:-----------------------------|
| Alice | Senior engineer<br>Joined 2019 |The <br> tag is the only reliable way to force a newline inside a markdown table cell.
Empty cells
| Item | Status | Owner |
|:-----|:---------|:-------|
| A | Done | Alice |
| B | | Bob |
| C | Pending | |Empty cells stay empty. The renderer treats them as <td></td>.
Inline formatting in cells
| Token | Description |
|:--------|:----------------------------------|
| <br> | Line break |
| bold | **bold** renders as bold |
| italic | *italic* renders as italic |
| `code` | Backticks for monospace inline |
| [link](url) | Standard markdown link syntax |Checkboxes inside cells (GitHub Flavored)
| Task | Done |
|:---------------|:----:|
| Set up CI | [x] |
| Write tests | [x] |
| Deploy | [ ] |Numbers — right-align always
| Item | Qty | Price | Total |
|:---------|----:|-------:|--------:|
| Coffee | 2 | $3.50 | $7.00 |
| Pastry | 3 | $4.00 | $12.00 |
| | | Total | $19.00 |The platform compatibility table
| Platform | Pipes | Align | HTML | Checkboxes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub | optional | yes | yes | yes |
| GitLab | optional | yes | yes | yes |
| required | yes | no | no | |
| Discord | required | limited | no | no |
| Notion | optional | auto | limited | via column type |
| Obsidian | optional | yes | yes | yes |
| Stack Overflow | required | yes | no | no |
The five-rule summary
- Always use leading and trailing pipes. Costs nothing. Fixes Reddit and Stack Overflow.
- Always include the separator row. Without it, no table.
- Match column counts exactly between header and data rows.
- Right-align numbers, left-align text, center short labels.
- Escape pipes as
|or\|when needed inside cells.
For the full reference with worked examples and platform-specific gotchas, see The Complete Guide to Markdown Tables. For the workflow walkthrough, see How to Make a Markdown Table in 60 Seconds.
Frequently asked questions
Can I print this page?
Yes — the page is print-styled. Your browser's print dialog produces a clean one-page reference.
Where can I find the rendered output side-by-side?
Use the Markdown Table tool — it shows the live preview and the raw markdown next to each other.
Does this work for Reddit comment markdown?
Yes. Every pattern on this page renders correctly on Reddit, GitHub, and most other markdown environments.
How do I add a checklist column?
Use markdown checkbox syntax inside a cell: [ ] for unchecked, [x] for checked. GitHub renders these as actual checkboxes.
Keep reading
Written by the TextKit team. We build the tools we write about — try the Markdown Table tool used in this post.