What is a Markdown table?

A Markdown table is a way to display structured data in rows and columns using plain text syntax. Tables in Markdown are built with pipes (|) to separate columns and hyphens (-) to define the header row separator. Despite being written in plain text, Markdown tables render as clean, formatted HTML tables on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, Notion, and most documentation systems.

Markdown tables also support column alignment. By adding colons to the separator row, you can align text to the left (:---), center (:---:), or right (---:). This makes it easy to format numeric data or create visually balanced layouts without leaving your text editor.

Tool description

A visual Markdown table builder that lets you define columns, set alignments, fill in row data, and instantly generate properly formatted Markdown table syntax. The tool provides a live HTML preview alongside the generated code, so you can see exactly how your table will render before copying it into your document.

Examples

Input: 3 columns (Name, Age, City) with left, right, and center alignment, and 2 data rows.

Pretty-print output:

| Name  | Age | City   |
| :---- | --: | :----: |
| Alice |  30 | London |
| Bob   |  25 | Paris  |

Compact output:

| Name | Age | City |
| :--- | ---: | :---: |
| Alice | 30 | London |
| Bob | 25 | Paris |

Features

  • Visual column editor: Define header names and per-column alignment (left, center, right, or none) through an intuitive list interface
  • Live HTML preview: See your table rendered as formatted HTML in real time as you type
  • Pretty-print and compact modes: Choose between padded, aligned output for readability or minimal compact syntax for brevity
  • Automatic character escaping: Pipe characters and newlines in cell content are escaped automatically to prevent broken table syntax
  • Editable code output: Review and manually adjust the generated Markdown directly in the syntax-highlighted code editor

Options explained

  • Columns: Set the number of columns (1–20). Each column has a header name and an alignment setting
  • Rows: Set the number of data rows (0–50). Row fields update dynamically to match the defined columns
  • Alignment: Choose per-column text alignment — None (default), Left, Center, or Right
  • Compact mode: When enabled, generates minimal Markdown without whitespace padding. When disabled, pads cells to equal width for a neatly aligned, readable table

Use cases

  • Documentation and READMEs: Quickly build formatted tables for project documentation, API references, or comparison charts on GitHub and GitLab
  • Technical writing: Generate properly aligned Markdown tables for blog posts, tutorials, or knowledge base articles without memorizing the syntax
  • Data presentation: Format small datasets into clean, readable tables for reports or notes in Markdown-based tools like Obsidian or Notion