Markdown table generator

Tables in Markdown, without counting pipes by hand

Markdown tables are plain text with a strict shape: a header row, a row of dashes that sets the alignment, and the data rows, all separated by pipe characters. It reads fine once it is written, but writing it by hand means lining up pipes and dashes and it is easy to miscount a column. This tool builds it for you from data you already have.

Where the data comes from

Select cells in Excel or Google Sheets, copy them, and paste them here: spreadsheets copy as tab-separated text, which this tool recognizes automatically. You can also paste CSV, separated by commas, or data separated by semicolons, common in European spreadsheets. The separator is detected from your first line, or you can choose it by hand if the guess is wrong.

Alignment

Markdown tables can align each column left, center or right by changing the dashes in the second row, for example :--- for left, :---: for center and ---: for right. Choose one alignment for the whole table, applied to every column, which covers the common case of a table of mostly text or mostly numbers.

Two output styles

The compact form has no extra spaces and is the smallest to store, which some tools prefer. The aligned form pads every cell with spaces so the pipes line up in a neat grid when you look at the raw text, which many people find easier to read and edit later. Both render identically once shown as a table; the difference is only in the source text.

Limits

Markdown tables do not support merged cells or nested tables. Cell content with a line break is turned into a <br> tag, since Markdown table cells cannot hold a real line break, and a pipe character inside a cell is escaped so it is not read as a column separator. Nothing is uploaded; the table is built in your browser.