Editing Help:Table (section)

=== Rendering the pipe ===
{{anchor|Rendering_pipe_itself}}
When cell ''content'' that contains a [[vertical bar|pipe]] character does not render correctly, simply add an empty format for that cell. The second pipe character in a line of <code>|''cell&nbsp;code''</code> will not display; it is reserved for adding a format. Wikicode between the first and second pipe is a format, but since emptiness or an error there is ignored, it just disappears. When this happens, add a dummy format. {{Crossref|selfref=no|(For a real format, see {{section link||HTML attributes}}.)}} Use a third pipe character to render your first pipe character.

<div class="box">
Rendering the first pipe when it is the third pipe in the cell code.

'''Wikitext'''
<syntaxhighlight lang=wikitext>
{| class=wikitable
|-
| ''formatting'' |P|i|p|e|
|C|e|l|l|2|
|-
| ''formatting'' |P|i|p|e|| ''formatting'' |C|e|l|l|2|
|-
||P|i|p|e|s|| C|e|l|l|2|
|}
</syntaxhighlight></div>

<div class="box">
'''Produces'''
{| class=wikitable
|-
| ''formatting'' |P|i|p|e|
|C|e|l|l|2|
|-
| ''formatting'' |P|i|p|e|| ''formatting'' |C|e|l|l|2|
|-
||P|i|p|e|s|| C|e|l|l|2|
|}
</div>

The third and later pipe characters will render, but to display two ''adjacent'' pipe characters in a cell, (instead of having them act as the first pipe at the start of a new cell), other pipe-rendering options are needed. Instead of using a dummy format to render a pipe, you can render it directly by 1) {{tag|nowiki|content={{!}}}} (preferred) or 2) [[html#Character and entity references| html]]: <code>&amp;#124;</code> or <code>&amp;#x7C;</code>. Each line of cell code in the following table has one wikicode pipe.

<div class="box">
Displaying adjacent pipes

'''Wikitext'''
<syntaxhighlight lang=wikitext>
{| class=wikitable
|-
|<nowiki>|</nowiki> Pipes34:<nowiki>||</nowiki>
|-
|&#124; Pipes34:&#124;&#x7C;
|}
</syntaxhighlight></div>

<div class="box">
'''Produces'''
{| class=wikitable
|-
|<nowiki>|</nowiki> Pipes34:<nowiki>||</nowiki>
|-
|&#124; Pipes34:&#124;&#x7C;
|}
</div>

Template {{tl2|!}}, because of the order in which things are parsed, is equivalent to typing in a single | pipe character. The single <code>[[help:nowiki|&lt;nowiki />]]|</code> parser-tag does not apply here. See how they do not [[escape character|escape]] the second pipe, as &amp;#124 and {{tag|nowiki|content={{!}}}} did above:

<div class="box">
Common mechanisms that do not work in tables.

'''Wikitext'''
<syntaxhighlight lang=wikitext>
{| class=wikitable
|-
|<nowiki />| Pipe3:|
|-
|Pipe2:{{!}} Pipe3:{{!}}
|}
</syntaxhighlight></div>

<div class="box">
'''Produces'''
{| class=wikitable
|-
|<nowiki />| Pipe3:|
|-
|Pipe2:{{!}} Pipe3:{{!}}
|}
</div>