How to use mediawiki API to create a table for a w

Question

I intend to use MediaWiki API to create a table for a wiki page. In MediaWiki, the syntax for creating a table should be like the following:

{|class="wikitable sortable"
!'''Full Name'''||'''Short Name'''
|-
|MediaWiki||MW
|}

When I called MediaWiki API, I stored the contents which I want to add to the page in a string:

$content = "{|class='wikitable sortable'<br>!'''Full Name'''||'''Short Name'''<br>|-<br>|MediaWiki||MW|}";

I intended to used "br" to make line breaks, but failed to create a table. Without line breaks, a table can't be showed either. How can I make line breaks before I call MediaWiki API?