Create table without header in markdown

Question

Is it possible to create a table without a header in markdown?

The HTML would look like this:

<table>
<tr>
    <td>Key 1</td>
    <td>Value 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>Key 2</td>
    <td>Value 2</td>
</tr>
</table>

Answer 1

Have you tried the Senseful Solutions format text as a table tool?

I think you still need headers but it makes creating tables a lot easier for SO.

Answer 2

This works well for me in GitHub. The first row is no longer bolded as it is not a header:

<table align="center">
    <tr>
        <td align="center"><img src="docs/img1.png?raw=true" alt="some text"></td>
        <td align="center">Some other text</td>
        <td align="center">More text</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td align="center"><img src="docs/img2.png?raw=true" alt="some text"></td>
        <td align="center">Some other text 2</td>
        <td align="center">More text 2</td>
    </tr>
</table>

Check an sample HTML table without header here.

Answer 3

Omitting the header above the divider produces a headerless table in at least Perl Text::MultiMarkdown and in FletcherPenney MultiMarkdown

|-------------|--------|
|**Name:**    |John Doe|
|**Position:**|CEO     |

See PHP Markdown feature request

---

Empty headers in PHP Parsedown produce tables with empty headers that are usually invisible (depending on your CSS) and so look like headerless tables.

|     |     |
|-----|-----|
|Foo  |37   |
|Bar  |101  |

Answer 4

Most markdown parsers don't support tables without headers. That means the separation line for headers is mandatory.

Parsers that do not support tables without headers

• multimarkdown
• Maruku: A popular implementation in ruby
• byword: "All tables must begin with one or more rows of headers"

• PHP Markdown Extra "second line contains a mandatory separator line between the headers and the content"

• RDiscount Uses PHP Markdown Extra syntax.

• Github Flavoured Markdown
• Parsedown: A parser in PHP (used e.g. in Laravel emails)

Parsers that do support tables without headers.

• Kramdown: A parser in Ruby
• Text::MultiMarkdown: Perl CPAN module.
• MultiMarkdown: Windows application.
• ParseDown Extra: A parser in PHP.
• Pandoc: A document converter for the command line written in Haskell (supports header-less tables via its simple_tables and multiline_tables extensions)

CSS solution

If you're able to change the CSS of the HTML output you can however leverage the :empty pseudo class to hide an empty header and make it look like there is no header at all.

Answer 5

Many of the suggestions unfortunately do not work for all markdown viewers/editors, for instance, in my case - the popular Markdown Viewer Chrome extension but do work with iA Writer.

What does seem to work across both of these popular programs (and might work for your particular application) is to use html comment blocks ('<!-- -->'):

| <!-- -->    | <!-- -->    |
|-------------|-------------|
| Foo         | Bar         |

Like some of the earlier suggestions stated, this does add an empty header row in your markdown viewer/editor and is inevitable. In iA Writer, its aesthetically small enough that it doesn't get in my way too much.

Answer 6

$ cat foo.md
Key 1 | Value 1
Key 2 | Value 2

$ kramdown foo.md
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>Key 1</td>
      <td>Value 1</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Key 2</td>
      <td>Value 2</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>