Introduction to Tables (aka., BB code)

It is not easy to document how to do table tags because if written in order, voila, you have a table:

	Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
0	[tr][th]title 1[/th][th]title 2[/th][/tr][tr][td]row 1	col 1[/td][td]row 1	col 1[/td][/tr]

Like this.

Testing showed a leading blank before the trailing "]" disables some tag encoding:

• [table ] - begins each table (remove the " " before the "]")
• [th ] - begins each header column value
• [/th] - ends each header column value (*)
  • [tr ] - begins each row
  • [td ] - begins each data column value
  • [/td] - ends each data column value (*)
  • [/tr] - ends each row (*)
• [/table] - ends a table

Since it is modal software, some sets of tags show up frequently:

• [table ][th ] - begins each table and headers
• [/th][th ] - separates each header column
• [/th] - ends the header columns
  • [tr ][td ] - begins each data row
  • [/td][td ] - separates each data value in a table
  • [/td ][/tr] - ends each data row
• [/table] - common end to table

So take an excel table; export it to delimited text, and; use a common editor to substitute the pairs above as needed. Removed all ordinary <RETURN> or new line characters as these will show up as blank lines before the table.

* - If you omit the closing tag of that mode (aka., TD, TH, TR) it appears to default close the previous tagged text and start new. This short-cut can almost cut the number of tags in half.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

 

BTW, it looks like we don't have to code the "[/<mode>]" tags. The next "[<mode>]" tag appears to close out the previous one. This cuts the number of tags needed nearly in half.

Bob Wilson

 

And a good exercise that also show how the hard <RETURN> are displayed before the table is rendered. Also, you see the use of proportional spaced font.

This is how I would approach it:

	Column 1
0	[tr][td]X[/td][td].[/td][td].[/td][/tr][tr][td].[/td][td].[/td][td].[/td][/tr][tr][td].[/td][td].[/td][td].[/td][/tr]

Trailing table text, use it or just see an extra blank line.

Notice that the table text is using a mono spaced font.

Bob Wilson

 

Huh? I can't figure this out.

Perhaps some form of ASCII art?

Line before the line with the tag:
[pre]lead line

This is the second line after the tag.
The third line with two leading blanks.
Final line with the tag.[/pre]
Line after the line with the closing tag.

Bob Wilson