Multi-line table cell in reStructuredText?

Question

Is there a way to input a newline into a table cell? For example, say I have a table like this:

+==========+==========+==========+
+ Header 1 + Header 2 + Header 3 +
+==========+==========+==========+
+ Item 1   +          +          +
+ Item 2   +          +          +
+----------+----------+----------+

I want the above to create a table with two rows, three columns, and the second row, first column to display Item 1 and Item 2 on separate lines.

I have tried the line blocks syntax |, but it doesn't work inside a table cell. I can use list syntax, but I don't want bullet points to appear.

score 32 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 24 '12 at 11:43

32

First of all I think your table syntax is incorrect, should it not be:

+----------+----------+----------+
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
+==========+==========+==========+
| Item 1   |          |          |
| Item 2   |          |          |
+----------+----------+----------+

Note that the top row is made up of hyphens, not equal signs, and the rows are separated by pipes, |, not plus signs.

Now with this table, the line block syntax:

+----------+----------+----------+
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
+==========+==========+==========+
| | Item 1 |          |          |
| | Item 2 |          |          |
+----------+----------+----------+

seems to work: testing with Pandoc the bottom left cell gets transformed into the following HTML:

<td align="left">Item 1<br />Item 2</td>

Note the line break <br /> in between Item 1 and Item 2.

answered Nov 24 '12 at 11:43

Chris

44,602
16
137
156

Oops, I was being sloppy when I typed the table down. I just edited it. Your solution is indeed correct. The line block syntax didn't work for me before since I got it wrong (I didn't have a space between | and Item). – Kiet Tran Nov 25 '12 at 03:25
2

For anyone trying this with Sphinx: if using the LaTeX builder, note that tables using the `tabularcolumns` directive cannot contain line blocks or other block-level syntax. – Eric3 Dec 06 '13 at 17:42
Confirmed it worked with Sphinx 2.4.4 and rst2pdf 0.96. I added ``.rst-content .line-block`` > ``margin: 0`` in my custom CSS file. – Culip Mar 25 '20 at 20:52

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 11 '15 at 11:22

You can also leave a gap between the lines like this

+----------+----------+----------+
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
+==========+==========+==========+
| Item 1   |          |          |
|          |          |          |
| Item 2   |          |          |
+----------+----------+----------+

This method tends to be friendlier with editors so they dont think you have accidentally added an extra pipe

B.R. · Answer 3 · 2023-02-18T16:13:40.577

6

I use the following syntax to create tables including multiline cells with sphinx:

.. list-table::

 * - **HEADER1**
   - **HEADER2**
   - **HEADER3**
 * - TEXT 1
   - | MULTILINE 
     | TEXT
   - | MULTILINE
     | TEXT 2

I use line blocks with beginning | to preserve the line-breaks.

edited Feb 18 '23 at 16:13

answered Jun 23 '22 at 07:50

B.R.

234
2
7

Multi-line table cell in reStructuredText?

3 Answers3

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