Using Standard Text Formatting For Tables
STATUS
- entered by PeterKorn
Applicability
Plain text documents. Not applicable to technologies that contain markup. This technique relates to:
- Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
- How to Meet 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
- Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
Description
The objective of this technique is to use text formatting conventions to create tables. Tables are used to display tabular data in columns, so that the contents of a given cell may be clearly associated with other cells sharing the same row or column. Column headers are also clearly discernible.
There are two procedures for creating tables in plain text documents. Both of these are visually discernible using fixed with characters (these techniques were designed for generation on devices like typewriters, or display on fixed character terminals.
Procedure 1: Using character graphics
Use character graphics to create the table structure. The underscore character "_" is used for horizontal lines, while the pipe character "|" is used for vertical lines. Column headers are indicated by being centered and in ALL CAPS. If present, row headers are indicated similarly - by being centered an in ALL CAPS. No blank lines are used within each table cell.
Procedure 2: Using spacing alignment
Use blank space after the contents of each cell such that each column of cells shares the same left alignment within each line of text. If present, column headers are indicated by an initial row, which is then underlined with dash characters "-". This initial row may or may not be similarly aligned; spacing in the dashes is sufficient to demarcate the headers.
Examples
Example 1: Using character graphics
Example Code:
Table with only column headers: ____________________________________________________________ | COL 1 HEADER | COL 2 HEADER | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Contents of first cell | Contents of second cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Contents of third cell | Contents of fourth cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________| | Contents of fifth cell | Contents of sixth cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________| Table with column and row headers: __________________________________________________________________________________________ | | COL 1 HEADER | COL 2 HEADER | |_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________| | ROW 1 HEADER | Contents of first cell | Contents of second cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________| | ROW 2 HEADER | Contents of third cell | Contents of fourth cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________| | ROW 3 HEADER | Contents of fifth cell | Contents of sixth cell | |_____________________________|_____________________________|_____________________________|
Example 2: Using spacing alignment
Example Code:
Table without column headers (a common UNIX directory listing): $ ls bin etc initrd.img.old lost+found proc selinux usr boot export lib media RAID-ARRAY srv var cdrom home lib32 mnt root sys vmlinuz dev initrd.img lib64 opt sbin tmp vmlinuz.old Table with aligned column headers (a common UNIX filesystem listing): $ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda2 40G 8.8G 29G 24% / none 748M 288K 748M 1% /dev none 752M 916K 751M 1% /dev/shm none 752M 552K 752M 1% /var/run none 752M 0 752M 0% /var/lock none 752M 0 752M 0% /lib/init/rw none 40G 8.8G 29G 24% /var/lib/ureadahead/debugfs /dev/md0 466G 396G 71G 85% /RAID-ARRAY /dev/sda1 962M 81M 832M 9% /boot /dev/sda4 185G 188M 176G 1% /export Table with underlined column headers (a common network connection listing): $ netstat Active Connections Proto Local Address Foreign Address State ------ ---------------------- ---------------------- ---------------- TCP 127.0.0.1:5354 lightnin:49157 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:5354 lightnin:61839 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:5354 lightnin:61843 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:5354 lightnin:61844 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:27015 lightnin:49165 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:27015 lightnin:61851 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:27015 lightnin:61881 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49157 lightnin:5354 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49165 lightnin:27015 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49208 lightnin:49209 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49209 lightnin:49208 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49343 lightnin:49344 ESTABLISHED TCP 127.0.0.1:49344 lightnin:49343 ESTABLISHED
Resources
No resources available for this technique.
Related Techniques
(none currently listed)
Tests
Procedure 1
TO BE WRITTEN
Procedure 2
TO BE WRITTEN
Expected Results
- All checks above are all true.
If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.