How to format and align a Markdown table
Straighten a ragged Markdown table so its columns line up in the raw source — easier to read, easier to edit, and still valid everywhere.
A Markdown table renders fine even when its source is a mess of uneven pipes — but editing that mess is painful. Markdown Table Formatter pads every column to a consistent width so the raw table is as readable as the rendered one.
The problem: valid but ragged
After a few hand edits, a table's source often looks like this:
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Ada | Engineer |
| Linus | Maintainer |
It renders correctly, but the columns don't line up in the source, so spotting the right cell to edit means counting pipes. The formatter turns it into:
| Name | Role |
| ----- | ---------- |
| Ada | Engineer |
| Linus | Maintainer |
Same table, far easier to work with.
What it does
- Pads each column to the width of its longest cell.
- Normalizes the divider row so the dashes match the columns.
- Preserves alignment markers (
:---,:--:,---:) so left/center/right stays intact.
Why it matters
- Reviewable diffs. Aligned tables produce clean, readable diffs in pull requests.
- Faster editing. You can see which column is which without counting.
- Consistency. A repo full of tidy tables looks maintained.
Where the table came from
If you're building a table from scratch or from data, the generators do the alignment for you: Markdown Table Generator, CSV to Markdown Table, and friends. The formatter is for tables that already exist and have drifted.
Privacy
Formatting happens in your browser; the table content stays local.
Paste the messy table, get a tidy one, and never count pipes again.