TSV to Markdown Table
Turn a TSV into a Markdown pipe table for a README, a pull request, an issue, or a wiki. Numeric columns are right-aligned automatically using the alignment row, which is the detail that makes a generated table look deliberate rather than dumped. Pipe characters inside cells are escaped so they don't split columns, and embedded newlines become spaces.
How to use
- Paste or drop the TSV.
- Leave alignment on auto to right-align columns whose values are all numeric, or force one alignment for every column.
- Copy and paste into your Markdown. Most renderers require a blank line before the table.
Alignment and the separator row
The row of dashes under the header is where alignment lives: --- is default, ---: right, :---: centred. Auto mode inspects each column and right-aligns it when every non-empty value parses as a number — the convention in typographic tables, because it lines the digits up. A column of mixed numbers and text stays left-aligned, which is also correct.
Note that the columns don't need to be padded to equal widths for Markdown to render; the output is compact rather than pretty-printed as source. If you want the raw text to line up too, run it through aligned text columns instead — though that isn't a Markdown table.
Where Markdown tables fall short
There is no way to merge cells, no way to put a real line break inside a cell (some renderers accept <br>, many don't), and no standard for a caption. Wide tables overflow rather than wrap in most renderers. If any of that matters, generate HTML instead — it's valid inside Markdown files and gives you full control. For a paper, TSV → LaTeX.
FAQ
My table renders as plain text.
Almost always a missing blank line before the table, or a renderer that doesn't support tables — tables are a GitHub-flavoured extension, not part of original Markdown. Slack, for one, doesn't render them at all; use an ASCII table in a code block there.
What happens to a cell containing a pipe?
It's escaped as \|, which renders as a literal pipe instead of starting a new column.
Can I convert a Markdown table back?
Markdown table → TSV, which drops the alignment row and can strip bold, code, and link markup.
Does it handle very wide tables?
It generates them, but most renderers won't wrap the result. Trim columns first with extract columns, or truncate long cells with truncate cells.
Privacy
100% client-side. No upload. See the privacy policy.