# ASCII Table Generator - Text, Markdown & Unicode Box Tables

> Turn CSV, spreadsheet cells or Markdown into text tables: ASCII, Unicode boxes, Markdown, reST, Org-mode, MySQL style, HTML or LaTeX, CJK-aligned.

- URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/text-table
- Category: Developer Tools (https://qilingtools.com/en/dev)
- Tags: [Text](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/text), [Developer](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/dev), [Data Formats](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/data)
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Price: Free, no sign-up
- Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded

Tables in code comments, READMEs, terminal output, plain-text email or chat only look good when the columns line up. Paste CSV, TSV (copied straight from Excel or Google Sheets), semicolon- or pipe-separated text, or an existing Markdown table and the format is detected for you — or switch to the grid editor to type cells and add or remove rows and columns. There are 12 output styles: classic ASCII (+---+), Unicode single, double, rounded and heavy box drawing, a neatly aligned Markdown table, reStructuredText grid and simple tables, Emacs Org-mode, MySQL command-line style (with “N rows in set”), plus an HTML table and LaTeX tabular. Each column can be left, center or right aligned, and numeric columns can be right-aligned automatically. Set a maximum column width and long text wraps by word (or between CJK characters) into multi-line cells; padding and separator lines between rows are adjustable too. Widths follow Unicode East Asian Width — CJK characters, full-width symbols and emoji count as two columns and combining marks as zero — so mixed English and Chinese, Japanese or Korean text lines up exactly in terminals and code editors. Everything runs in your browser.

## How to use

1. Paste CSV / TSV / a Markdown table, or switch to Edit grid and type it in
2. Choose an output style and set the header row, alignment, max width and separators
3. Copy the result or download it as a file

## Features

- Detects CSV, TSV, semicolon / pipe-separated text and Markdown tables
- Visual grid editor with row and column controls
- 12 styles: ASCII, 4 Unicode box styles, Markdown, reST grid / simple, Org, MySQL, HTML, LaTeX
- CJK full-width characters and emoji counted as 2 columns
- Per-column left / center / right alignment, auto right-align for numbers
- Max column width with word wrapping into multi-line cells
- Padding, row separators and header toggle
- Automatic escaping for HTML and LaTeX special characters

## FAQ

### Why does it look misaligned on the page but fine in my terminal?

Widths are calculated with CJK characters counting as two Latin characters, which is exactly right in terminals and editors like VS Code that use monospace fonts. Many web and document fonts don’t draw CJK glyphs at precisely double width, so the preview can look slightly off. Put the result in a code block or terminal to see it aligned.

### Can I paste straight from Excel?

Yes. Select cells in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, copy and paste them into the input box; they’re detected as TSV (tab-separated) with every header and cell kept. Line breaks inside cells become multi-line cells in styles that support them (ASCII, Unicode boxes, reST grid tables).

### What’s the difference between reST grid and simple tables?

Grid tables draw every cell with + - | borders and support multi-line cells — the most flexible option. Simple tables only use = rules around the header, which is cleaner, but cells can’t wrap and the first column can’t be empty (the tool fills empty first cells with an escaped space “\ ”).

### Does the LaTeX output need any packages?

The tabular code escapes special characters such as & % $ # _ { }, so it compiles with plain LaTeX for Latin text. CJK text needs the ctex package or XeLaTeX with xeCJK. For booktabs-style tables, replace \hline with \toprule, \midrule and \bottomrule.

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