TBL(7)						       BSD Miscellaneous Information Manual						    TBL(7)

NAME

     tbl -- tbl language reference for mandoc

DESCRIPTION

     The tbl language is a table-formatting language.  It is used within mdoc(7) and man(7) UNIX manual pages.	This manual describes the subset
     of the tbl language accepted by the mandoc(1) utility.

     Tables within mdoc(7) or man(7) are enclosed by the 'TS' and 'TE' macro tags, whose precise syntax is documented in roff(7).  Tables consist
     of a series of options on a single line, followed by the table layout, followed by data.

     For example, the following creates a boxed table with digits centred in the cells.

	   .TS
	   tab(:) box;
	   c5 c5 c5.
	   1:2:3
	   4:5:6
	   .TE

     When formatted, the following output is produced:
	   +--------------+
	   |1	  2	3 |
	   |4	  5	6 |
	   +--------------+
     The tbl implementation in mandoc(1) is currently under development.

TABLE STRUCTURE

     Tables are enclosed by the 'TS' and 'TE' roff(7) macros.  A table consists of an optional single line of table Options terminated by a semi-
     colon, followed by one or more lines of Layout specifications terminated by a period, then Data.  All input must be 7-bit ASCII.  Example:

	   .TS
	   box tab(:);
	   c | c
	   | c | c.
	   1:2
	   3:4
	   .TE

     Table data is pre-processed, that is, data rows are parsed then inserted into the underlying stream of input data.  This allows data rows to
     be interspersed by arbitrary roff(7), mdoc(7), and man(7) macros such as

	   .TS
	   tab(:);
	   c c c.
	   1:2:3
	   .Ao
	   3:2:1
	   .Ac
	   .TE

     in the case of mdoc(7) or

	   .TS
	   tab(:);
	   c c c.
	   .ds ab 2
	   1:*(ab:3
	   .I
	   3:2:1
	   .TE

     in the case of man(7).

   Options
     The first line of a table consists of space-separated option keys and modifiers terminated by a semicolon.  If the first line does not have a
     terminating semicolon, it is assumed that no options are specified and instead a Layout is processed.  Some options accept arguments enclosed
     by parenthesis.  The following case-insensitive options are available:

     center  This option is not supported by mandoc(1).  This may also be invoked with centre.

     delim   Accepts a two-character argument.	This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     expand  This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     box     Draw a single-line box around the table.  This may also be invoked with frame.

     doublebox
	     Draw a double-line box around the table.  This may also be invoked with doubleframe.

     allbox  This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     tab     Accepts a single-character argument.  This character is used as a delimiter between data cells, which otherwise defaults to the tab
	     character.

     linesize
	     Accepts a natural number (all digits).  This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     nokeep  This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     decimalpoint
	     Accepts a single-character argument.  This character will be used as the decimal point with the n layout key.

     nospaces
	     This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

   Layout
     The table layout follows Options or a 'T&' macro invocation.  Layout specifies how data rows are displayed on output.  Each layout line cor-
     responds to a line of data; the last layout line applies to all remaining data lines.  Layout lines may also be separated by a comma.  Each
     layout cell consists of one of the following case-insensitive keys:

     c	     Centre a literal string within its column.

     r	     Right-justify a literal string within its column.

     l	     Left-justify a literal string within its column.

     n	     Justify a number around its last decimal point.  If the decimal point is not found on the number, it's assumed to trail the number.

     s	     Horizontally span columns from the last non-s data cell.  It is an error if spanning columns follow a - or | cell, or come first.
	     This option is not supported by mandoc(1).

     a	     Left-justify a literal string and pad with one space.

     ^	     Vertically span rows from the last non-^ data cell.  It is an error to invoke a vertical span on the first layout row.  Unlike a hor-
	     izontal spanner, you must specify an empty cell (if it not empty, the data is discarded) in the corresponding data cell.

     -	     Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a single horizontal line.  This may also be invoked with _.

     =	     Replace the data cell (its contents will be lost) with a double horizontal line.

     |	     Emit a vertical bar instead of data.

     ||      Emit a double-vertical bar instead of data.

     Keys may be followed by a set of modifiers.  A modifier is either a modifier key or a natural number for specifying the minimum width of a
     column.  The following case-insensitive modifier keys are available: z, u, e, t, d, b, i, r, and f (followed by b, i, r, 3, 2, or 1).  All of
     these are ignored by mandoc(1).

     For example, the following layout specifies a centre-justified column of minimum width 10, followed by vertical bar, followed by a left-jus-
     tified column of minimum width 10, another vertical bar, then a column justified about the decimal point in numbers:

	   c10 | l10 | n

   Data
     The data section follows the last layout row.  By default, cells in a data section are delimited by a tab.  This behaviour may be changed
     with the tab option.  If _ or = is specified, a single or double line, respectively, is drawn across the data field.  If - or = is speci-
     fied, a line is drawn within the data field (i.e. terminating within the cell and not draw to the border).  If the last cell of a line is T{,
     all subsequent lines are included as part of the cell until T} is specified as its own data cell.	It may then be followed by a tab (or as
     designated by tab) or an end-of-line to terminate the row.

COMPATIBILITY

     This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other tbl implementations, at this time limited to GNU tbl.

     -	 In GNU tbl, comments and macros are disallowed prior to the data block of a table.  The mandoc(1) implementation allows them.

SEE ALSO

     mandoc(1), man(7), mandoc_char(7), mdoc(7), roff(7)

     M. E. Lesk, Tbl--A Program to Format Tables, June 11, 1976.

HISTORY

     The tbl utility, a preprocessor for troff, was originally written by M.  E. Lesk at Bell Labs in 1975.  The GNU reimplementation of tbl, part
     of the groff package, was released in 1990 by James Clark.  A standalone tbl implementation was written by Kristaps Dzonsons in 2010.  This
     formed the basis of the implementation that is part of the mandoc(1) utility.

AUTHORS

     This tbl reference was written by Kristaps Dzonsons, kristaps@bsd.lv.

BSD
								 September 3, 2011							       BSD