Help:Lint errors/large-tables

This is a Linter tracking flag, still in development, that does not currently indicate that editors should attempt to change or fix anything on pages where it appears. See Notes below for more information.

Wide tables are used across Wikimedia wikis. These often lead to suboptimal mobile display by adding content wider than the mobile viewport, and have more recently been obscuring the new right-hand-side sidebar on the new Vector 2022 skin, which has a content column that is more limited in width than previous skins. The purpose of this lint is to identify pages with tables that might exceed the limited widths imposed by mobile displays and the Vector 2022 skin, and then to find on-wiki and software-based solutions to the longstanding phab:T66577. Editors may be able to improve the display of wide tables using the guidelines in Recommendations for mobile friendly articles on Wikimedia wikis.

Example

The lint is still being developed, but currently it will trigger for any table with more than five columns.

e.g.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Caption
! Header cell 1 !! Header cell 2 !! Header cell 3 !! Header cell 4 !! Header cell 5 !! Header cell 6
|-
| Content cell 1 || Content cell 2 || Content cell 3 || Content cell 4 || Content cell 5 || Content cell 6
|}

which renders as:

Caption

Header cell 1	Header cell 2	Header cell 3	Header cell 4	Header cell 5	Header cell 6
Content cell 1	Content cell 2	Content cell 3	Content cell 4	Content cell 5	Content cell 6

Notes

Because it is still in development, this Linter tracking flag does not currently (as of February 2024) indicate a syntax error or other problem that needs to be fixed on the page. See task T66577 and task T334528 for the steps that led to the creation of this Linter tracking flag.

See task T336316 for comments about false positive applications of this tracking flag.