--- title: "Markdown table without header: what pandoc wrote" slug: markdown-table-without-header excerpt: "Testing a markdown table without header text in pandoc: the HTML two readers gave is quoted under Blank cells above the dash row." quickAnswer: "The four inputs are shown in Four files under test. The plain-text result from commonmark+pipe_tables is quoted in Pipe rows that open on dashes. HTML that both readers gave for empty top cells appears in Blank cells above the dash row. One markdown run is quoted under Simple tables framed by dash lines. A second markdown run, colgroup included, sits in Grid borders and no equals line. The extra test's multiline file is shown in Multiline tables without a header. Runs under plain commonmark are collected in What plain commonmark did with these files. The grep and pandoc commands for repeating these checks are listed in Checking for a thead with grep." keyTakeaways: - "Cat output for four inputs is printed in Four files under test." - "Compare both readers on empty top cells under Blank cells above the dash row." - "The alignment styles pandoc wrote for a dash-framed file are quoted in Simple tables framed by dash lines." - "The colgroup and width style for a grid file are quoted in Grid borders and no equals line." - "Plain commonmark output for two of the files is gathered in What plain commonmark did with these files." publishedDate: 2026-10-21 dateModified: 2026-10-21 author: Bobby Huang cluster: B role: post status: published faq: - q: Can a pipe table leave out its header row? a: "The section Pipe rows that open on dashes quotes the output for that file. A version with empty top cells is quoted under Blank cells above the dash row." - q: Is there a headerless layout for the markdown reader besides pipes? a: "A dash-framed file and its HTML appear in Simple tables framed by dash lines. Grid layout gets its own run in Grid borders and no equals line. For cells that wrap onto two lines, read Multiline tables without a header." - q: Why did commonmark give horizontal rules for the dash-framed file? a: "Those runs and the spec lines behind them sit in What plain commonmark did with these files." - q: Can grep tell whether pandoc wrote a thead? a: "The steps for that check are numbered in Checking for a thead with grep." related: - markdown-tables - markdown-table-without-pipes - markdown-table-multiline-cells --- A markdown table without header text took several shapes in this test, among them one paragraph of plain text, a table holding body rows and nothing else, and two rules wrapped around a paragraph. Which one appeared depended on the table layout and on the reader passed to `-f`. All runs here come from one Mac whose pandoc reports version 3.8.3. This post sticks to the HTML pandoc printed and leaves aside how any program might lay it out. ## Four files under test Four small files share the same two names and two numbers. Running `cat nohead-pipe.md` printed a pipe table that opens on its dash row: ```text |------|-----| | Jane | 12 | | John | 9 | ``` Running `cat blank-head-pipe.md` printed the same table with a row of empty cells on top: ```text | | | |------|-----| | Jane | 12 | | John | 9 | ``` Running `cat nohead-simple.md` printed two rows held between two dash lines: ```text ------ ---- Jane 12 John 9 ------ ---- ``` Running `cat nohead-grid.md` printed a grid table built from `+`, `-` and `|` characters: ```text +------+-----+ | Jane | 12 | +------+-----+ | John | 9 | +------+-----+ ``` None of the four files puts a word above the data. ## Pipe rows that open on dashes Per the [Markdown tables](markdown-tables.md) guide, pipe tables must start with a header row, and `nohead-pipe.md` drops it. This was the result once `pipe_tables` was added to `commonmark`: ```sh pandoc -f commonmark+pipe_tables -t html nohead-pipe.md ``` ```html

|------|-----| | Jane | 12 | | John | 9 |

``` All three lines joined into a single `

` element. The pipes and dashes came through as plain characters, and pandoc wrote no `` tag. The `markdown` reader also gave one paragraph and no table for this file. Its copy swapped the dash runs for EM DASH (U+2014) and EN DASH (U+2013) characters, and this post leaves it out. The extra log keeps an `od -An -tx1` dump of it, showing `e2 80 94` and `e2 80 93` in place of the hyphens. Pandoc defines `pipe_tables` as an extension; it is not CommonMark syntax. The `markdown` list carries `+pipe_tables` at line 51, so it's active there by default. The `commonmark` list carries `-pipe_tables` at line 16, which is why the command above asks for it by name. ## Blank cells above the dash row The file with a blank top row went through both readers: ```sh pandoc -f markdown -t html blank-head-pipe.md pandoc -f commonmark+pipe_tables -t html blank-head-pipe.md ``` Each command printed these same twelve lines: ```html
Jane 12
John 9
``` Here a `` appears and a `` does not. The empty cells on top did not become blank `` elements either; nothing from that row reached the output. This agrees with the table guide. Here, a row of empty cells above the dashes was enough to get body-only HTML out of a pipe table. ## Simple tables framed by dash lines Line 58 of the `markdown` list shows `+simple_tables`. Its form with header words above the dashes is covered in [tables without pipes](markdown-table-without-pipes.md). This file has dash lines above and below and no words on top: ```sh pandoc -f markdown -t html nohead-simple.md ``` ```html
Jane 12
John 9
``` Again pandoc gave a `` with no ``. The cells did carry alignment styles, though: `text-align: left` on `Jane` and `John`, and `text-align: right` on `12` and `9`. ## Grid borders and no equals line For `grid_tables`, the `markdown` list has a plus sign at line 24. The border lines in `nohead-grid.md` use `+` and `-` only, and no line in it holds an `=` character. ```sh pandoc -f markdown -t html nohead-grid.md ``` ```html
Jane 12
John 9
``` Both rows landed in the ``, and there's no ``. Pandoc also put a `style` attribute on the `` tag and wrote a `` holding two `` lines. They're quoted above exactly as pandoc printed them. ## Multiline tables without a header Pandoc's `markdown` list marks `multiline_tables` with a plus at line 46. The extra test added a file for it. Running `cat nohead-multi.md` printed: ```text ---------- ----- Jane Doe 12 owner John Doe 9 editor ---------- ----- ``` Each name carries on to a second line, and the two rows are split by an empty line. Here is the run: ```sh pandoc -f markdown -t html nohead-multi.md ``` ```html
Jane Doe owner 12
John Doe editor 9
``` The two lines of each first-column cell were merged with a space between them, so `Jane Doe owner` ended up in one ``. All four cells got `text-align: left`, and once more there's no ``. To switch that extension off, the extra script ran `pandoc -f markdown-multiline_tables -t html nohead-multi.md`, and its output held no `` tag at all. ## What plain commonmark did with these files Looking at the `commonmark` list again, there's `-pipe_tables` at line 16 and no entry at all for `simple_tables`, `grid_tables` or `multiline_tables`. Here is the blank-top-row file under plain `commonmark`, from the extra test: ```sh pandoc -f commonmark -t html blank-head-pipe.md ``` ```html

| | | |------|-----| | Jane | 12 | | John | 9 |

``` Without `pipe_tables`, that file turned into one paragraph, much like the dash-first file did above. The dash-framed file gave something else: ```sh pandoc -f commonmark -t html nohead-simple.md ``` ```html

Jane 12 John 9

``` Those `
` tags trace back to the spec. The spec's lines 838 to 841 define a thematic break as three or more matching `-` characters in a row, led by zero to three spaces. Line 916 lets spaces sit between those characters. Line 1373 bars inner spaces from a setext underline, so the closing dash line stayed a break, and the two rows above it stayed a paragraph. ## Checking for a thead with grep These steps all came from the extra script, run in the test folder. Put your file's name where these use the test file's. 1. Print the top line of the file: `awk 'NR==1' blank-head-pipe.md`. Here it printed `| | |`, a row of empty cells. 2. Convert it and save the output: `pandoc -f markdown -t html blank-head-pipe.md -o nohead-out.html`. 3. Count header blocks with `grep -c '' nohead-out.html`. Its answer was `0`, and grep's exit status was 1 since it found no match. 4. Count body blocks with `grep -c '' nohead-out.html`. It printed `1`. 5. For the dash-first file, the extra script ran `pandoc -f markdown -t html nohead-pipe.md -o nohead-out2.html`. After it came `grep -c '
' nohead-out2.html`. Here the count came back `0`. A `0` at step 3 beside a `1` at step 4 means pandoc wrote body rows with no header block. A `0` at step 5 means no table came out of that file. If your files also hold double-bracket links, the companion post on [Markdown wikilinks](markdown-wikilinks.md) reports how pandoc handled those. ## Where Sashmark fits One goal set for Sashmark's initial build is that you could change a sentence while reading it, with no switch to the raw text. Under a clean Round-Trip, untouched parts of the file would come back unchanged on save. Planned alongside it, Changes View would list each spot an agent revised between your visits to that file, git or no git. It is in development and has not been released. The app itself has no AI features. See the [planned features](/features), the [help pages](/help) and the [roadmap](/roadmap) for where each part stands. More at [sashmark.com](https://www.sashmark.com/).