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What is a Text-based Table?

A table consists of a rectangular text area which is divided into cells. Each cell must be at least one character wide and one character high, not counting its border lines. A cell can be subdivided into more cells, but they cannot overlap. Cell border lines are drawn with three special characters, specified by the following variables:

table-cell-vertical-char
The character used for vertical lines. The default is |.
table-cell-horizontal-chars
The characters used for horizontal lines. The default is "-"=.
table-cell-intersection-char
The character used for the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines. The default is +.

@noindent The following are examples of invalid tables:

+-----+       +--+    +-++--+
   |     |       |  |    | ||  |
   |     |       |  |    | ||  |
   +--+  |    +--+--+    +-++--+
   |  |  |    |  |  |    +-++--+
   |  |  |    |  |  |    | ||  |
   +--+--+    +--+--+    +-++--+
      a          b          c

@noindent From left to right:

  1. Overlapped cells or non-rectangular cells are not allowed.
  2. The border must be rectangular.
  3. Cells must have a minimum width/height of one character.