Create a table without a header in Markdown

If you don't mind wasting a line by leaving it empty, consider the following hack (it is a hack, and use this only if you don't like adding any additional plugins).

|   |   |
|---|---|
|__Bold Key__| Value1 |
| Normal Key | Value2 |

To view how the above one could look, copy the above and visit https://stackedit.io/app

It worked with GitLab/GitHub's Markdown implementations.


Most Markdown parsers don't support tables without headers. That means the separation line for headers is mandatory.

Parsers that do not support tables without headers

  • multimarkdown
  • Maruku: A popular implementation in Ruby
  • byword: "All tables must begin with one or more rows of headers"
  • PHP Markdown Extra "second line contains a mandatory separator line between the headers and the content"

  • RDiscount Uses PHP Markdown Extra syntax.

  • GitHub Flavoured Markdown
  • Parsedown: A parser in PHP (used e.g. in Laravel emails)

Parsers that do support tables without headers.

  • Kramdown: A parser in Ruby
  • Text::MultiMarkdown: Perl CPAN module.
  • MultiMarkdown: Windows application.
  • ParseDown Extra: A parser in PHP.
  • Pandoc: A document converter for the command line written in Haskell (supports header-less tables via its simple_tables and multiline_tables extensions)
  • Flexmark: A parser in Java.

CSS solution

If you're able to change the CSS of the HTML output you can however leverage the :empty pseudo class to hide an empty header and make it look like there is no header at all.