# Data tables

Canonical HTML: /atlas/tables
Atlas version: atlas-2026-07-28-v1
Category: Content structure for machines

## Definition

A data table expresses relationships through rows, columns, headers, captions, and cells.

## How it works

Explicit th scope, captions, and simple topology let parsers attach each value to the correct dimension without relying on visual alignment.

## How to validate it

Convert the table into records using only markup associations and confirm that every data cell retains its row and column labels.

## Common failure

Merged cells, layout tables, and important meaning encoded only by color make extraction ambiguous.

## Related topics

- [Semantic HTML](/atlas/semantic-html)
- [Structured data](/atlas/structured-data)