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char Table Cell Alignment Character (NISO JATS table model)

The character to be used in horizontal alignment of the contents of an entry in a table. The content of a table data or table header element is to be aligned horizontally based on the character named in this attribute, for example, alignment on a period for decimal alignment or on an equal sign for alignment of variables. (This attribute is based on and intended to be converted easily to the XHTML char attribute.)

Usage/Remarks

Horizontal alignment on a particular character requires that three attributes be set in the XML document:
  1. The @align attribute value is set to the word “char”.
  2. The @char attribute value is set to the actual character to use for the aligning, for example, a decimal point, “.”.
  3. The @charoff attribute value is set to the percent of the current column width to the left of the (left edge of the) alignment character, for example, “30”.
OPTIONAL on many elements; click for list and usage

<col>, <colgroup>, <tbody>, <td>, <tfoot>, <th>, <thead>, <tr>

Value Meaning
Text, numbers, or special characters When used in conjunction with @align="char", the contents of the table entry are aligned relative to the character specified by this attribute.
Restriction @char is an optional attribute; there is no default.
Tagged Sample

Designating a comma as the character upon which table cells in a column should align

...
<table border="1">
 <colgroup>
  <col span="1"/>
  <col align="char" char="," charoff="50%" span="1"/>
 </colgroup>
 ...
</table>
...