Defining tables in Asciidoctor is very easy. The start and end of the table are defined by |===. But if we want to add a new table to a table cell we cannot use the same syntax. To define a nested table we must replace the | separator with !. So instead of |=== to indicate the table boundaries we use !===. Also the cell separators are now ! instead of |. Finally we must make sure the table cell or column supports Asciidoc markup, so the table is properly created. We must configure the cell or column with a so the nested table is created.

In the following example Asciidoctor markup we have a simple table with a nested table in the second column and row. Notice we can still apply all table configuration to the nested table as well:

= Tables

== Nested tables

To nest a table in a table we must
use `!` as table separator instead of `|`.
Also the type of the column or cell
must be set to `a` so Asciidoc markup
is processed.

[cols="1,2a"]
|===
| Col 1 | Col 2

| Cell 1.1
| Cell 1.2

| Cell 2.1
| Cell 2.2

[cols="2,1"]
!===
! Col1 ! Col2

! C11
! C12

!===

|===

When we run Asciidoctor to create HTML for this markup we get the following result:

Written with Asciidoctor 1.5.5.

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