Blank table cell
empty-table-cellon by defaultJapanese / English
A table cell left blank in a column every other row fills
Example
How to fix
Fill it in. If it does not apply, write "none" or "—"; if it is not decided, write "TBD" and when it will be.
Why it matters
Every other row fills this column, and one row leaves it blank. The reader cannot tell whether it was forgotten, does not apply, or is not decided yet. In an owner or due-date column, that row's task is left to no one.
What it does not flag
The first column is not checked, since a blank there often means "same as above". A column with two or more blanks, a table with fewer than three body rows, and a cell holding "—" or "none" are not reported. Nor are the quantity and unit-price blanks of a total, subtotal or tax row ("| Total | | | $612.00 |"), a period total ("Week total") or a computed amount ("Gross pay"); a blank in its amount column (the rightmost column every other row fills with a figure) still is. Nor is a blank right after a label that starts or ends with a total word or ends in a colon, when the cell after it is filled, since a label that spanned two columns in the source table leaves that blank once written as Markdown ("| Total score | | 8 |"). Markdown tables only.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L1
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- warning
- Languages
- Japanese and English
- Suited to
- business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
- Reads from the document
- markdown
Levels
Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).
| strict | error |
|---|---|
| normal | warning |
| relaxed | info |
This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.
By genre
- Runs by default in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
Message
The "{name}" column is blank in this row only
Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/empty-table-cell.yaml