use CGI::Pretty qw(:standard); print table({border=>1, cellspacing=>2, cellpadding=>2}, Tr({align=>'left', valign=>'center'}, [ td([qw(one 1 I)]), td([qw(one 1 I)]), td('two').td({colspan=>2}, 2), td({colspan=>2}, 'three').td('III'), td({colspan=>3}, 'four'), ]));