Does markdown or JSON get your table read correctly?

Why does the model keep misreading numbers out of a clean JSON block?

IntermediateRead 4 minDoing: under an hour6 steps

What you'll have at the end

The format that reads back correctly, chosen after testing the same data as a markdown table, a JSON block, and plain prose

Before you start

You need

You have a script or service that hands an LLM a handful of your own records, several of them close in value, and asks it a question about them, and you haven't settled on how those records get written into the prompt.

Not covered

Choosing the format an LLM hands back to your own code, whether that's JSON mode, tool calling, or schema enforcement, is a separate decision made later and isn't covered here.

Leans on

6 steps

Where to go next

Separate instructions from data with XML tags

go there when the problem is the model treating part of your pasted data as an instruction, not misreading a number inside it

Checked 15 Aug 2026

Part of the Context Engineering cookbook