diff --git a/inc/parser/renderer.php b/inc/parser/renderer.php
index b54ccf050c4eb64b0fb1f71be7bd06d67a2c6806..a178b2457cb4d3e79d763ab8a8122307c1e0c852 100644
--- a/inc/parser/renderer.php
+++ b/inc/parser/renderer.php
@@ -239,9 +239,9 @@ class Doku_Renderer extends DokuWiki_Plugin {
         $src,$title=NULL,$align=NULL,$width=NULL,$height=NULL,$cache=NULL
         ) {}
 
-    function table_open($maxcols = NULL, $numrows = NULL, $pos){}
+    function table_open($maxcols = null, $numrows = null, $pos = null){}
 
-    function table_close($pos){}
+    function table_close($pos = null){}
 
     function tablerow_open(){}
 
diff --git a/inc/parser/xhtml.php b/inc/parser/xhtml.php
index 5a3d945d195f16184204642dcab423d23a982244..37900b2c3aa189def65d00f1d76ceb13b6766c97 100644
--- a/inc/parser/xhtml.php
+++ b/inc/parser/xhtml.php
@@ -902,16 +902,23 @@ class Doku_Renderer_xhtml extends Doku_Renderer {
     }
 
     // $numrows not yet implemented
-    function table_open($maxcols = NULL, $numrows = NULL, $pos){
+    function table_open($maxcols = null, $numrows = null, $pos = null){
         global $lang;
         // initialize the row counter used for classes
         $this->_counter['row_counter'] = 0;
-        $this->doc .= '<div class="table ' . $this->startSectionEdit($pos, 'table') . '"><table class="inline">'.DOKU_LF;
+        $class = 'table';
+        if ($pos !== null) {
+            $class .= ' ' . $this->startSectionEdit($pos, 'table');
+        }
+        $this->doc .= '<div class="' . $class . '"><table class="inline">' .
+                      DOKU_LF;
     }
 
-    function table_close($pos){
+    function table_close($pos = null){
         $this->doc .= '</table></div>'.DOKU_LF;
-        $this->finishSectionEdit($pos);
+        if ($pos !== null) {
+            $this->finishSectionEdit($pos);
+        }
     }
 
     function tablerow_open(){