That would allow this structure, instead of trying to build tables with ASCII or UTF-8 characters, tedious to say the least.
\begin{tabular}{ l c r }
1 & 2 & 3 \\
4 & 5 & 6 \\
7 & 8 & 9 \\
\end{tabular}
The chosen answer below uses the following code, which works for non-numeric cell values as well.
\begin{array} \\
a & b & c \\
4 & 5 & 6 \\
7 & 8 & 9 \\
\end{array}
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\begin{array} \\ a & b & c \\ 4 & 5 & 6 \\ 7 & 8 & 9 \\ \end{array}
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