Table with number but without caption

Question

Is there a way to add a table with a table-number shown below it, but without any caption?

I also need to add a label for referencing the table.

When I use \caption{}:

\documentclass{book}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline
1
&
2
\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\caption{}\label{lab}
\end{table}

\end{document}

The tabled is numbered but it has : after the number as if there is some caption after it.

Answer 1

Adding \caption{} to a table adds an unwanted table separator to the caption. For example, you might end up with a caption:

Table 1:

You can control this, for example, with the package caption. For example:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[labelsep=none]{caption}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{cc}
    \toprule
    left number & right number \\
    \midrule
     5.6 &  3.8 \\
     1.3 & 20.4 \\
    10.4 &  5.2 \\
     1.3 &  0.8 \\
     7.2 &  3.9 \\
     2.5 & 16.2 \\
     \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{}
  \label{tab:tab}
\end{table}

Let's refer to Table~\ref{tab:tab}.

\end{document}

The caption now reads:

Table 1

If there are other tables that need an ordinary caption, you can use \captionsetup to temporarily change options. See the documentation for more details.

The package also contains further options to control the caption. For example, if you really want only the number (without "Table" in front) under the table, you can use:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[labelsep=none,labelformat=empty]{caption}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{cc}
    \toprule
    left number & right number \\
    \midrule
     5.6 &  3.8 \\
     1.3 & 20.4 \\
    10.4 &  5.2 \\
     1.3 &  0.8 \\
     7.2 &  3.9 \\
     2.5 & 16.2 \\
     \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{\ref{tab:tab}}
  \label{tab:tab}
\end{table}

Let's refer to table~\ref{tab:tab}.

\end{document}

Answer 2

How about a \fakecaption that increments the table counter and sets \tablename\ \thetable: ? This way the label and references work.

\documentclass{book}

\newcommand{\fakecaption}{%
  \vskip0.5\baselineskip
  \refstepcounter{table}%
  \tablename\ \thetable%
}

\usepackage{blindtext}



\begin{document}

\blindtext[5]

In Table \ref{lab} we see important stuff!

\blindtext[5]


\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline
1
&
2
\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\fakecaption\label{lab}
\end{table}

\blindtext[5]

\end{document}