Tables I

Tables are an invaluable tool for presenting data in a clean way. But they always come with a few complications. What happens when the content extends the table cell? Do we want the table to fill the space to full page width, or just large enough to fit its contents? How do we align cells on decimal points?

All these questions will be answered, I promise, although it takes quite a bit of setup.

The Tabular Environment

The syntax for creating a tabular environment is

1\begin{tabular}[position]{columns}
2    row 1, column 1 & … & row 1, column n \\
3    row 2, column 1 & … & row 2, column n \\
4    % ... 
5\end{tabular}

Cells in a row are separated with an ampersand ( & ). A new row is started with the newline command ( \\ ).

Columns

The mandatory columns argument decides the types of every column. How are they aligned? How will they resize? Do they allow line breaks like they are paragraphs?

It needs a sequence of any of the following specifiers.

1\begin{tabular}{l | p{20pt} | r | *{2}{c | }}
2    Lorem ipsum & Lorem ipsum & Lorem ipsum & Lorem ipsum & Lorem ipsum \\
3    Lorem ipsum, dolor & Lorem ipsum, dolor & Lorem ipsum, dolor & Lorem ipsum, dolor & Lorem ipsum, dolor
4\end{tabular}

The l, c and r specifiers do not allow line breaks. They will keep stretching cell width to fit all content. If you don’t want that, use the p specifier instead.

If you, however, don’t want this setting for the entire column, you can create a paragraph inside an individual cell with \parbox[position]{width}{text}

1\begin{tabular}{l | r @{.} l}
2    \parbox[t]{50pt}{A new pair of shoes} & 9 & 81 \\
3    Crisps & 2 & 04
4\end{tabular}

Position

Tables can’t be split among multiple pages. The default behavior is, therefore, not to place tables in line with the text. It’s to place them wherever they fit best.

This took me by surprise, time and time again, when I started using LaTeX. I was so used to typing some text about a table and then placing the table immediately after it.

Fortunately, you can influence this. A table can have one of four positions:

Star Variation

The starred variation has an extra mandatory argument that specifies the width of the table. It will always adhere to whatever you put in, but it doesn’t automatically distribute space evenly, which can make it look really weird. The syntax is

1\begin{tabular*}{width}[position]{columns}
2    % ... cells ...
3\end{tabular*}

1A nice paragraph.
2
3\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}[h]{l | l | l}
4    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3 \
5    \hline
6    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3
7\end{tabular*}
8
9Another nice paragraph.

Lines

We’ve already seen how to insert vertical lines. Now let’s insert horizontal lines!

The \hline command creates a line the full width of the table. And \cline{a-b} creates a line between columns a and b (both inclusive).

Note that these are typed as part of the table content, among the cells. Not as part of the arguments put into the environment.

1\begin{tabular}{l | l | l}
2    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3 \
3    \hline
4    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3 \
5    \cline{2-3}
6    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3
7\end{tabular}

Spanning Multiple Columns

If you want a cell to span multiple columns, use

1\multicolumn{columns}{position}{text}

The first argument, columns, specifies the number of columns to span.

The second, position, specifies the formatting: c for centred, l for flushleft, r for flushright.

The third, text, specifies the text within the multicolumn.

1\begin{tabular}{l | l | l}
2     & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Gender} \
3    \hline
4     & Male & Female \
5    \cline{2-3}
6    Survey 1 & 55 & 80
7\end{tabular}

Spanning Multiple Rows

For a cell spanning multiple rows, you first need to include the package multirow. Then use …

1\multirow{number of rows}{width}{text}

 1\usepackage{multirow}
 2
 3\begin{document}
 4    \begin{tabular}{l | l c c c}
 5        & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{Juan}} \
 6        \hline
 7        \multirow{2}{10mm}{\textbf{Jose}} & A & B \
 8        & C & D\
 9    \end{tabular}
10\end{document}

Breathing Space

The \tabcolsep length sets the horizontal space between columns. The \arraystretch command sets the vertical space between rows.

Yes, the difference of length vs command is emphasized. It’s a bit confusing. The latter is just a value, but it must still be handled as a command.

1\setlength{\tabcolsep}{20pt}
2\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{3}
3
4\begin{tabular}{l | l | l}
5    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3 \
6    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3 \
7    Cell 1 & Cell 2 & Cell 3
8\end{tabular}