Text Formatting ⇒ Show working Calculations

[mcturra2000]

LaTeX n00b here.

I'm creating an article on investing, and there's two things I want to present:

• extracts from financial statements, like the profit and loss account
• worked examples on calculations - for example, how to calculate TACE (Tangible Capital Employed) from those statements.

I have created both of these items as tables; but I'm having doubts as to whether that is an ideal way of doing it.

Both of these items require tabular formatting, but I'm not really sure if they should be tables, and whether some better structure is more in order.

To my mind, tables are for presenting data. A worked example isn't really data, it's part of a flow of discussion. In my way of looking at it, it makes no more sense to have a calculation as a "floating-around" table as it does to have an equation as a "floating-around" table.

Here, for example is my calculation for TACE:

Code: Select all

Tangible non-current assets    1619.00 (= 896 + 366 + 275 +82)
Current Assets                 2329.00
Strip out Cash                 -921.00
Working cash                    330.00 5% * 6597 REV
Current Liabilities           -1912.00
                             ---------
TACE                           1445.00

See what I mean - it's not really a table, but it's not an equation, either.

Can anyone suggest a more suitable way to format it in LaTeX other than as a table?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

you could use an alignat* environment of amsmath:

• it's in math mode
• a multi line equation environment
• you can number rows if you like, use \label and \ref for cross-referencing
• alignment at several places is possible, with correct spacing around relation symbols when aligned there
• \text{...} can be used to write text within
• \intertext{...} can be used for longer text passages without ending the environment

Stefan