General ⇒ alignment in tabular

[radsim]

Hi everybody,
I need a table of the following format:

X | text in two lines | Y | paragraph-like text

The problem with using {c|p{x}|c|p{x}}:
If I break the line in the second column (to create the needed second line), the text of the first line spans over the whole width of the column, which looks extremely ugly.

The problem with using \multirow for the last column:
The text of the last column often (but not always) spans over more than two lines.

Any suggestions for an elegant solution? Is it possible to align paragraph-like text in tables to the left? That would be the easiest way to go, I guess.
Thanks a lot!

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi radsim,

you could use \raggedright inside cells or even in the column definition if you use the array package, for example

Code: Select all

>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{x}

Stefan

[radsim]

Thanks a lot! I didn't find out how to make the specification in the column definition (what you suggested gives me an error), but doing it in particular cells works perfectly.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

I didn't find out how to make the specification in the column definition (what you suggested gives me an error)

It should work together with array, try it with

Code: Select all

\usepackage{array}

Stefan

[Juanjo]

Try this minimal example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|c|>{\raggedright}p{3cm}|c|>{\raggedright}p{3cm}|}
  \hline
  A & First line and now \\ the second line  & B
    & Fist line and also \\ a second line \tabularnewline \hline
  C & Text, text, text, text & D
    & Text, text, text, text, text \tabularnewline \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

The \tabularnewline command works like \\, but it is necessary here to distinguish from a new line inside the last cell in a row and a new row. In my opinion, the code >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{x} does not work properly if the corresponding cell contains explicitly a newline command (i.e. \\).

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

\arraybackslash will work as expected if \\ is used to end rows and \newline to end lines inside cells, as you can see with this modification:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|c|>{\raggedright}p{3cm}|c|>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{3cm}|}
  \hline
  A & First line and now \newline the second line  & B
    & Fist line and also \newline a second line \\ \hline
  C & Text, text, text, text & D
    & Text, text, text, text, text \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

In this case you don't need the longer \tabularnewline at the end of each row. But \\ would not be allowed inside cells, as Juanjo correctly mentioned, and must be replaced by \newline if needed.

Stefan

[radsim]

Very cool, thank you both. Realized I forgot to put there ">". For a new line inside a cell, also \linebreak works well.