When we create tables in LaTeX, the table column width will be automatically decided based on the content in the table cell. Sometimes, maybe we are not satisfied with the default column width and want to customize the column width. In this post, we will explain how to it in LaTeX.
Our initial table is like the following:
The code to produce this table is:
Click to show the code.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[t]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{llll}
\toprule
\multirow{2}{*}{Country} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{GDP} & Change \\
\cmidrule{2-3} \\
{} & 2010 & 2015 & {} \\
\midrule
United States & 14964.400 & 18036.650 & 20.53\% \\
China & 5812.464 & 11226.186 & 93.14\% \\
Japan & 5793.455 & 4382.420 & -24.36\% \\
Germany & 3309.668 & 3365.293 & 1.68\% \\
United Kingdom & 2246.079 & 2863.304 & 27.48\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Column type with width parameter#
Column width of the produced table is small. To control the column width, we need to use
another three column types p, m, b:
| Column type | Description |
|---|---|
| p{width} | Create fixed width column with top alignment |
| m{width} | Create fixed width column with middle alignment |
| b{width} | Create fixed width column with bottom alignment |
The width parameter can be absolute value, like 2cm, 20pt etc. It can
also be a relative value, e.g., 0.2\textwidth. Using relative width is
preferred since the table width are often measured relative to \textwidth.
Table cell horizontal alignment#
The above three column types only specify the vertical alignment of table
column cell. To specify the horizontal alignment of table cell, we need to use
the following three command provided by the array package:
| Alignment | Description |
|---|---|
\centering | Center alignment |
\raggedright | Left alignment |
\raggedleft | Right alignment |
To add the alignment command to each cell, thus adjusting the column cell horizontal alignment, we use the following syntax before the table column type declaration:
>{some_command}
This will ensure that some_command is inserted before every column cell
content.
Table with wider column and custom alignment#
To use bigger column width and center alignment in first and last column in the above table, we can use the following code:
Click to show the code.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{array}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[t]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{>{\centering}p{0.25\textwidth}p{0.2\textwidth}p{0.2\textwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{0.15\textwidth}}
\toprule
\multirow{2}{*}{Country} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{GDP} & Change \\
\cmidrule{2-3} \\
{} & 2010 & 2015 & {} \\
\midrule
United States & 14964.400 & 18036.650 & 20.53\% \\
China & 5812.464 & 11226.186 & 93.14\% \\
Japan & 5793.455 & 4382.420 & -24.36\% \\
Germany & 3309.668 & 3365.293 & 1.68\% \\
United Kingdom & 2246.079 & 2863.304 & 27.48\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
For table cells where the horizontal alignment is not explictly defined, the
default is left alignment. Note that if you want to change the alignment of
last column, the \arraybackslash command must also be supplied, or
you will encounter errors when compiling the LaTeX source code:
Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr.
The reason of this error can be found here if you are interested.
The created table will be like the following:
Defining new column types to simplify things#
Writing column width and alignment in the tabular column type option is rather lengthy and error-prone. We can define new column types and use them in the column type option to simplify things.
The \newcolumntype command from array package is used to define new column
types, for example:
\newcolumntype{A}{>{\centering}p{0.25\textwidth}}
Using this command, our code now becomes more concise and readable:
Click to show the code.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{array}
\begin{document}
\newcolumntype{A}{>{\centering}p{0.25\textwidth}}
\newcolumntype{B}{p{0.2\textwidth}}
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{0.15\textwidth}}
\begin{table}[t]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{ABBC}
\toprule
\multirow{2}{*}{Country} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{GDP} & Change \\
\cmidrule{2-3} \\
{} & 2010 & 2015 & {} \\
\midrule
United States & 14964.400 & 18036.650 & 20.53\% \\
China & 5812.464 & 11226.186 & 93.14\% \\
Japan & 5793.455 & 4382.420 & -24.36\% \\
Germany & 3309.668 & 3365.293 & 1.68\% \\
United Kingdom & 2246.079 & 2863.304 & 27.48\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}