Cont: Equal cell width (right and centre aligned content)

19 Comments

One of my last posts was on how to define the width of a column in a table (see here).

The parbox (p), which is used by Latex when you define the column width, will by default align its content on the left. This can be changed, but is a bit tricky.

The keyword is:

\raggedleft, \centering or \raggedright

Raggedleft will align text on the right-hand side, leaving whatever white space remains (ragged) on the left.
For a better understanding, let’s define right alignment of the text as a new column type, which can than be used in the very same way as pre-defined column types.
Defining a new column type needs the following package:

\usepackage{array}

\newcolumntype{x}[1]{%
>{\raggedleft\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}%

The argument is the width of the column.

Now simply use “x{2cm}” instead of “p{2cm}”, for columns which align text on the right. By changing \raggedleft to \centering, you can align text in the centre.

Example:

\begin{table}\centering
\begin{tabular}{|l|x{4.5cm}|x{4.5cm}|}\hline
Nb. & Advantage & Disadvantage\tabularnewline\hline
1 & a & b \tabularnewline\hline
2 & b & a \tabularnewline\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Note:
An important last thing to mention, you cannot end lines with “\\”, as you defined your own column type. Therefore, I am using \tabularnewline in the example. If you want to save time, you might define your own command as follows:

\newcommand{\tn}{\tabularnewline}

Or even:

\newcommand{\tnhl}{\tabularnewline\hline}

19 Comments

  1. Dirk 

    \newcolumntype{x}[1]{%
>{\raggedleft\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}%

    leaves me with error message:

    Paragraph ended before (backslash)newcol@ was complete

    Any ideas?

    Reply

  3. stefan08

    Hi Tom,

    \\ would work like \tabularnewline again if you insert the command \arraybackslash, for instance:

    \newcolumntype{x}[1]{%
>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{#1}}%

    It’s defined in array.sty: \def\arraybackslash{\let\\\tabularnewline}

    Stefan

    Reply

  4. nguyenminhhaivn

    I have a problem with tables in LaTeX. I want the text in the first row to be centered and the text in the second row to be flushed left. Hope you can help me. Thanks in advance.

    Reply

  5. Hi,

    You can control the alignment within a cell using “\multicolumn”. Let me give you a simple example:

    \begin{table}[ht]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lrr}
& \multicolumn{1}{c}{Exp. 1}
& \multicolumn{1}{c}{Exp. 2}\\
Setting A& 5.43498289 & 4.309872395\\
Setting B& 5.7098429109890 & 4.10983901\\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}%

    If you need separation lines, you have to use \vline and \hline between cells.

    Tom.

    Reply

  8. Norm

    Thanks for this post; I’ve been trying to figure this out for a while and you’re the only person who has had an answer so far.

    Reply

  10. Al

    Thanks a lot! It really helped me. But can you explain what should I do, if I want to center my text not only horizontally but vertically?

    Reply

    • Thanks for this question. That’s an easy one :-). Use ‘m’ instead of ‘p’ to vertically align your text within a cell. Hence your column type definition would look like this:

      \newcolumntype{x}[1]{%
>{\raggedleft\hspace{0pt}}m{#1}}%

      Cheers,
      Tom.

      Reply

  13. Arthur

    Hey Tom! It’s been some years, but your solution with \newcolumntype works nicely! However, I want to use such approach with the “booktabs” package. But if I use “x{0.2cm}” on the –last– column, it gives me the error “Misplaced \noalign. (\midrule …). That “midrule” is a horizontal line from the booktabs package.

    If I use “…x{0.20cm}x{0.20cm}p{0.20cm}” (i.e. the last column has the regular “p” instead of “x”) it works flawlessly.

    Any idea how I can get a working “booktabs” table with defined column-widths and right-aligned?

    Reply

    • tom

      Hi Arthur,

      Thanks for your comment. I think the problem is not with booktabs. When you use the fixed-width columns as defined in the array package and set the alignment, you’ll have to reset the newline macro \\ in the last column. This can be done using \arraybackslash.

      The updated new column definition below should fix the problem:

      \newcolumntype{x}[1]{%
>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}%

      Best, Tom

      Reply

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