Coloring every alternate table row

12 Comments

In one of my previous posts I describe how to color or shade every other row in a LaTeX table. However, there is a much nicer, cleaner and simpler way to color every odd/even row, making tables much more readable.

First load the xcolor package in the preamble:

\usepackage[table]{xcolor}

and define any color you like, e.g. light gray:

\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.9}

Set the row color(s) just before opening the tabular environment for even and odd rows:

\rowcolors{<starting row index>}{<odd row color>}{<even row color>}

To use only one color, leave either of the row color arguments blank.

Complete code example:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.9}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{default}
\begin{center}
\rowcolors{1}{}{lightgray}
\begin{tabular}{r|rrrrr}
  \hline
 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\
  \hline
1 & 2.36 & 1.08 & -0.49 & -0.82 & -0.65 \\
  2 & -0.68 & -1.13 & -0.42 & -0.72 & 1.51 \\
  3 & -1.00 & 0.02 & -0.54 & 0.31 & 1.28 \\
  4 & -0.99 & -0.54 & 0.97 & -1.12 & 0.59 \\
  5 & -2.35 & -0.29 & -0.53 & 0.30 & -0.30 \\
  6 & -0.10 & 0.06 & -0.85 & 0.10 & -0.60 \\
  7 & 1.28 & -0.46 & 1.33 & -0.66 & -1.80 \\
  8 & 0.80 & 0.46 & 1.37 & 1.73 & 1.93 \\
  9 & -0.75 & 0.28 & 0.51 & 0.19 & 0.58 \\
  10 & -1.64 & -0.12 & -1.17 & -0.10 & -0.04 \\
   \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Nope, the code box above was colored in a different way :-).

And here is the result:

table_row_shading

Table row shading example

If you like the way Apple colors/colored tables, try using light blue:

\definecolor{lightblue}{rgb}{0.93,0.95,1.0}

I used R to generate the table:

library(xtable)
xtable(replicate(5, rnorm(10)))

Thanks to TJ Ellis for his comment.

 
Addendum:
Use the following code in your preamble to achieve the same effect automatically throughout the document. It redefines the tabular environment by adding the rowcolors command before \begin{tabular}.

\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.9}
\let\oldtabular\tabular
\let\endoldtabular\endtabular
\renewenvironment{tabular}{\rowcolors{2}{white}{lightgray}\oldtabular}{\endoldtabular}

12 Comments

  1. Hi, Can the the xcolor package be used for completely coloring the table in one color – something like this table: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Breast-Cancer-and-the-Environment-A-Life-Course-Approach/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2011/Breast-Cancer-Environment/BC_tableforweb.jpg I am trying to replicate that table design for my report. The colortbl has a pretty limited palette. Do you have any pointers on how to replicate that table design? Thanks!

    Reply

    • You can always define your own color and use it to color columns. Here is an example:

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\begin{document}
\definecolor{lightblue}{rgb}{0.53,0.8,0.98}
\newcolumntype{C}{&gt;{\columncolor{lightblue}}c}
\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{default}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|C|C|}
\hline
a&amp;a\\
b&amp;b\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\label{default}
\end{table}
\end{document}

      Have a look at this article.

      Cheers, Tom.

      Reply

  3. Christiaan Pauw

    Sometimes the last row contains totals etc. and one does not want to color that but separate it with a libne from the rest of the table: How is that done?

    Reply

    • Hi Christiaan,

      You could always overwrite the color using \rowcolor on the last row.

      \documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{0.9}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Current month expenses}
\begin{center}
\rowcolors{1}{}{lightgray}
\begin{tabular}{lr}
	\hline
	Expenses &amp; Amount\\
	\hline
	Movies &amp; 20 \\
	Shopping &amp; 50 \\
	Groceries &amp; 80 \\
	Other &amp; 50 \\
	\hline\hline
	\rowcolor{white}
	Total&amp;200\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}
\end{document}
      Reply

  5. S.Karim

    Hi tom,,,
    how can we define the width of \hline ? mean bold etc,
    secondly, if we to produce a dotted line (……..) or (_ _ _ _ _), etc, can this be done via \hline command???
    thanks.

    Reply

  7. Julien Gamba

    Hi, thanks for your article. I think there is a typo in the addendum, don’t you want to load the xcolor package instead of color? The color package does not have a table option. It works well with the xcolor package though.

    Reply

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