Mixing
When should the tabularx environment be used or not?
I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
Werner didn't use it either.
In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.
I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.
- Is the tabularx environment useful?
- When should we use the tabularx environment?
- Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
tabularx
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
add a comment |
I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
Werner didn't use it either.
In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.
I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.
- Is the tabularx environment useful?
- When should we use the tabularx environment?
- Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
tabularx
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
add a comment |
I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
Werner didn't use it either.
In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.
I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.
- Is the tabularx environment useful?
- When should we use the tabularx environment?
- Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
tabularx
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
Werner didn't use it either.
In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.
I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.
- Is the tabularx environment useful?
- When should we use the tabularx environment?
- Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
tabularx
tabularx
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
asked Jan 3 at 7:31
AndréCAndréC
8,46411446
8,46411446
add a comment |
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
Is the tabularx environment useful?
Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).
When should we use the tabularx environment?
You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.
Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
- When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.
- When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.
- When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
add a comment |
TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.
Never use tabularx without an X column!
Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!
documentclass{article}
usepackage{caption}
usepackage{array}
usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}
begin{table}centering
caption{Here it is useful}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
begin{tabular}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabular}
end{table}
end{document}
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
add a comment |
The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.
An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Is the tabularx environment useful?
Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).
When should we use the tabularx environment?
You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.
Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
- When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.
- When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.
- When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
add a comment |
Is the tabularx environment useful?
Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).
When should we use the tabularx environment?
You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.
Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
- When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.
- When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.
- When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
add a comment |
Is the tabularx environment useful?
Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).
When should we use the tabularx environment?
You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.
Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
- When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.
- When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.
- When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
Is the tabularx environment useful?
Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).
When should we use the tabularx environment?
You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.
Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?
- When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.
- When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.
- When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
answered Jan 3 at 7:56
TeXnicianTeXnician
24.7k63187
24.7k63187
add a comment |
add a comment |
TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.
Never use tabularx without an X column!
Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!
documentclass{article}
usepackage{caption}
usepackage{array}
usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}
begin{table}centering
caption{Here it is useful}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
begin{tabular}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabular}
end{table}
end{document}
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
add a comment |
TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.
Never use tabularx without an X column!
Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!
documentclass{article}
usepackage{caption}
usepackage{array}
usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}
begin{table}centering
caption{Here it is useful}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
begin{tabular}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabular}
end{table}
end{document}
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
add a comment |
TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.
Never use tabularx without an X column!
Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!
documentclass{article}
usepackage{caption}
usepackage{array}
usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}
begin{table}centering
caption{Here it is useful}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
begin{tabular}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabular}
end{table}
end{document}
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.
Never use tabularx without an X column!
Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!
documentclass{article}
usepackage{caption}
usepackage{array}
usepackage{booktabs}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}
begin{table}centering
caption{Here it is useful}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabularx}
end{table}
begin{table}centering
caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
begin{tabular}{ccc}
toprule
Column A & Column B & Column C \
midrule
marmots & lions & ducks \
bottomrule
end{tabular}
end{table}
end{document}
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
edited Jan 3 at 11:09
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
answered Jan 3 at 9:40
CarLaTeXCarLaTeX
30.3k447127
30.3k447127
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
add a comment |
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
– TeXnician
Jan 3 at 9:54
3
3
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
@TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 9:58
1
1
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
– samcarter
Jan 3 at 11:07
1
1
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
@samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
– CarLaTeX
Jan 3 at 11:08
add a comment |
The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.
An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
add a comment |
The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.
An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
add a comment |
The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.
An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.
An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
answered Jan 3 at 10:38
David CarlisleDavid Carlisle
485k4111201864
485k4111201864
add a comment |
add a comment |
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