Increase space between lines in a table

tables

I wonder if there is a simple way to play around with the space between lines in a table (vertical). I have this code. How can I increase spacing between eg. the "Total" row and the other countries?

\begin{table}[!htbp] \centering 
  \caption{Insert description here} 
  \label{} 
\begin{tabular}{@{\extracolsep{5pt}} lcc} 
\\[-1.8ex]\hline 
\hline \\[-1.8ex] 
 & \# Bonds & € Amount (billion) \\ 
\hline \\[-1.8ex] 
Germany & $474$ & 73.9 \\ 
Great Britain & $106$ & 30.5 \\ 
Japan & $202$ & 25.3 \\ 
\textbf{Total} & \textbf{782} & \textbf{129.6} \\
\hline \\[-1.8ex] 
\end{tabular} 
\end{table}

Best Answer

Use commands as \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2} and/or \setlength\extrarowheight{2mm} before of the tabular to increase the vertical space of all rows.

For single rows, you can use end of row as \\[2mm] but also start a row with a rule without width (e.g. \rule{0pt}{20pt}), but using the recommended booktabs package, you can use also \addlinespace or \addlinespace[2mm] if the default is not enough. If you a want a rule above the last row, note that \midrule or \cmidrule add some vertical space before and after it. You can use also some like \specialrule{1pt}{2pt}{0.4pt} to have more control of the vertical spacing.

BTW, better if you use the official euro symbol and siunitx for proper horizontal spacing and align of numeric columns. I will leave the table in this way:

mwe

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs,siunitx,eurosym}
\let\texteuro\euro
\sisetup{detect-weight=true}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{lS[table-format=3.0]S[table-format=3.1]}\toprule
 & {\# Bonds} & {\texteuro\   (billion)} \\\cmidrule(rl){2-2}\cmidrule(rl){3-3} %\midrule
Germany & 474 & 73.9 \\ 
Great Britain & 106 & 30.5 \\ 
Japan & 202 & 25.3 \\\cmidrule(rl){2-2}\cmidrule(rl){3-3}% \addlinespace
\bfseries Total & \bfseries 782 & \bfseries  129.6 \\\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
Related Question