[Tex/LaTex] Big tables with big items: pagebreaks within items

page-breakingtables

I am using LaTeX for creating PDF files automatically from within Python scripts. The documents I create basically consist of just one big table, which can span several pages. It consists of three parboxed columns. Each item can contain a longer text. So far so good.

At this moment I am using longtable like so:

\begin{longtable}{@{}p{\inoutwidth}@{\hspace{\columnsepx}}p{.35\commentwidth}@{\hspace{\columnsepx}}p{.65\commentwidth}@{}}

Problem is, that even a single cell may contain so much text that it does not fit on one page. Which means I need a page break within an item, not only between items.

Well, ideally the table would only be broken between the rows. However, when one item exceeds the space available on a page, a page break would have to occur in the middle of the table row.

It's not trivial, because any or all of the table columns could contain a large portion of text inside one row. So a page break could impact on one or many columns.

The longtable I am using now put page breaks only between rows. If one row contains too much text, it just runs down the page and some text will be outside the page boundary thus invisible. Does not look nice.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

Best Answer

The ConTeXt source. The image shows the first two pages

\definepapersize[DE][width=11cm,height=15cm]
\setuppapersize [DE][DE]
\setuplayout[width=10cm,height=12cm]
%\setuptabulate[split=no]

\starttext
\starttabulate[|c|p(5cm)|]
\NC 1.\NC \input knuth\NC\NR\HL % a new tab line
\NC 2.\NC \input knuth\NC\NR\HL
\NC 3.\NC \input knuth\NC\NR\HL
\NC 4.\NC \input knuth\NC\NR\HL
\NC 5.\NC \input knuth\NC\NR\HL
\stoptabulate

\stoptext

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Problem with formatting tables with equal column widths

I'm sure there are many ways to skin this particular cat. The following short introduction to the awesomeness that is \halign might hopefully be helpful if it works in LaTeX.

I don't personally fancy "boxing" up the contents in a table.

tl;dr:

{
  \def\trule{\noalign{\medskip\hrule\medskip}}
  \def\header#1#2{\multispan#1\bf#2\hfill\cr\trule}
  $$
    \vbox{\hrule height1pt\medskip\halign to.4\hsize{
      #\hfil\tabskip.2\hsize plus.1\hsize minus.15\hsize&&#\hfil\cr
      % double ampersands begin the repeating part of the preamble.
      \header{3}{Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$}
      \it Cost&\it Charge&\it Rate\cr
      15\%&5\%&40\%\cr
      \noalign{\bigskip}
      \header{3}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$}
      \it USD&\it GBP&\it YPI\cr
      38\%&2\%&40\%\cr}
    \medskip\hrule height1pt}
  $$
}
% end tl;dr
%
% General remarks about horizontal alignment ("halign" or "table" for short):
% "&" is used to separate columns.
% "\cr" is an abbreviation for "Carriage Return". It ends a row.
% "#" is used in the preamble to tell where the given content goes. Compare
% with positional parameters in, eg. `\def\foo#1{<...>#1<...>}`.
%
\vsize=.7\vsize
\input eplain
% eplain is input purely for the following command:
\doublecolumns
% Some text to show the default vertical spacing.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus. Praesent tristique vehicula nisl sed
pharetra.
\bigskip
{% Begin a grouping scope, so that all the settings we define here are confined.
\offinterlineskip% Omit whitespace between rows. Without this setting, there are
                 % gaps between vertical rules.
\tabskip0pt% Tabskip is a glue which will be put in every column.
           % For the beginning of the first column, we don't want any
           % horizontal space, so we set the tabskip to 0pt (it already is by
           % default, but lets be sure about it).
\everycr={\noalign{\hrule}}% For every "Carriage Return", insert a horizontal rule.
\halign to .9\hsize{% Begin the preamble of the table. A preamble defines how the
                    % columns of a table are formatted.
  \strut#&% A strut is a invisible "thing", whose height is the height of a
          % paren. We insert a strut as the first column because we have set
          % the whitespace between rows to be zero for the vertical rules, so
          % we need to make a little vertical room for the actual content.
  \vrule#\tabskip1em plus 2em minus .5em&% We set the glue between the columns so
    % that there is stretchability for the columns.
  \hfil#\hfil&% First (actual content) column is defined to be centered.
  \vrule#&% After the content column, there is a vertical rule.
  \hfil#\hfil&\vrule#&\hfil#\hfil&% Ditto for the other two content columns.
  \vrule#\tabskip0pt% For the last vertical rule -column, we set the
                    % stretchability back to 0pt, so that it doesn't "eat up"
                    % the stretchability of the content columns.
  \cr% End the preamble of the table with a "Carriage Return".
  % Now starts the actual contents of the table:
  &&% Skip the strut-column and the vrule-column.
  \multispan5% Let this column span five columns (content-columns and their
             % accompanied vrule-columns, excluding the last vrule-column)
  \hidewidth% Skip this columns width in the calculations of the column widths,
            % because this is a "header" -column/-row.
  \hfil\bf Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$\hfil% We again center the contents.
  \hidewidth% We need to hide the width of this column on its right-hand-side
            % as well.
  &\cr% Finally we are done with the first header-row. The seemingly surplus
      % column-separation ampersand is there to account for the last
      % vrule-column.
  &&\it Cost&&\it Charge&&\it Rate&\cr% The double ampersands account for the
                                      % vrule-columns.
  &&15\%&&5\%&&40\%&\cr
  \noalign{\smallskip\hrule}% Make a small gap before the next header-row.
  &&\multispan5\hidewidth\hfil\bf Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$\hfil\hidewidth&\cr
  &&\it USD&&\it GBP&&\it YPI&\cr
  &&38\%&&2\%&&40\%&\cr
}% End of the halign.
}% End of the grouping scope. After the scope, TeX no longer knows what `\cc`
 % or `\header` means. Also the tabskip and interlinespacing are returned.
\bigskip
%
% Now that we're familiar with the basics (and some of the not-so-basics) of
% halign, we could further simplify the recurring commands, as well as separate
% the used dimens for re-usability.
%
\def\mytablehelper{
% First off, the dimens(ions):
\dimen0=.9\hsize% We'll use this dimen to set the width of the table.
\skip0=1em plus2em minus.5em% We'll use this glue to set the tabskip amount.
\offinterlineskip
\tabskip0pt
\everycr={\noalign{\hrule}}
\smallskipamount=2pt% remove stretchability
}
%
% For the recurring commands, there are at least the centered content-columns:
\def\cc#1{\hfil#1\hfil}
% and the header-rows:
\def\header#1#2{\multispan#1\hidewidth\cc{\bf#2}\hidewidth}
% and we might as well throw in the header separators in the mix:
\def\headsep{\noalign{\smallskip\hrule}}
%
% As we're getting greedier and greedier, let's wrap the whole thing in a `\def`:
\def\mytablethreecols#1{\centerline{\vbox{\mytablehelper
  \halign to\dimen0{\strut##&\vrule##\tabskip=\skip0&
  \cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##\tabskip=0pt\cr
  #1}}}}
% Looking ahead, we're going to need one with just two cols as well. I know. Ugly.
\def\mytabletwocols#1{\centerline{\vbox{\mytablehelper
  \halign to\dimen0{\strut##&\vrule##\tabskip=\skip0&
  \cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##\tabskip=0pt\cr
  #1}}}}
%
% And here we go:
\mytablethreecols{
  &&\header{5}{Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$}&\cr
  &&\it Cost&&\it Charge&&\it Rate&\cr
  &&15\%&&5\%&&40\%&\cr
  \headsep
  &&\header{5}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$}&\cr
  &&\it USD&&\it GBP&&\it YPI&\cr
  &&38\%&&2\%&&40\%&\cr
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus. Praesent tristique vehicula nisl sed
pharetra.
\smallskip
\mytabletwocols{
  &&\header{3}{Name of the SLA parameter $\mu$}&\cr
  &&\hidewidth\it MemoryConsumption\hidewidth
  &&\hidewidth\it Consumption\hidewidth&\cr
  &&70\%&&30\%&\cr
}% Ewww, two *different* tables!
\vskip1pt
\mytablethreecols{
  &&\header{5}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\mu$}&\cr
  &&\it Mbit&&\it Gbit&&\it Tbit&\cr
  &&5\%&&55\%&&40\%&\cr
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus.

\bye

[Tex/LaTex] Longtable: page breaks within row possible

It is not in general possible. Consider if one cell is a large image and the next cell is text how would it break? p columns are essentially \parboxes that do not break.

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] Problem with formatting tables with equal column widths

[Tex/LaTex] Longtable: page breaks within row possible

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