[Tex/LaTex] Command \rowcolors from colortbl does not work as expected

colortables

Could someone please explain to me how to apply \rowcolors? I found an answer here but to be honest it does not work for me, not is it well explained in the answer! I could not find description for \rowcolors in manual as well. To some extend, input parameters give expected results as below

\rowcolors{<row no. to start from}{odd rows colour}{even rows colour}

for example: \row{3}{lightgray!30}{white} would define 30% of lightgray for all odd rows and white for all even rows starting from 3rd row. But there are examples below where this formula does not work.

I made a MWE below. I was playing with different parameters for \rowcolors and I am probably missing something because the results are not what I though they would be.

Let's go through couple of examples where I changed 4th line in the code:

\rowcolors{1}{lightgray!30}{} % working

\rowcolors{2}{}{lightgray!30} % working

\rowcolors{3}{lightgray!30}{} % working

% Not working. Colours expected to start from 5th row 
\rowcolors{5}{lightgray!30}{}

% Not working. Colours expected to start from 4th row
\rowcolors{4}{}{lightgray!30}

I have an impression \rowcolors works only up to third row. Is it a bug or something that I should expect?

Thanks

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[usernames,dvipsnames,svgnames,table]{xcolor}
\rowcolors{4}{lightgray!30}{} % To be changed in examples

%\rowcolor{<Start from>}{odd}{even}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ r l r l r l r l r }

\toprule
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 1}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 2}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 3}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 4}} \\
\cmidrule(lr){2-3}
\cmidrule(lr){4-5}
\cmidrule(lr){6-7}
\cmidrule(lr){8-9}
 & \textbf{H1}
 & \textbf{H2}
 & \textbf{H3}
 & \textbf{H4}
 & \textbf{H5} 
 & \textbf{H6}
 & \textbf{H7}
 & \textbf{H8} \\
\midrule
1 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
2 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
3 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
4 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
5 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
6 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
7 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
8 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\rowcolor[gray]{1}
\multicolumn{9}{l}{Extra information} \\
\bottomrule

\end{tabular}

\end{document}

Best Answer

After some tests, the problem seems to come from \cmidrule, but it is not specific to booktabs, since \cline has the same problem.

On the other hand, the row number to start from must be an odd number. This means that if you set the starting row number to be 2, the first grey row will be number 3. So if you really want to start at row number 2, you have to start at number 1 and swap the colours.

Second strange feature: it seems that an odd number of \cmidrule/\clines between two rows counts as a supplementary row. Thus when you want to start at row number 3, you do start at row 3 if you have 0, 2 or 4 \cmidrules, but start at row number 2 if you have 1 or 3.

Here is a code showing these problems:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[usernames,dvipsnames,svgnames,table]{xcolor}
\rowcolors{4}{lightgray!30}{white} % To be changed in examples

%\rowcolor{<Start from>}{odd}{even}

\rowcolors{3}{lightgray!30}{white} % To be changed in examples
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}
\rowcolors{3}{lightgray!30}{white}
\begin{tabular}{ r l r l r l r l r }

\toprule
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 1}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 2}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 3}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 4}} \\
\cmidrule(lr){2-3}%
%\cmidrule(lr){4-5}
%\cmidrule(lr){6-7}
%\cmidrule(lr){8-9}
 & \textbf{H1}
 & \textbf{H2}
 & \textbf{H3}
 & \textbf{H4}
 & \textbf{H5}
 & \textbf{H6}
 & \textbf{H7}
 & \textbf{H8} \\
\midrule
1 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
2 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
3 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
4 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
5 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
6 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
7 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
8 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\rowcolor[gray]{1}
\multicolumn{9}{l}{Extra information} \\
\bottomrule

\end{tabular}
\vspace{1cm}

\rowcolors{3}{lightgray!30}{white}
\begin{tabular}{ r l r l r l r l r }

\toprule
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 1}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 2}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 3}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 4}} \\
\cmidrule(lr){2-3}%
\cmidrule(lr){4-5}
%\cmidrule(lr){6-7}
%\cmidrule(lr){8-9}
 & \textbf{H1}
 & \textbf{H2}
 & \textbf{H3}
 & \textbf{H4}
 & \textbf{H5}
 & \textbf{H6}
 & \textbf{H7}
 & \textbf{H8} \\
\midrule
1 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
2 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
3 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
4 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
5 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
6 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
7 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
8 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\rowcolor[gray]{1}
\multicolumn{9}{l}{Extra information} \\
\bottomrule

\end{tabular}
\vspace{1cm}

\rowcolors{3}{lightgray!30}{white}
\begin{tabular}{ r l r l r l r l r }

\toprule
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 1}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 2}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 3}}
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{File 4}} \\
\cmidrule(lr){2-3}%
\cmidrule(lr){4-5}
\cmidrule(lr){6-7}
%\cmidrule(lr){8-9}
 & \textbf{H1}
 & \textbf{H2}
 & \textbf{H3}
 & \textbf{H4}
 & \textbf{H5}
 & \textbf{H6}
 & \textbf{H7}
 & \textbf{H8} \\
\midrule
1 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
2 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
3 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
4 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
5 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
6 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
7 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
8 & A & B & C & D & E & F & G & H \\
\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\rowcolor[gray]{1}
\multicolumn{9}{l}{Extra information} \\
\bottomrule

\end{tabular}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Specify starting row number for \rowcolors from colortbl package

The first mandatory argument of the \rowcolor command indicates the number of the first row which should be colored according to the color scheme given by the second and third mandatory arguments.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage[table,x11names,dvipsnames,table]{xcolor}

\begin{document}

\rowcolors{5}{}{Wheat1}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l}
  \toprule
  &   \multicolumn{4}{l}{Training data set}   &   Test data set \\
  \cmidrule(l r){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-6} 
  Method  &   MSE &   Var(Z)  &   $R^2$   &   RMSE    &   RMSE\\
  \cmidrule(r){1 - 1} \cmidrule(l r){2-2} \cmidrule(l r){3-3} \cmidrule(l r){4-4} \cmidrule(l r){5-5}   \cmidrule(l){6-6}
  Global polynomial, order 1 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\
  Global polynomial, order 3 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 \\
  Global polynomial, order 5 & 11 & 12 & 13 & 14 & 15 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

EDIT2: or use \rowcolors{3}{Wheat1}{} in the above code if you want the first data row to have the Wheat1 color; in my code, the pattern will start having the first data row with white color.

The table option for xcolor loads the colortbl package, so there's no need to load it separately.

EDIT: information on the \rowcolor command can be found in the colortbl documentation and in Section 2.12 Color in tables in the xcolor documentation.

[Tex/LaTex] \cellcolor command from colortbl package not working

The key to finding the solution was provided by @Werner, who suggested I use the \listfiles command to check the versions of my packages. I had assumed these would all be correct as I had recently done an update with Tex Live Utility. However it turns out that I had an old version of colortbl in my local folder and this took precedence over the TL 2013 version. Deleting this old file fixed my problem.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Specify starting row number for \rowcolors from colortbl package

[Tex/LaTex] \cellcolor command from colortbl package not working

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