[Tex/LaTex] Display math and tabular

math-modetables

I'm pretty new to latex and having some trouble.
I have multiple math formulas which I'd like to organize on the page.
i used:

\begin{tabular}{p{6cm}p{6cm}}
\[...\] & \[...\]\\
\end{tabular}

for this. The problem is the following one: the first formula has different indent depending on its own length (the second one is always on the same place).I guess it's the centering of the displaymath? Is there a way to have the display mode and always the same indent, or should I use another environment?

Best Answer

The problem is with the use of display math mode. Instead you could use inline math and specify \displaystyle:

enter image description here

If your tables only have math content then I would suggest using an array as in the last example above. Although, I am not sure why the spacing is slightly different.

Notes:

I am not advocating the user of vertical rules. They were added just to show where the content is with respect to the borders.

Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}
\noindent
Using \verb|display math mode|

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{|p{6cm}|p{6cm}|}
\[ y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2 \] & \[ y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2  \] \\
\end{tabular}

\medskip\noindent
Using \verb|\displaystyle|

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{|p{6cm}|p{6cm}|}
$\displaystyle y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2$ & $\displaystyle y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2$ \\
\end{tabular}

\medskip\noindent
Using \verb|\displaystyle| with an \verb|array|:

\noindent
$\begin{array}{|>{$\displaystyle}p{6cm\relax}<{$}|>{$\displaystyle}p{6cm}<{$}|}
 y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2 & \displaystyle y =\sum_{i=0}^{n} i^2 \\
\end{array}$


\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Arbitrary positioning in math mode without size restriction

i) A tabular stack does the work almost everywhere there are ordered rows and columns of symbols, but a scalebox won't compile inside it.

\scalebox should work there.

ii) A raisebox seems to work well in some cases, but it won't compile when placing math mode font size commands inside it, and in similar instances.

a \raisebox forms a horizontal (LR) box so to re-enter math mode in its argument you need $ or \( etc

iii) Also one cannot place a raisebox inside a raisebox: the second one causes the first one to be ignored.

\raisebox may be nested arbitrarily (although I've never wanted to nest them, or use them in math mode in 3 decades of TeX use, one wonders what is the background to these questions?

Isn't this what the .aux file does for parameters needing to be displayed earlier in the output than they are computed by the compiler?

No the aux file contains TeX code that is \input. It does not work at the level of typeset text.

[Tex/LaTex] Expand a macro with parameters in tabular head

The best solution to a simply 'repeat n-times' in a tabular preamble is indeed to use the * syntax as in barto's answer. However, if you do want to use a macro containing the preamble for some reason, using Bruno's solution to How do I expand a macro into a tabular head?, then the important thing to do is to make sure it contains exactly the preamble text. That requires a definition of \repeatstring which is expandable and the use of an \edef-like expansion of the code

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{xparse}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\DeclareExpandableDocumentCommand{\repeatstring}{mm}
 {
  \prg_replicate:nn { #1 } { #2 }
 }
\ExplSyntaxOff
\makeatletter
    \newcolumntype{\expand}{}
    \long\@namedef{NC@rewrite@\string\expand}{\expandafter\NC@find}
\makeatother
\newcommand\mypream{}
\makeatletter
\newenvironment{fancytable}[1]%
    {%
    \protected@edef\mypream{ >{$}c<{$} | \repeatstring{#1}{>{$}c<{$}} }%
    \begin{tabular}{\expand\mypream}}
    {\end{tabular}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{fancytable}{2}
    x & x^2 & x^3\\
    y & y^2 & y^4
\end{fancytable}
\end{document}

In the above, I've used an expl3 based expandable repeat function to define \repeatstring (much the same as egeg's solution to A command which concatenates a string an arbitrary number of times), which means that when \protected@edef is applied \mypream ends up with definition >{$}c<{$} | >{$}c<{$}>{$}c<{$}, i.e. exactly what is needed in the tabular preamble.

All of this is needed as array avoids any expansion of the tabular preamble. Thus if you do

\renewcommand\mypream{ >{$}c<{$} | \repeatstring{#1}{>{$}c<{$}} }%

what array sees is exactly that: not a string of repeated >{$}c<{$} entries but the token \repeatstring, which is does not know (and so raises an error).