[Tex/LaTex] How to create a multiple-column table of contents

table of contentstables

Given some latex code like

    \section{the first section}
    some text

    \section{the second section}
    some text

    \section{the third section}
    some text

    \section{the fourth section}
    some text

I want to create a TOC as a three-column table, like so:

    -------------------------------------------------
    | 1. the first  | 2. the second | 3. the third  |
    |    section    |    section    |    section    |
    -------------------------------------------------
    | 4. the fourth |               |               |
    |    section    |               |               |
    -------------------------------------------------

It is okay if I use a completely custom command instead of section, as long as the numbering in the document body matches the numbering in the table.

How can I approach this problem?

Best Answer

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\makeatletter
\def\l@section#1#2{%
\noindent\begin{minipage}[t]{\dimexpr(.333\linewidth)-2em\relax}%
\def\numberline##1{##1: }\parfillskip0pt\relax
#1 \mbox{}\dotfill #2\end{minipage}\linebreak[0]\hspace{2em plus 2em}}
\makeatletter

\begin{document}

\tableofcontents

    \section{the first section}
    some text

    \section{the second section}
    some text

    \section{the third section}
    some text

    \section{the fourth section}
    some text

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Using \columncolor outside column definition

I asked David Carlisle, who wrote both the colortbl package and \newcolumntype in the array package about this problem. Here's his response:

the error message is telling you that \columncolor is not defined and in fact looking at colortbl.sty there is no definition for such a command, it is just used as a token in
\expandafter\CT@extract\the\toks\@tempcnta\columncolor!\@nil
which means essentially that after the normal array package table processing has done its stuff, colortbl goes in finds that token as a marker and inserts some extra stuff.

I can't remember why it was written that way (the log says it's 15 years ago:-) but probably there was a reason at the time.

The result (which is probably not documented too well) is that if you hide \columncolor in a macro it won't work, it has to be there explicitly at the top level. You could use newcolumntypes defining one color or the other, or taking a parameter taking the colour, as they are expanded out by array.sty before colortbl starts looking for its tokens.

[Tex/LaTex] How to create a table where one cell spans several rows and all the text is justified

Here's how to do it using multirow:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multirow}% http://ctan.org/pkg/multirow
\newcommand{\sometext}{Some text will go here that will need to wrap.}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabular}{|p{.4\linewidth}|p{.35\linewidth}|p{.25\linewidth}|}
  \hline
  \multirow{12}{\linewidth}%
    {\sometext\ \sometext\ \sometext} & \sometext\ \sometext & \\ \cline{2-3}
  & \sometext\ \sometext & \\ \cline{2-3}
  & \sometext\ \sometext & \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Note that the <lines> argument to \multirow

\multirow{<lines>}{<width>}{<content>}

denotes the number of \baselineskips, rather than the number of lines/rows within the table. So, in my example, the second column spans 12 lines, so I used \multirow{12}{\linewidth}{...} to vertically centre and span the full width of the cell.

There is also an optional [<bigstrut>] argument for \multirow that you might want to play with. See the multirow documentation for more.

Note that in the above example, the table stretches out into the margin causing an overfull \hbox warning, even though the paragraph column widths add up to \linewidth (a result of the MWE). This does not take into account the column rule widths (\arrayrulewidth) and separation (\tabcolsep). To accommodate for this (if you want your tabular to spread the entire \linewidth), use the tabularx package and at least one X-column:

\usepackage{tabularx}% http://ctan.org/pkg/tabularx
%...
\noindent%
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{|p{.4\linewidth}|p{.35\linewidth}|X|}
  %...
\end{tabularx}

or correct for the column spacing and rule widths:

\noindent%
\begin{tabular}{%
    |p{\dimexpr.4\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-\arrayrulewidth}|
    p{\dimexpr.35\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-\arrayrulewidth}|
    p{\dimexpr.25\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-\arrayrulewidth}|}
  %...
\end{tabular}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Using \columncolor outside column definition

[Tex/LaTex] How to create a table where one cell spans several rows and all the text is justified

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