[Tex/LaTex] How to include tabularx/y in a new environment

environmentstablestabularx

I am looking for a way to define a customizable environment for tables in my latex documents. This means:

caption and label
width of table
customized column format (tabular preamble)

While this seems to be easy for figures, I am desparately looking for a solution for tables. Here is my minimal code example:

\documentclass[a4paper,fontsize=14pt,DIV=calc]{scrbook}
\usepackage{tabularx,tabulary}

\newenvironment{tabfig}[4]
{\begin{table}
 \captionabove{#2}\label{tab:#1}
 \begin{tabularx}{#3}{#4}}
{\end{tabularx}\end{table}}

\begin{document}
  \begin{tabfig}{MyLabel}{MyCaption}{0.8\textwidth}{l >{\centering}X >{\centering}X}
    A & B & C \tabularnewline
    x & y & z \tabularnewline
  \end{tabfig}
\end{document}

I have done thorough research for several days by now and also tried \bgroup, \begingroup, \begintabularx, the cprotect package and various other things. Though, I could not come up with something useful in this general case. Folks, I cannot believe I am the first to write a customizable table environment. Is there anybody to light the light?

Best Answer

Try this:

\documentclass[a4paper,fontsize=14pt,DIV=calc]{scrbook}
\usepackage{tabularx,tabulary}

\newenvironment{tabfig}[4]{%
     \table\centering%
     \captionabove{#2}\label{tab:#1}%
     \tabularx{#3}{#4}%
}{%
     \endtabularx%
     \endtable%
}%

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
 \captionabove{MyCaption}\label{tab:MyLabel}
 \begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth}{l >{\centering}X >{\centering}X}
    A & B & C \tabularnewline
    x & y & z \tabularnewline
\end{tabularx}\end{table}

  \begin{tabfig}{MyLabel}{MyCaption}{0.8\textwidth}{l >{\centering}X >{\centering}X}
    A & B & C \tabularnewline
    x & y & z \tabularnewline
  \end{tabfig}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Using tabularx in a custom environment – “misplaced \noalign”

Placing any alignment material (including \hline) in the end clause here doesn't work, I think because of the way tabularx scans ahead for the table material.

Fortunately there is a much easier approach using the environ package. First a simple basic example:

Simple example

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage{tabularx,environ}

\NewEnviron{simplepredtable}{%
 \begin{tabularx}{0.9\textwidth}{|l| XXX |}
     \hline
       & Heading 1 & Heading 1 & Heading 1 \tabularnewline
     \hline
     \BODY
     \hline
   \end{tabularx}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{simplepredtable}
  Label & Contents & go & here!\tabularnewline
\end{simplepredtable}

\end{document}

The environ package collects the text of the new environment up in a command \BODY which can then be inserted in to some other code. This enables us to write a block that looks like a usual \begin{xtabular}...\end{xtabular}. I have reduced the width of the table, just to avoid overfull boxes.

For your case, very much the same works, and we can pass your caption argument too:

Sample output

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[top=2.5cm, left=2.5cm, bottom=2cm, right=2cm]{geometry}

\usepackage{tabularx,environ}

\usepackage[font=footnotesize,labelfont=sc]{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}

\usepackage[pagewise,modulo]{lineno}

\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}

\NewEnviron{predtable}[1]{%
 \par\nolinenumbers%
 \captionof{table}{#1}%
 \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|l| C C C |}
   \hline
   & Heading 1 & Heading 1 & Heading 1 \tabularnewline
   \hline
   \BODY
   \hline
 \end{tabularx}
 \vspace{\partopsep}
 \par\linenumbers%
}

\usepackage{lipsum} %For demonstration text

\begin{document}
\linenumbers

\lipsum[1]

\begin{predtable}{Caption goes here!}
  Label & Contents & go & here!\tabularnewline
\end{predtable}

\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

The lipsum package has been added so we get some text to demonstrate the line numbering, notice the extra \par command. I have also put some vertical space after the table so it doesn't run up against the followin text. However, I would seriously consider wrapping it in say a center environment instead, which would itself provide some vertical spacing.

[Tex/LaTex] New document environment and the tabularx package

Your environment takes two mandatory arguments, and you additionally specify the entire environment contents as being inside a group of its own. This is not a valid syntax within a tabular (or tabularx) as the group now spans multiple cells. That is, you open the group in one cell, and then close it in another, which is incorrect. The "missing }" error relates to the fact that the first group opened hasn't been properly closed.

The solution is to remove the group inside your environment:

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

\NewDocumentEnvironment{afskriftFolketaelling}{ m m }
{%
  \noindent\tabularx{\textwidth}{ | X | l | c | c | l | l | l | }
    \hline
    \multicolumn{7}{|c|}{\textbf{#1}} \\
    \multicolumn{7}{|c|}{#2} \\ \hline
    \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} & \textbf{title} \\ \hline
}
{%
  \endtabularx
}
\begin{document}

\begin{afskriftFolketaelling}{test1}{test2}
  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 \\ \hline 
\end{afskriftFolketaelling}

\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Using tabularx in a custom environment – “misplaced \noalign”

[Tex/LaTex] New document environment and the tabularx package

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