[Tex/LaTex] How to top align table cells of variable length

tablesvertical alignment

I would like to get the lorem ipsum text to start on the same row as "A" in the table below. How can I do this?

enter image description here

Here is my code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[hmargin=3cm,vmargin=8cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{B}[1]{>{\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}[t]{l@{\hspace{0.7cm}}!{\vrule width 2pt}@{\hspace{0.7cm}}B{10cm}}
X & Y \\
& \\
A \\ B & 
lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. nam cursus. morbi ut mi. nullam enim leo, egestas id, condimentum at, laoreet mattis, massa. sed eleifend nonummy diam. praesent mauris ante, elementum et, bibendum at, posuere sit amet, nibh. duis tincidunt lectus quis dui viverra vestibulum. suspendisse vulputate aliquam dui. nulla elementum dui ut augue. aliquam vehicula mi at mauris. maecenas placerat, nisl at consequat rhoncus, sem nunc gravida justo, quis eleifend arcu velit quis lacus. morbi magna magna, tincidunt a, mattis non, imperdiet vitae, tellus. sed odio est, auctor ac, sollicitudin in, consequat vitae, orci. fusce id felis. vivamus sollicitudin metus eget eros. \\
& \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Best Answer

The simplest thing you can do is to emulate a line break with a nested tabular environment:

X & Y \\
\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}l@{}}A \\ B \end{tabular} & \lipsum[1] \

Of course it's better to define a personal command for this:

\newcommand{\breakcell}[2][l]{\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}#1@{}}#2\end{tabular}}

so that the input can become

X & Y \\
\breakcell{A \\ B} & \lipsum[1] \

With this definition, \breakcell can also be called as \breakcell[c]{...} or \breakcell[r]{...} to change the inner horizontal alignment.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Repeating a block of text until it fills a page

This is a place to use vertical leaders. Here is a starting point.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newsavebox\widgetbox
\begin{document}
\setbox\widgetbox\vbox
  {\vspace*{6pt}\noindent Type of Widget: \dotfill \break
  Observations: \dotfill \break
  \null\dotfill\par}

\lipsum[1]

\cleaders\copy\widgetbox\vskip0pt plus 1fill
\end{document}

With \cleaders the boxes will be put right on top of each other, with space added on top and bottom to fill the page. Use \xleaders instead to have the extra space between the boxes.

You could also use \leaders, which should place these boxes in the same position on every page. But then you need to pay attention to dimensions. Ideally, the page height should be a whole multiple of the height of your \widgetbox.

[Tex/LaTex] Within table, vertically align top of a list and normal text in horizontally adjacent cells

You should enclose the list within a \minipage:

enter image description here

\newenvironment{compactlist}{ % List with minimal white space to fit in small areas, e.g. table cell
    \begin{minipage}{\linewidth}\begin{list}{$\bullet$}{\leftmargin=0.5em \rightmargin=0em \topsep=0em \parskip=0em \parsep=0em \listparindent=0em \partopsep=0em \itemsep=0pt \itemindent=0em \labelwidth=\leftmargin\labelsep+0.25em}
}{
    \end{list}\end{minipage}
}

and if you include the [t] optional parameter as in \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth} you get:

enter image description here

Update: As the OP commented, the data in the first column was slightly below where it should be. One way to fix that is to use the [t] option as mentioned above along with:

\multirow{2}{*}{\begin{minipage}[c]{\linewidth}\centering \textbf{Class 1 name}\end{minipage}}

Here is the complete code:

\documentclass[12pt, oneside]{report} 
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.2}
\usepackage[letterpaper,includehead,left=3.25cm,right=2.5cm,top=2.5cm,headsep=1.5cm,headheight=0.0cm,bottom=2.5cm,footskip=1.0cm]{geometry} 

\usepackage[english]{babel}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}

\newenvironment{compactlist}{ % List with minimal white space to fit in small areas, e.g. table cell
    \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}\begin{list}{$\bullet$}{\leftmargin=0.5em \rightmargin=0em \topsep=0em \parskip=0em \parsep=0em \listparindent=0em \partopsep=0em \itemsep=0pt \itemindent=0em \labelwidth=\leftmargin\labelsep+0.25em}
}{
    \end{list}\end{minipage}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[htpb]
\centering
\footnotesize

\begin{tabular}{ p{2cm} | p{3cm} | p{4cm}  | p{4cm}}
\toprule
\cmidrule(r){1-2}

\centering \textbf{Class} & \textbf{Method} & \textbf{Pros} & \textbf{Cons} \\
\midrule

\multirow{2}{*}{\begin{minipage}[c]{\linewidth}\centering \textbf{Class 1 name}\end{minipage}} 

& First method name with linebreak
& \begin{compactlist}
        \item One downside
\end{compactlist}
& \begin{compactlist}
        \item Another downside with longer text to create a linebreak or two
\end{compactlist} \\

& Second method
&  \begin{compactlist}
        \item Good results
        \item Fast
\end{compactlist}
& \begin{compactlist}
        \item Expensive
\end{compactlist} \\ 
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Another option is to enclose the list content within a \parbox, but I think the \minipage solution is simpler.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Repeating a block of text until it fills a page

[Tex/LaTex] Within table, vertically align top of a list and normal text in horizontally adjacent cells

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