[Tex/LaTex] Latex ignoring \textwidth in p{}-parameter for tabular

tablestextwidth

I want to create a document that allows to write into the names of new members joining our club.
As these entries are numbered, I figured I made a command generating a command ("entry" in my example) that generates these twopage columns.

To match the size of the page, I used p{0.[13]5\textwidth} in a tabular environment, but the sizes dont match. Even though the widths add up, the table does not match the size of the page, but is smaller.
I'm aware of this question(Tabular with p type columns to fill page width), but the solution did not help me, as it made the table even smaller.
Additionally, the ratios don't match the desired values at all.

I inserted my file below:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}

\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}


\newcommand{\points}[1]{#1\dots}
\newcommand{\lmulcol}[2]{\multicolumn{#1}{|l|}{\points{#2}}}
\newcommand{\colfour}[1]{\lmulcol{4}{#1}}
\newcommand{\colthree}[1]{\lmulcol{3}{#1}}
\newcommand{\coltwo}[1]{\lmulcol{2}{#1}}
\newcommand{\colone}[1]{\points{#1}}



\newcommand{\entry}[1]{
\textbf{\Large{#1}}

\vspace{3em}
\begin{tabular}{|p{0.15\textwidth}|
                 p{0.35\textwidth}|
                 p{0.35\textwidth}|
                 p{0.15\textwidth}|}
%\begin{tabular}{|p{\dimexpr 0.15\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}|
%                 p{\dimexpr 0.35\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}|
%                 p{\dimexpr 0.35\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}|
%                 p{\dimexpr 0.15\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}|}
\colfour{Name:}\\
\colfour{Forename:}\\
\coltwo{Date of Birth:} & \coltwo{Place of Birth:}\\
\colone{Adress:} & \colthree{} \\
& \colthree{}\\

\hline

\colone{Reference1:} & \coltwo{} & \colone{Page}\\
\colone{References:} & \coltwo{1} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{2} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{3} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{4} & \colone{Page}\\

\end{tabular}
}


\begin{document}


\entry{601}

TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT
\end{document}

The block of TEXT is to show that textwidth is actually larger.
I also added the table as I get it:

Best Answer

The main issue is that almost all your p column width specifications were over-written by multicolumn{..}{l} settings so the table was set to the natural content width.

Here I add an extra line to show the difference if your real example could have more text then that solves it, otherwise you need to fiddle a bit more to hide the extra |

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{adjustbox}

\setlength{\parindent}{0cm}

\newlength\mylen

\newcommand{\points}[1]{#1\dots}
\newcommand{\lmulcol}[2]{\multicolumn{#1}{|l|}{\points{#2}}}
\newcommand{\colfour}[1]{\lmulcol{4}{#1}}
\newcommand{\colthree}[1]{\lmulcol{3}{#1}}
\newcommand{\coltwo}[1]{\lmulcol{2}{#1}}
\newcommand{\colone}[1]{\points{#1}}



\newcommand{\entry}[1]{%
{\Large\textbf{\Large #1}\par}%\textbf{\Large{#1}}

\vspace{3em}

\setlength\mylen{\dimexpr\linewidth-8\tabcolsep-5\arrayrulewidth}
\begin{tabular}{|p{\dimexpr 0.15\mylen}|
                 p{\dimexpr 0.35\mylen}|
                 p{\dimexpr 0.35\mylen}|
                 p{\dimexpr 0.15\mylen}|}
\colfour{Name:}\\
\colfour{Forename:}\\
\coltwo{Date of Birth:} & \coltwo{Place of Birth:}\\
\colone{Adress:} & \colthree{} \\
& \colthree{}\\

\hline

\colone{Reference1:} & \coltwo{} & \colone{Page}\\
\colone{References:} & \coltwo{1} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{2} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{3} & \colone{Page}\\
                     & \coltwo{4} & \colone{Page}\\
\ &\ &\ &\ 
\end{tabular}
}


\begin{document}


\entry{601}

TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT 
TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT TEXT
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Know the cell width with tabular* or include a paragraph box without specifying its width

Package tabularx can help. Since you are using \newenvironment, you cannot use \begin{tabularx} and \end{tabularx}, because then \end{tabularx} is hidden. However, \tabularx and \endtabularx works:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\newenvironment{mytab}{%
  \tabularx
}{%
  \endtabularx
}

\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{mytab}{\linewidth}{|c|X|r|}
minwidth& remaining width minw & minw\\
x & x & x\\
\end{mytab}
\end{document}

It is also possible to catch the contents of the environment via package environ (some restrictions for \verb stuff). Perhaps you can add your mysterious stuff at the end of the table more easily.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{environ}

\NewEnviron{mytab}{%
  \expandafter\mytabaction\expandafter{\BODY}%
}
\newcommand{\mytabaction}[1]{%
  \begin{tabularx}#1\end{tabularx}%
}

\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{mytab}{\linewidth}{|c|X|r|}
minwidth& remaining width minw & minw\\
x & x & x\\
\end{mytab}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Tabular – columns wider than \textwidth

The argument of the p column type states the usable horizontal space, not the total horizontal space taken up by the column. Since the second tabular environment in your code contains 8 columns and 9 vertical-bar symbols, its total width is given by 1\textwidth+16\tabcolsep+9\arrayrulewidth. With default values of 6pt and 0.4pt for \tabcolsep and \arrayrulewidth, respectively, the excess width over \textwidth is 99.6pt -- roughly 1.4 inches, or ca 3.5cm. Yikes!

You wrote,

I am trying to have table exactly between margins using \textwidth.

Then, by all means, use either a tabularx or a tabular* environment and set its width to \textwidth.

The first table in the following screenshot uses a tabularx column type and uses a centered version of the X column type for all 8 columns. It calculates the relative column widths as follows. First, notice that the 8 columns' widths must satisfy the ratio 2:2:2:2:4:5:5:3. Second, the sum of the relative column widths must be equal to 8, the number of columns of type X. Thus, 25x=8, or x=8/25=32/100. Thus, the relative column widths work out to 0.64 (4 times), 1.28, 1.6 (2 times), and 0.96.

While the first table uses \hline directives and lots of vertical bars (9, in fact!), the second table shows that a vast aesthetic improvement is easily achieved simply by getting rid of all vertical bars and using well-spaced alternatives to \hline.

Since automatic line-breaking doesn't actually seem to be needed, really, using tabularx is a form of overkill. The final table shows how to obtain nearly the same output with a tabular* environment, with 8 instances of LaTeX's basic c column type. Isn't *{8}{c} a lot easier than *{4}{C{0.64}} C{1.28} *{2}{C{1.6}} C{0.96}?

Whatever else you do, do employ a package such as \mhchem to typeset the names of chemical compounds and the siunitx package to typeset scientific units.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article} % A4: 21cm wide
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[margin=1.5cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tabularx,mhchem,siunitx,booktabs}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash\hsize=#1\hsize}X}

\begin{document}
\setlength\tabcolsep{4pt} % for the first two tables

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| *{4}{C{0.64}|} C{1.28}| *{2}{C{1.6}|} C{0.96} |}
\hline
PWM & \ce{O2} & \ce{CO} & \ce{CO2} & Temp.\ spalin & Ciśni.\ gaz przed EV & Ciśn gazu ze EV & Prąd jon. \\
\hline
-- & \% & ppm & \%  & \si{\celsius} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\micro\ampere} \\
\hline
\end{tabularx}

\vspace{1cm}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} *{4}{C{0.64}} C{1.28} *{2}{C{1.6}} C{0.96} @{}}
\toprule
PWM & \ce{O2} & \ce{CO} & \ce{CO2} & Temp.\ spalin & Ciśni.\ gaz przed EV & Ciśn gazu ze EV & Prąd jon. \\
\midrule
-- & \% & ppm & \%  & \si{\celsius} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\micro\ampere} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\vspace{1cm}
\setlength\tabcolsep{0pt}
\noindent
\begin{tabular*}{\textwidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}} *{8}{c} }
\toprule
PWM & \ce{O2} & \ce{CO} & \ce{CO2} & Temp.\ spalin & Ciśni.\ gaz przed EV & Ciśn gazu ze EV & Prąd jon. \\
\midrule
-- & \% & ppm & \%  & \si{\celsius} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\milli\bar} & \si{\micro\ampere} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular*}

\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Know the cell width with tabular* or include a paragraph box without specifying its width

[Tex/LaTex] Tabular – columns wider than \textwidth

Related Question