[Tex/LaTex] Missing number, treated as zero in tabularx

errorstabularx

I'm using a program to generate LaTeX code utilize the tabular package. It creates an error that reads 

! Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again> 
                   ##
l.17 \begin{tabularx} {#}
                          {@{} l Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y@{}} \\
?

The code I'm using is as follows:

\documentclass[11pt, oneside]{article} 
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\title{Brief Article}
\author{The Author}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
%\section{}
%\subsection{}
\begin{center}
\footnotesize
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}

\begin{tabularx} {#} {@{} l Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y@{}} \\
\toprule
 & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{surveyseason}} \\
\cmidrule(l{.75em}){2-3} 
&\textbf{1}&\textbf{} \\
&Col \%&Col \% \\
\midrule
\textbf{sex}&& \\
female&45.3&47.2 \\
male&54.5&56.8 \\
\midrule
\textbf{grade}&& \\
9th&29&23 \\
10th&26&25 \\
11th&12.8&2.5 \\
12th&2.8&21.3 \\
\midrule
\textbf{ethbest}&& \\
american indian or alaska native&3.9&3.9 \\
native hawaiian or pacific islander&1.6&1.6 \\
asian american&9.8&9.8 \\
white or caucasian&60.4&60.4 \\
other&8.8&8.8 \\
\midrule
\textbf{highsch}&& \\
san dieguito&17.6&17.6 \\
torrey pines&33.5&33.5 \\
lacosta canyon&29.0&29.0 \\
canyon crest&19.8&19.8 \\
\bottomrule
\addlinespace[.75ex]
\end{tabularx}
\par
\scriptsize{\emph{Source: }test.dta}
\normalsize
\end{center}


\end{document}

Best Answer

The first argument of the tabularx environment should be the width that the tabularx should span. In your case, you passed it a length #, which is incorrect. Instead, pass it something like \linewidth:

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{...}
  ...
\end{tabularx}

The usage/notation is mentioned in the tabularx documentation:

\begin{tabularx}{<width>}{<preamble>}

Since this is program-generated output, you'll either have to update the measurement manually (in the TeX output), or from the program of course.

Other manual improvements could include

  • using the *{<num>}{<colspec>} notation for repeating a column specification <col spec> a total of <num> times. So

    \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{} l Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y@{}}

    will change into

    \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{} l *{16}{Y} @{}}

    It is somewhat strange that you're listing a large number of columns in your tabularx column specification, yet you're only using three ever.

  • Not using \\ as the first line of your tabularx.

Note the use of \noindent to avoid an overfull \hbox warning.

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