[Tex/LaTex] multicolumn-command which automatically uses all columns of the table

multicolumntables

Is it possible to define a multicolumn{}{}{}-command, which automatically spans all columns of a table?

For my longtables I want to use a command defined in the preamble, which typesets at the right lower edge (raggedleft) a message, that the table will be continued on the following page.

As my longtables have different numbers of columns, I don't know how to define that general command. Is there a counter which reads the number of columns for the actual table and could be used?

edit: I found in the manual of the longtable package that there is an internal counter \LT@cols, but I don't see how I could use it for the multicolumn-command – I even am not able to print its value in the document.

edit 3: with Herbert's code it works.

\makeatletter
\def\LongtableFooter{%
  \multicolumn{\LT@cols}{r}{\scriptsize to be continued on following page}\\}
\makeatother

Example:

(remark: as the second longtable in the example has only 4 columns, the command with \multicolumn{5} naturally failed.)

\documentclass[]{scrbook}

\usepackage{booktabs, longtable}

%\newcommand{\LongtableFooter}{\multicolumn{5}{r}\mbox{to be continued on following page}}

\makeatletter
\def\LongtableFooter{%
  \multicolumn{\LT@cols}{r}{\scriptsize to be continued on following page}\\}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

here comes the table with the pagebreak

\vspace{0.6\textheight}

\begin{longtable}{p{2cm}p{2cm}p{2cm}ll}

\toprule
A & B & C & D & E\\
\midrule
\endfirsthead

\mbox{table continued from last page}\\
\toprule
A & B & C & D\\

\midrule
\endhead
%\bottomrule
\LongtableFooter
\endfoot
\bottomrule
\endlastfoot

a & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
 a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
\midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
\end{longtable}




And here it fails, as there are only 4 columns:

\begin{longtable}{p{2cm}p{2cm}p{2cm}ll}

\toprule
A & B & C & D\\
\midrule
\endfirsthead

\mbox{table continued from last page}\\
\toprule
A & B & C & D\\
\midrule
\endhead
%\bottomrule
\LongtableFooter
\endfoot
\bottomrule
\endlastfoot

a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
  & b & c & d\\
   & b & c & d\\
    & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
 a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
 a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
\midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\*
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 \midrule
a & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
 & b & c & d\\
\end{longtable}

\end{document}


\end{document}

Best Answer

try this:

\makeatletter
\def\LongtableFooter{%
  \multicolumn{\LT@cols}{r}{to be continued on following page}\\}
\makeatother

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] What options are there to globally format tables also allowing local overrides

It's not clear that there is really an issue to be solved, it is only an issue for tables if you think there is an issue about tables. Most of the points that you raise could also be made about "paragraphs" or "lists", at some point you have to have some structural information as well as words.

It is easy to have an environment that defaults the column spec, consider for example the amsmath matrix which is more or less just array with a default supplied preamble of *{20}{c} so you could define

\newenvironment{mytab}[1][*{50}{c}]{%
  \begin{tabular}{#1}}{%
  \end{tabular}}

which makes the column specifications optional, defaulting to all centred. Unlike matrices though where a global default is commonly useful, in my experience a global table default is almost never useful, tables usually have varied column types, some textual, some numeric to be aligned on decimal points, etc. However if in a particular document you have a lot of tables all taking the same form you could use a definition as above, replacing *{50}{c} by say >{\bfseries}l *{2}{D..{3.2}} p{3cm} if all your tables have a bold left aligned column, two numeric columns and a final column of note paragraphs.

It's hard to guess how you could automate rules in general, If you always want a top and bottom rule you could change your definition to

\newenvironment{mytab}[1][*{50}{c}]{%
  \begin{tabular}{#1}\toprule}{%
  \\\bottomrule\end{tabular}}

But the position of \midrule is rather like the position of words and numbers in the table, effectively it's data that must be entered in each case. Perhaps you only want \midrule after the heading in which case you could use

\newcommand\endhead{\\\midrule}

so your tables would then look like

\begin{mytab}
\hd{type}&\hd{A}&\hd{B}&\hd{Notes}\endhead
zzz&1.2&3.4& zz zz zzzzz\\
zzz&1.2&3.4& zz zz zzzzz\\
\end{tab}

Using a heading command \hd that could be defined as

\newcommand\hd[1]{%
 \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}#1\end{tabular}}

To give bold, centred, potentially multi-line table headings. Color could be added to this command as well if you want coloured tables, there is no need for explicit colours in the table.

Example:

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] What options are there to globally format tables also allowing local overrides

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