[Tex/LaTex] Multirows, multicolums and vertical centring in the tabu environment

multirowtablestabuvertical alignment

I have a table, using the tabu environment, in which I would like multirow and multicolumn cells. Inside the cells, any content that doesn't vertically fill the cell should be vertically centred.

However, I can't seem to get it to behave sensibly – everything looks slightly jumbled and uncomfortable and some text spills over the cell boundaries.

I have tried to use X[-1,m] for every column in the column descriptor, without success.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{multirow}

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}
        \centering
        \caption{Recommendations for treatment }

        \begin{tabu} {X[-1]|X[-1]|X[-1]|X}
            \hline
            T1 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour.\\
            \cline{2-4}
            & N+ & $ <2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour. Surgery to neck.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            T2 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  &  \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & N+ & $ <2{cm}$ & \\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            T3 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & N+ & $ <2{cm}$ & \\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck. Postoperative radiotherapy in selected cases.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            T4 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0} & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Surgery to the primary tumour and neck with planned postoperative radiotherapy to primary site, and to neck if indicated.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & N+ & $ <2 {cm}$ & \\
            & & $>2 {cm}$ &\\
            \hline
        \end{tabu}
    \end{table}

\end{document}

Result is:

Result of the above code

What is the "right" way to achieve this kind of result in tabu enviroments? Or should I be using a different environment?

Best Answer

Here's one possibility; instead of tabu I used the tabularx package; I set the last column to be \RaggedRight from the ragged2e package; to improve the vertical spacing I also redefined \arraystretch. For some of the cells, the second optional argument of \multirow was used to fine tune the position:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{multirow}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Recommendations for treatment}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.4}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth} {l|l|l|>{\RaggedRight}X}
            \hline
            \multirow{5}{*}[-1ex]{T1} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour.\\
            \cline{2-4}
            & \multirow{3}{*}[-1ex]{N+} & $ <2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour. Surgery to neck.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            \multirow{3}{*}[-2ex]{T2} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  &  \multirow{2}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & \multirow{2}{*}{N+} & $ <2{cm}$ & \\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            \multirow{4}{*}[-2ex]{T3} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & \multirow{2}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & \multirow{3}{*}{N+} & $ <2{cm}$ & \\
            \cline{3-4}
            &  & $ >2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck. Postoperative radiotherapy in selected cases.\\
            \cline{1-4}
            \multirow{3}{*}[-2ex]{T4} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0} & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Surgery to the primary tumour and neck with planned postoperative radiotherapy to primary site, and to neck if indicated.}}\\
            \cline{2-3}
            & \multirow{2}{*}{N+} & $ <2 {cm}$ & \\
            & & $>2 {cm}$ &\\
            \hline
        \end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}

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