[Tex/LaTex] \parbox and horizontal rule inside a LaTeX table

spacingtables

I'm building a table and I wish to have the contents of one of my cells break a line in order to keep the table nice and tight and keep it on the page (not to mention avoid excess whitespace). So I'm using a \parbox.

However, because the content of some of the cells is in Hindi and the vowel diacritics tend to clash with horizontal rules (or at least everything has a very cramped appearance) I've decided to stretch the table out a bit by using

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.75}

However, this of course means that there is far far too little vertical space (none, in fact) between the contents of the \parbox and the rule:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.75}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{cc}
  \parbox{57pt}{\textsc{Inf}/\textsc{Ger}/\\ Obligatory} & Conjunctive
  \\ \hline
  Lorem & Ipsum
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

Clearly what I need is to specify a height of the \parbox, or add a strut. The problem is, I don't know what the normal vertical separation is! What I would like is precisely the normal amount of vertical space between content and rule but obviously that's taking into account the new value of \arraystretch.

Best Answer

see if one of the following solution is acceptable for you:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tabular}{p{57pt}c}
\textsc{Inf/Ger}/\newline Obligatory & Conjunctive  \\ \midrule
Lorem                                & Ipsum
    \end{tabular}

\bigskip

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}
    \begin{tabular}{p{57pt}c}
\textsc{Inf/Ger}/\newline Obligatory & Conjunctive  \\ \hline
Lorem                                & Ipsum
    \end{tabular}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] \parbox “textwidth” for the combined width of a subset of table cells

You measure the width of the columns by catching them into a box using the lrbox environment and then measuring and accumulating their width (and the column separation between).

Using special column types defined with the help of the array package makes this actually very easy to handle in the tabular.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{array}
\newlength{\mycolwidth}
% First column (re-)sets to width.
\newcolumntype{F}{>{\global\mycolwidth=-\tabcolsep\addmycolwidth}c<{\endaddmycolwidth}}
% All other to be measured cells have type `C` which uses `c` internally:
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\addmycolwidth}c<{\endaddmycolwidth}}
% The `P` type then uses the saved width:
\newcolumntype{P}{p{\mycolwidth}}

\newsavebox{\mycolwidthbox}% box to save cells in
\newenvironment{addmycolwidth}{%
   \begin{lrbox}{\mycolwidthbox}%% catch cell content into a box
}{%
   \end{lrbox}%
   \usebox{\mycolwidthbox}%% place cell content back
   % Add width and column sep: (globally because this code is still executed inside the cell which acts like a group)
   \global\advance\mycolwidth by \wd\mycolwidthbox
   \global\advance\mycolwidth by \tabcolsep
}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{c|F|C|C|C|} \cline{2-5}
\textbf{A} & first & second & third & fourth, of variable length \\ \cline{2-5}
& \multicolumn{4}{P|}{fifth, also of highly variable length but
   long enough to need to wrap.} \\ \cline{2-5}
\end{tabular}

\begin{tabular}{c|F|C|C|C|} \cline{2-5}
\textbf{B} & first & second & third & fourth, of much much longer length \\ \cline{2-5}
&  \multicolumn{4}{P|}{fifth, also of highly variable length but
   long enough to need to wrap.} \\ \cline{2-5}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Result:

Resulting tables

[Tex/LaTex] Adjust spacing between text and horizontal rule

For dividing text with rules, here's a way. This doesn't ensure equal space between the rules, but the application you have in mind doesn't seem to need it.

\documentclass{article}

\newcommand{\divider}{\vskip2pt\hrule\vskip2pt}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}
Some text

\divider

Some ptext

\divider

Some text

\divider

Some text

\end{document}

enter image description here

If you want that the rule automatically disappears at page breaks, then use

\newcommand{\divider}{%
  \vskip2pt
  \leaders\vrule width \textwidth\vskip0.4pt
  \nointerlineskip
  \vskip2pt
}

Related Question

[Tex/LaTex] Top padding inside tabular when using parbox