[Tex/LaTex] Resizing a table by textheight

scalingtables

Say, I have a table which doesn't fit on one page. Say, I don't want to use any special table types or so but want to solve the problem by using the \resizebox-command and keep my ratio.

If by using \resizebox{\texwidth}{!}{...} the table fits, then my problem is solved. But if the table is still too long, my instinct would be to use \resizebox{!}{\textheight}{...} instead. Allowing some space for my caption I would have to adjust the height to about 0.9\textheight to be sure for a single line caption. But in my example I have ta adjust to approx. 0.48\textheight to get rid of all warnings and fit the table on the page. This seems very odd to me. What am I missing?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\centering
%   \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{
    \resizebox{!}{0.48\textheight}{
        \begin{tabular}{|lll|}\hline
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\
            TextTextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText & TextTextTextTextText\\ \hline
        \end{tabular}}
    \caption{test}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Best Answer

You are running into the common problem of confusing the height and the totalheight of things in TeX. For some reason which also surprised me the baseline of the table is the the middle of the table, so that the lower half is part of the depth of the resulting TeX box. The \resizebox scales the box height, not the totalheight (height+depth) to the given value. To scale the totalheight use the * version. You can also use \dimexpr (see also Doing maths with distance values in LaTeX source code) or the calc package to subtract e.g. two lines from the height:

\resizebox*{!}{\dimexpr\textheight-2\baselineskip\relax}{%

Also note that placing a large table in a macro argument is very inefficient and doesn't allow the usage of \verb etc. in the table. You can use the \adjustbox macro or adjustbox environment from the relative new adjustbox package (written by me) to scale any content instead. Both read the content as box not as argument and avoid the mentioned drawbacks:

\usepackage{adjustbox}
% [...]

\begin{adjustbox}{totalheight=\textheight-2\baselineskip}
  \begin{tabular}{...}
     ...
  \end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}

The adjustbox environment and macro accepts all options of the \includegraphics macro. This includes height and totalheight.

Note that adjustbox uses pgfmath to parse the given dimensions, so you can use all math supported by this package. However do not use \dimexpr directly because it isn't supported by pgfmath.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter title and rotated table (with subtables) on the same page

You are facing two problems here:

The hvfloat package does not set \@captype (like an ordinary floating environment does) so the subcaption package has no idea if its commands are used inside a figure, a table, or not within a floating environment at all. This must be fixed by Herbert, however you could use \captionsetup{type=table} as workaround.
The standard document classes set \abovecaptionskip to a value of 10pt, \belowcaptionskip to 0pt. \abovecaptionskip will be used above the caption, and \belowcaptionskip below of it. However, this gives you a obvious problem when a \caption is typeset above a figure or table content since you will get a distance of \belowcaptionskip (=0pt) between caption and content, i.e. no distance of all. There are two different (and incompatible) ways to resolve this situation:
- \abovecaptionskip will be used between caption and content, \belowcaptionskip will be used between caption and edge of the floating environment. (This has the advantage that you could use the default values of \abovecaptionskip and \belowcaptionskip as set by the document class, and the result will not change at all when using \caption below its contents, as designed by Leslie Lamport.)
- If the caption is below its content, only \abovecaptionskip is used. If the caption is above its content, only \belowcaptionskip is used. (The skips need to be adjusted for making this work, but you are able to setup different skips for above-captions and below-captions here.)

As you see both methods have its pros and cons, but are unfortunately incompatible. However, KOMA-Script and the (sub)caption package are using the first method while hvfloat seems to use the latter. (I'm not sure about this since I didn't have found the time to look into Herbers sources, but at least hvfloat changes the values of the caption skips and therefore just loading the package will affect the skips of the non-hvfloat-floating environments (and the longtable environment and...) as well.)

To compensate this one needs to write macros to save and restore the skips.

So in total we have:

\documentclass[a4paper] {scrbook}

% Save the values of \abovecaptionskip and \belowcaptionskip into \restorecaptionskips
\edef\restorecaptionskips{%
  \noexpand\setlength\noexpand\abovecaptionskip{\the\abovecaptionskip}%
  \noexpand\setlength\noexpand\belowcaptionskip{\the\belowcaptionskip}}
%\show\restorecaptionskips
\usepackage{hvfloat}
% Save the changed values of \abovecaptionskip and \belowcaptionskip into \restorehvcaptionskips
\edef\restorehvcaptionskips{%
  \noexpand\setlength\noexpand\abovecaptionskip{\the\abovecaptionskip}%
  \noexpand\setlength\noexpand\belowcaptionskip{\the\belowcaptionskip}}
% Restore the values of \abovecaptionskip and \belowcaptionskip
\restorecaptionskips

\usepackage{subcaption}

\begin{document}

\appendix \cleardoublepage
\chapter{Some Data Tables}

\restorehvcaptionskips % only needed if "capPos=t"
\hvFloat[capPos=b,rotAngle=90,nonFloat]{table}{%
\restorecaptionskips
\captionsetup{type=table}% set \@captype
  \hspace*{\fill}
  \begin{subtable}{.3\textwidth}
    \rule{\linewidth}{12cm}
  \end{subtable}
  %
  \hspace*{\fill}
  %
  \begin{subtable}{.3\textwidth}
    \rule{\linewidth}{12cm}
  \end{subtable}
  \hspace*{\fill}
}{Table with interesting data}{}
\restorecaptionskips

\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Resize a tabular object to textwidth

\resizebox should work provided you put \usepackage{graphicx}. But here is a better option with adjustbox package. With this, you can resize only if the table goes beyond \textwidth, otherwise not.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{showframe}   %% just for demo
\begin{document}
  \begin{table}[h!]
  \centering
  \begin{adjustbox}{max width=\textwidth}
  \begin{tabular}{*{14}{|c}|}%%{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
  \hline
  One & Two &Three & Four & Five & Six & Seven & Eight & Nine & Ten & Eleven &
  Twelve & Thirteen & Fourteen\\
  \hline
  \hline
  $1.111$ & $2.222$ & $3.333$ & $4.444$ & $5.555$ & $6.666$ & $7.777$ &
  $8.888$ & $9.999$ & $0.000$ & $1.111$ & $2.222$ & $3.333$ & $4.444$\\
  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{adjustbox}
  \caption{Test Table}
  \label{tab:label_test}
\end{table}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Chapter title and rotated table (with subtables) on the same page

[Tex/LaTex] Resize a tabular object to textwidth

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