[Tex/LaTex] Table and \hlines too short or wide

booktabstablestabularx

Here is a MWE of what I am trying to do.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}
\usepackage{color,colortbl}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htb]
\centering
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l r r r r r r r r r r r}
\toprule
A1 & A2 & A3 & A4 & A5 & A6 & A7 & A8 & A9 & A10 & A11 & A12 \\
\midrule
\rowcolor{blue} 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\[0pt]
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l r r r r r r r r r r r r r r}
\toprule
A1 & A2 & A3 & A4 & A5 & A6 & A7 & A8 & A9 & A10 & A11 & A12 & A13 & A14 & A15 \\
\midrule
\rowcolor{blue} 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 & 13 & 14 & 15 \\[0pt]
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 & 13 & 14 & 15 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

The first table has too long \toprule and \bottomrule and looks weird. I have a few questions about this.

How can I set the size of tabularx to be the content width?

How can I set the last column to be aligned to the right (so all columns span over the table)?

How can I set the \rowcolor to span over the whole table?

The second table in the example is too wide. Do you know any tricks to make it look better?

Best Answer

First table has long rules because tabularx is trying to make a table textwidth-wide but there is no column with adjustable width. Same for second table, but in this case the table contents exceed the textwidth. You need to use X-column specifier to allow automatic width adjustment. Try replacing

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l r r r r r r r r r r r}

with 

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l *{11}X}

Note that X-columns are left-aligned and of equal width. To get the last column right-aligned, you can use r-column or define a new column type R as follows,

\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}

Then use \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l *{10}X r} or \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{l *{10}X R} to make the last column right aligned.

To allow for all rows of same color, you can use the rowcolors command from xcolor package. The rowcolors command allows you to have alternating colors for odd and even rows, with the first color specfier for odd rows. You can still use rowcolor to change color of specific rows.

An example with modified column-types and coloring.

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htb]
    \centering
    \rowcolors{1}{gray}{gray}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{L *{10}C R}
    \toprule
        A1 & A2 & A3 & A4 & A5 & A6 & A7 & A8 & A9 & A10 & A11 & A12 \\
    \midrule
        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\[0pt]
        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\
    \bottomrule
    \end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Note that all X-columns are same width. Adjusting width can be tricky in tabularx. Instead try using tabulary or tabu package.

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