[Tex/LaTex] Tables: how to control left and right cell margins

marginstables

Despite searching the forum, I still can't figure out how to control the internal cell left and right margins. In the example below, how can I tweak (e.g. reduce) the left margin for the "L-text" cells, and the right margin for the "R-text" ones? Note that defining the column widths is required. Thanks, Jorge.

Example:

\documentclass[margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\aboverulesep=0ex
\belowrulesep=0ex

\newlength{\ColWidthNormal}         \setlength{\ColWidthNormal}{1.50cm}
\newlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}      \setlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}{1.50cm}

\newlength{\RuleOffsetLeft} \setlength{\RuleOffsetLeft}{-0.4pt}
\newlength{\RuleThicknessNormal} \setlength{\RuleThicknessNormal}{1.0pt}

\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash\leavevmode}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthRowHeader}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{
    |L|R|R|
}
\cmidrule[\RuleThicknessNormal](l{\RuleOffsetLeft}){2-3}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{C-text}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{C-text} \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Output:

Update: the solution with \hspace doesn't work below a minimum column width! Any ideas on how to solve this?

Code:

\documentclass[margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\aboverulesep=0ex
\belowrulesep=0ex

\newlength{\ColWidthNormal}         \setlength{\ColWidthNormal}{1.50cm}
%\newlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}         \setlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}{1.50cm}
\newlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}      \setlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}{1.00cm}

\newlength{\RuleOffsetLeft} \setlength{\RuleOffsetLeft}{-0.4pt}
\newlength{\RuleThicknessNormal} \setlength{\RuleThicknessNormal}{1.0pt}

\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash\leavevmode}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthRowHeader}}

\begin{document}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{3pt}
\begin{tabular}{
    |@{\hspace{0pt}}L|
    R@{\hspace{-3pt}}|
    R@{\hspace{-12pt}}|
}
\cmidrule[\RuleThicknessNormal](l{\RuleOffsetLeft}){2-3}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{My C-text}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{My C-text} \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Output:

Best Answer

Here is a solution with @{\hspace{some length}}:

\documentclass[margin=3mm]{standalone}

\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\aboverulesep=0ex
\belowrulesep=0ex

\newlength{\ColWidthNormal} \setlength{\ColWidthNormal}{1.50cm}
\newlength{\ColWidthRowHeader} \setlength{\ColWidthRowHeader}{1.50cm}

\newlength{\RuleOffsetLeft} \setlength{\RuleOffsetLeft}{-0.4pt}
\newlength{\RuleThicknessNormal} \setlength{\RuleThicknessNormal}{1.0pt}

\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash\leavevmode}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthNormal}}
\newcolumntype{L}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{\ColWidthRowHeader}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{%
    |@{\hspace{0pt}}L|R@{\hspace{1pt}}|R@{\hspace{2pt}}|
}
\cmidrule[\RuleThicknessNormal](l{\RuleOffsetLeft}){2-3}
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{C-text}& \multicolumn{1}{c|}{C-text} \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
L-text& R-text& R-text \\
\midrule[\RuleThicknessNormal]
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Changing left and right margins for specific pages

You're saying

Thanks to this [...] the text and tables' length would be the same

I'd say it's more important to have a consistent line length in your document. There's a reason why the standard LaTeX margins are quite wide. There's a rule of thumb that goes something like "Don't put more than 66 characters in one line" (otherwise it gets harder for readers to jump from the end of the line to the beginning of the next line).

So instead of making the margins of the entire page smaller, which yields undesirably long lines in normal paragraphs, you could just set the table a bit wider, as shown for figures in Center figure that is wider than \textwidth. Here's an adaption of Martin Scharrer's solution:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}% just for filler text
\usepackage[pass,showframe]{geometry}% just to show the margin borders

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \makebox[\textwidth][c]{
    \begin{tabular}{p{0.6\textwidth}p{0.6\textwidth}}
      \lipsum[1] & \lipsum[1]
    \end{tabular}
    }
    \caption{Extra-wide table}
\end{table}

\lipsum[1]

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Equal left and right margins in documentclass book

You don't say why you can't use geometry which allows you to specify the margins directly, so makes this easier, but latex does not directly specify the right margin, you can specify the left margin, and the text width and the right margin is just whatever space is left over.

So assuming you don't want to change \textwidth or \paperwidth you want the left and right margins to be half the difference between those, and then you want to set \@oddsidemargin to be 1in less than that (as by default the origin is 1in in from the top left corner).

\setlength\oddsidemargin{\dimexpr(\paperwidth-\textwidth)/2 - 1in\relax}
\setlength\evensidemargin{\oddsidemargin}

Note that this assumes that \paperwidth is set correctly for your paper (a4paper or usletter options typically) and that the pdf media size has been set to the paper size (loading graphicx, or geometry or hyperref would do that) or set

\pdfpageheight=\paperheight
\pdfpagewidth=\paperwidth

or in newer luatex the same but without pdf in the command names.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Changing left and right margins for specific pages

[Tex/LaTex] Equal left and right margins in documentclass book

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