[Tex/LaTex] Tables with math, equal column width, and right alignment

tables

Q: Is there an approach, less hacky than my \MyLen approach, that would generate roughly the second table below? I'd like to maintain professional features (but I welcome criticisms wholeheartedly!) like (1) booktabs effects, (2) right alignment of data, (3) no vertical rules, (4) horizontal rule only to separate estimators and column titles, (5) equal column widths, (6) and tight spacing of columns.

I generated the following table and thought it didn't look terribly professional because of the different column widths (Q: Am I wrong? Should this table be left alone?)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{diagbox}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{@{}lrrrrrrrr@{}}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MPE} & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MAPE}\\
    \cmidrule(r){1-1}  \cmidrule(lr){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-9}
    \diagbox[trim=lr]{Est.}{Jumps} & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 \\
    \midrule
    $\widetilde{JV}$                & 2.14 & 2.42    & 1.35     & $-$1.69  & 2.14 & 4.57 & 4.92  & 4.74 \\
    $\widehat{JV}$                  & 1.99 & 2.16    & 1.12     & $-$1.83  & 1.99 & 4.47 & 4.91  & 4.81 \\
    $\widehat{JV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & 0.35 & $-$4.35 & $-$12.91 & $-$26.35 & 3.11 & 5.48 & 12.95 & 26.35 \\
     \midrule
    $\widetilde{IV}$                & $-$2.03 & $-$2.52 & $-$1.33 & 1.73  & 6.54 & 6.37 & 5.24  & 3.71 \\
    $\widehat{IV}$                  & $-$1.87 & $-$2.26 & $-$1.10 & 1.87  & 6.48 & 6.31 & 5.23  & 3.80 \\
    $\widehat{IV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & $-$0.24 & 4.25    & 12.93   & 26.39 & 6.61 & 7.06 & 13.11 & 26.39 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{my caption}
\end{table}

tab1

\newlength{\MyLen}
\settowidth{\MyLen}{$-$26.35}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{\the\MyLen}}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{@{}lRRRRRRRR@{}}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MPE} & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MAPE}\\
    \cmidrule(r){1-1}  \cmidrule(lr){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-9}
    \diagbox[trim=lr]{Est.}{Jumps} & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 \\
    \midrule
    $\widetilde{JV}$                & 2.14 & 2.42    & 1.35     & $-$1.69  & 2.14 & 4.57 & 4.92  & 4.74 \\
    $\widehat{JV}$                  & 1.99 & 2.16    & 1.12     & $-$1.83  & 1.99 & 4.47 & 4.91  & 4.81 \\
    $\widehat{JV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & 0.35 & $-$4.35 & $-$12.91 & $-$26.35 & 3.11 & 5.48 & 12.95 & 26.35 \\
     \midrule
    $\widetilde{IV}$                & $-$2.03 & $-$2.52 & $-$1.33 & 1.73  & 6.54 & 6.37 & 5.24  & 3.71 \\
    $\widehat{IV}$                  & $-$1.87 & $-$2.26 & $-$1.10 & 1.87  & 6.48 & 6.31 & 5.23  & 3.80 \\
    $\widehat{IV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & $-$0.24 & 4.25    & 12.93   & 26.39 & 6.61 & 7.06 & 13.11 & 26.39 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{my caption}
\end{table}

tab2

I like this table. More professional (But again, any comments? On second look, the columns do look a little wide). Although, I don't like having to use the \MyLen hack. I thought there might be a less hacky approach using the tabularx package:

\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{}lRRRRRRRR@{}}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MPE} & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MAPE}\\
    \cmidrule(r){1-1}  \cmidrule(lr){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-9}
    \diagbox[trim=lr]{Est.}{Jumps} & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 \\
    \midrule
    $\widetilde{JV}$                & 2.14 & 2.42    & 1.35     & $-$1.69  & 2.14 & 4.57 & 4.92  & 4.74 \\
    $\widehat{JV}$                  & 1.99 & 2.16    & 1.12     & $-$1.83  & 1.99 & 4.47 & 4.91  & 4.81 \\
    $\widehat{JV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & 0.35 & $-$4.35 & $-$12.91 & $-$26.35 & 3.11 & 5.48 & 12.95 & 26.35 \\
     \midrule
    $\widetilde{IV}$                & $-$2.03 & $-$2.52 & $-$1.33 & 1.73  & 6.54 & 6.37 & 5.24  & 3.71 \\
    $\widehat{IV}$                  & $-$1.87 & $-$2.26 & $-$1.10 & 1.87  & 6.48 & 6.31 & 5.23  & 3.80 \\
    $\widehat{IV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & $-$0.24 & 4.25    & 12.93   & 26.39 & 6.61 & 7.06 & 13.11 & 26.39 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabularx}
  \caption{my caption}
\end{table}

tab3

I like that the columns are tighter but there is some weird stuff going on with that 3rd data row (Q: Any clue what's going on there?)

Best Answer

I really dislike how you are doing the minus signs. Since all your data is two digits a simpler solution in this case for the last table would be to use

\newcolumntype{R}{>{\begin{math}}r<{\end{math}}}

and eliminate the $-$ hack. Also, you could consider centering the titles: MPE and MAPE.

enter image description here

Alternatively, you could use the S column type from the siunitx package to align on the decimal point. This also ends up shifting the "Jumps" row so if that is not desired you could manually adjust that row:

enter image description here

Note:

I am not sure why, but using the S column type necessitated replacing the \midrule and \bottomrule with \cmidrule{1-9}.

Code: Modified `R` Column Type:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{diagbox}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\begin{math}}r<{\end{math}}}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{}lRRRRRRRR@{}}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MPE} & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MAPE}\\
    \cmidrule(r){1-1}  \cmidrule(lr){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-9}
    \diagbox[trim=lr]{Est.}{Jumps} & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 \\
    \midrule
    $\widetilde{JV}$                &  2.14 &  2.42 &   1.35 & -1.69  & 2.14 & 4.57 & 4.92  & 4.74 \\
    $\widehat{JV}$                  &  1.99 &  2.16 &   1.12 & -1.83  & 1.99 & 4.47 & 4.91  & 4.81 \\
    $\widehat{JV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ &  0.35 & -4.35 & -12.91 & -26.35 & 3.11 & 5.48 & 12.95 & 26.35 \\
     \midrule
    $\widetilde{IV}$                & -2.03 & -2.52 &  -1.33 &   1.73 & 6.54 & 6.37 & 5.24  & 3.71 \\
    $\widehat{IV}$                  & -1.87 & -2.26 &  -1.10 &   1.87 & 6.48 & 6.31 & 5.23  & 3.80 \\
    $\widehat{IV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & -0.24 &  4.25 &  12.93 &  26.39 & 6.61 & 7.06 & 13.11 & 26.39 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabularx}
  \caption{my caption}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Code: `siunitx` version:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{diagbox}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
  \centering
  \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{}lSSSSSSSS@{}}
 %\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{}lrrrrrrrr@{}}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MPE} & \multicolumn{4}{l}{MAPE}\\
    \cmidrule(r){1-1}  \cmidrule(lr){2-5} \cmidrule(l){6-9}
    \diagbox[trim=lr]{Est.}{Jumps} & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 & 0 & 3 & 10 & 30 \\
    \cmidrule{1-9}
    $\widetilde{JV}$                &  2.14 &  2.42 &   1.35 & -1.69  & 2.14 & 4.57 & 4.92  & 4.74 \\
    $\widehat{JV}$                  &  1.99 &  2.16 &   1.12 & -1.83  & 1.99 & 4.47 & 4.91  & 4.81 \\
    $\widehat{JV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ &  0.35 & -4.35 & -12.91 & -26.35 & 3.11 & 5.48 & 12.95 & 26.35 \\
    \cmidrule{1-9}
    $\widetilde{IV}$                & -2.03 & -2.52 &  -1.33 &   1.73 & 6.54 & 6.37 & 5.24  & 3.71 \\
    $\widehat{IV}$                  & -1.87 & -2.26 &  -1.10 &   1.87 & 6.48 & 6.31 & 5.23  & 3.80 \\
    $\widehat{IV}_{\mathrm{BNS04}}$ & -0.24 &  4.25 &  12.93 &  26.39 & 6.61 & 7.06 & 13.11 & 26.39 \\
    \cmidrule{1-9}
  \end{tabularx}
  \caption{my caption}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Problem with formatting tables with equal column widths

I'm sure there are many ways to skin this particular cat. The following short introduction to the awesomeness that is \halign might hopefully be helpful if it works in LaTeX.

I don't personally fancy "boxing" up the contents in a table.

tl;dr:

{
  \def\trule{\noalign{\medskip\hrule\medskip}}
  \def\header#1#2{\multispan#1\bf#2\hfill\cr\trule}
  $$
    \vbox{\hrule height1pt\medskip\halign to.4\hsize{
      #\hfil\tabskip.2\hsize plus.1\hsize minus.15\hsize&&#\hfil\cr
      % double ampersands begin the repeating part of the preamble.
      \header{3}{Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$}
      \it Cost&\it Charge&\it Rate\cr
      15\%&5\%&40\%\cr
      \noalign{\bigskip}
      \header{3}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$}
      \it USD&\it GBP&\it YPI\cr
      38\%&2\%&40\%\cr}
    \medskip\hrule height1pt}
  $$
}
% end tl;dr
%
% General remarks about horizontal alignment ("halign" or "table" for short):
% "&" is used to separate columns.
% "\cr" is an abbreviation for "Carriage Return". It ends a row.
% "#" is used in the preamble to tell where the given content goes. Compare
% with positional parameters in, eg. `\def\foo#1{<...>#1<...>}`.
%
\vsize=.7\vsize
\input eplain
% eplain is input purely for the following command:
\doublecolumns
% Some text to show the default vertical spacing.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus. Praesent tristique vehicula nisl sed
pharetra.
\bigskip
{% Begin a grouping scope, so that all the settings we define here are confined.
\offinterlineskip% Omit whitespace between rows. Without this setting, there are
                 % gaps between vertical rules.
\tabskip0pt% Tabskip is a glue which will be put in every column.
           % For the beginning of the first column, we don't want any
           % horizontal space, so we set the tabskip to 0pt (it already is by
           % default, but lets be sure about it).
\everycr={\noalign{\hrule}}% For every "Carriage Return", insert a horizontal rule.
\halign to .9\hsize{% Begin the preamble of the table. A preamble defines how the
                    % columns of a table are formatted.
  \strut#&% A strut is a invisible "thing", whose height is the height of a
          % paren. We insert a strut as the first column because we have set
          % the whitespace between rows to be zero for the vertical rules, so
          % we need to make a little vertical room for the actual content.
  \vrule#\tabskip1em plus 2em minus .5em&% We set the glue between the columns so
    % that there is stretchability for the columns.
  \hfil#\hfil&% First (actual content) column is defined to be centered.
  \vrule#&% After the content column, there is a vertical rule.
  \hfil#\hfil&\vrule#&\hfil#\hfil&% Ditto for the other two content columns.
  \vrule#\tabskip0pt% For the last vertical rule -column, we set the
                    % stretchability back to 0pt, so that it doesn't "eat up"
                    % the stretchability of the content columns.
  \cr% End the preamble of the table with a "Carriage Return".
  % Now starts the actual contents of the table:
  &&% Skip the strut-column and the vrule-column.
  \multispan5% Let this column span five columns (content-columns and their
             % accompanied vrule-columns, excluding the last vrule-column)
  \hidewidth% Skip this columns width in the calculations of the column widths,
            % because this is a "header" -column/-row.
  \hfil\bf Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$\hfil% We again center the contents.
  \hidewidth% We need to hide the width of this column on its right-hand-side
            % as well.
  &\cr% Finally we are done with the first header-row. The seemingly surplus
      % column-separation ampersand is there to account for the last
      % vrule-column.
  &&\it Cost&&\it Charge&&\it Rate&\cr% The double ampersands account for the
                                      % vrule-columns.
  &&15\%&&5\%&&40\%&\cr
  \noalign{\smallskip\hrule}% Make a small gap before the next header-row.
  &&\multispan5\hidewidth\hfil\bf Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$\hfil\hidewidth&\cr
  &&\it USD&&\it GBP&&\it YPI&\cr
  &&38\%&&2\%&&40\%&\cr
}% End of the halign.
}% End of the grouping scope. After the scope, TeX no longer knows what `\cc`
 % or `\header` means. Also the tabskip and interlinespacing are returned.
\bigskip
%
% Now that we're familiar with the basics (and some of the not-so-basics) of
% halign, we could further simplify the recurring commands, as well as separate
% the used dimens for re-usability.
%
\def\mytablehelper{
% First off, the dimens(ions):
\dimen0=.9\hsize% We'll use this dimen to set the width of the table.
\skip0=1em plus2em minus.5em% We'll use this glue to set the tabskip amount.
\offinterlineskip
\tabskip0pt
\everycr={\noalign{\hrule}}
\smallskipamount=2pt% remove stretchability
}
%
% For the recurring commands, there are at least the centered content-columns:
\def\cc#1{\hfil#1\hfil}
% and the header-rows:
\def\header#1#2{\multispan#1\hidewidth\cc{\bf#2}\hidewidth}
% and we might as well throw in the header separators in the mix:
\def\headsep{\noalign{\smallskip\hrule}}
%
% As we're getting greedier and greedier, let's wrap the whole thing in a `\def`:
\def\mytablethreecols#1{\centerline{\vbox{\mytablehelper
  \halign to\dimen0{\strut##&\vrule##\tabskip=\skip0&
  \cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##\tabskip=0pt\cr
  #1}}}}
% Looking ahead, we're going to need one with just two cols as well. I know. Ugly.
\def\mytabletwocols#1{\centerline{\vbox{\mytablehelper
  \halign to\dimen0{\strut##&\vrule##\tabskip=\skip0&
  \cc{##}&\vrule##&\cc{##}&\vrule##\tabskip=0pt\cr
  #1}}}}
%
% And here we go:
\mytablethreecols{
  &&\header{5}{Name of the SLA parameter $\pi$}&\cr
  &&\it Cost&&\it Charge&&\it Rate&\cr
  &&15\%&&5\%&&40\%&\cr
  \headsep
  &&\header{5}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\pi$}&\cr
  &&\it USD&&\it GBP&&\it YPI&\cr
  &&38\%&&2\%&&40\%&\cr
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus. Praesent tristique vehicula nisl sed
pharetra.
\smallskip
\mytabletwocols{
  &&\header{3}{Name of the SLA parameter $\mu$}&\cr
  &&\hidewidth\it MemoryConsumption\hidewidth
  &&\hidewidth\it Consumption\hidewidth&\cr
  &&70\%&&30\%&\cr
}% Ewww, two *different* tables!
\vskip1pt
\mytablethreecols{
  &&\header{5}{Unit of the SLA parameter $\mu$}&\cr
  &&\it Mbit&&\it Gbit&&\it Tbit&\cr
  &&5\%&&55\%&&40\%&\cr
}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas pulvinar
tristique felis, a mollis ante tincidunt eu. Maecenas orci quam, auctor vitae
auctor quis, rhoncus quis nisi. Curabitur tincidunt consectetur turpis, vel
eleifend neque tristique faucibus.

\bye

[Tex/LaTex] Column with fixed width and centre alignment

It's not clear to me if all ten rows should all be equally wide, or if you want the rows labelled a, b, e, f, g, and h to be twice as wide as the remaining ones.

To achieve the former goal, one could use the tabularx environment provided by the package with the same name. All columns of type X (and columns based on this column type) will have the same width by default.

To achieve that latter look, i.e., to produce a table in which columns 3 through 6 are half as wide as the others, one has to take into account the parameter \tabcolsep, which denotes half the width of the intercolumn whitespace. As there are ten columns, one has to subtract 20\tabcolsep from \textwidth to obtain the width that's left over for the columns themselves.

The column contents will be center-set in all cases.

enter image description here

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs,calc}
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}

% calculate column widths for case (b)
\newlength{\cwidth}
\newlength{\cwidthb}
\setlength{\cwidth}{(\textwidth-20\tabcolsep)/16\relax}
\setlength{\cwidthb}{2\cwidth}
\newcolumntype{U}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{\cwidthb}}
\newcolumntype{V}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{\cwidth}}

\setlength{\parindent}{0pt} % just for this MWE
\begin{document}

(a) Ten equal-width columns:

\smallskip
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{*{10}{Y}}
\toprule
a & b & \multicolumn{2}{c}{$\gamma$} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{$\delta$} & e & f & g & h \\
\cmidrule{3-6}
a & b & c & d & c & d & e & f & g & h \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\bigskip
(b) Six columns that are twice as wide as the other four:

\smallskip
\begin{tabular}{*{2}{U} *{4}{V} *{4}{U}}
\toprule
a & b & \multicolumn{2}{c}{$\gamma$} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{$\delta$} & e & f & g & h \\
\cmidrule{3-6}
a & b & c & d & c & d & e & f & g & h \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Note:

Code: Modified R Column Type:

Code: siunitx version:

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Problem with formatting tables with equal column widths

[Tex/LaTex] Column with fixed width and centre alignment

Related Question

Code: Modified `R` Column Type:

Code: `siunitx` version: