Creating custom tables
You can add simple to complex tables to a LaTeX document using several types of packages, depending on the requirements of the table.
Inserting table packages
LaTeX provides several packages for adding tables to a LaTeX document. Two useful packages for tables are the tabular and the supertabular package.
Note: When using tabular or supertabular, the cell contents are in text mode.
Defining a table using the tabular package
Using the tabular package you can, for example, define a basic table with a header, three columns and rows as follows:
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
Column Heading & Column Heading & Column Heading \\\
\hline
Cell contents & Cell contents & Cell contents \\
Cell contents & Cell contents & Cell contents \\
Cell contents & Cell contents & Cell contents \\
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
This explains what is happening in this definition:
-
The line
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}creates a table with three columns that are left aligned and have a vertical line between each column. -
Next, column headings are added where each heading is marked off by a
&symbol and where the row is ended with the command\\. -
A horizontal line is added using
\hline.
The cell contents follow the same structure as column headings.
Defining a more complex table using supertabular
Using supertabular you can create more complex tables by adding the following commands to the stylesheet:
\usepackage{supertabular}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{tabulary}
\usepackage{colortbl}
Then you can create a table as shown in the following example:
\begin{flushleft}
\tablehead{}
\begin{supertabular}{|m{2cm}|m{6cm}|}
\hline
Heading 1 & Heading 2\\\hline
1st column and 1st row & 2nd column and 1st Row\\\hline
1st column and 2nd row & 2nd column and 2nd Row\\\hline
1st column and 3rd row & 2nd column and 3rd Row\\\hline
1st column and 4th row & 2nd column and 4th Row\\\hline
\end{supertabular}
\end{flushleft}
This explains what is happening in this definition:
-
The environment command
\begin{flushleft}places the table left aligned to the margin. -
The command
\tablehead{}adds a table heading. In this case, it is empty so no table heading is used.
Adding spacing to table cells
You can add spacing above and below the text in table row as follows:
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{4pt}
Here is an example of it used in a table.
\begin{footnotesize}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{7.6pt}
\begin{tabular}{l|m{7cm}}
\hline
\hline
Cell contents & Cell contents \\\hline
\hline
Cell contents & Cell contents \\\hline
Cell contents & Cell contents \\\hline
Cell contents & Cell contents \\\hline
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{footnotesize}