Advanced Tables¶

Topic: LaTeX Lesson: 7 of 16 Prerequisites: Floats and Figures, Document Structure Objective: Master advanced table creation techniques including professional formatting with booktabs, multi-row and multi-column cells, colored tables, long tables spanning multiple pages, and sophisticated table layouts for research papers and technical documents.

Introduction¶

Tables are essential for presenting structured data in academic papers, reports, and technical documents. While LaTeX's basic tabular environment can create simple tables, professional publications require sophisticated formatting: merged cells, consistent spacing, professional horizontal rules, and tables that span multiple pages. This lesson covers advanced table techniques that will elevate your documents to publication quality.

Basic tabular Review¶

Before diving into advanced features, let's review the basics:

\begin{tabular}{lcr}
  Left & Center & Right \\
  A & B & C \\
  D & E & F
\end{tabular}

Column Types¶

l - left-aligned column
c - centered column
r - right-aligned column
p{width} - paragraph column with specified width
| - vertical line

Basic Commands¶

& - separates columns
\\ - ends a row
\hline - horizontal line across all columns
\cline{i-j} - horizontal line from column i to j

Example with Lines¶

\begin{tabular}{|l|c|r|}
  \hline
  Name & Age & Score \\
  \hline
  Alice & 25 & 95 \\
  Bob & 30 & 87 \\
  Carol & 28 & 92 \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}

Professional Tables with booktabs¶

The booktabs package produces publication-quality tables with proper spacing and professional horizontal rules.

Loading the Package¶

\usepackage{booktabs}

Key Commands¶

\toprule - top rule (thicker)
\midrule - middle rule (medium)
\bottomrule - bottom rule (thicker)
\cmidrule{i-j} - middle rule from column i to j

Basic booktabs Table¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Experimental results}
  \label{tab:results}
  \begin{tabular}{lcc}
    \toprule
    Method & Accuracy & Time (s) \\
    \midrule
    Algorithm A & 95.3\% & 12.4 \\
    Algorithm B & 97.1\% & 18.7 \\
    Algorithm C & 94.8\% & 9.3 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Partial Rules with cmidrule¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Performance by category}
  \begin{tabular}{lccc}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Category} \\
    \cmidrule{2-4}
    Model & A & B & C \\
    \midrule
    Model 1 & 0.85 & 0.90 & 0.88 \\
    Model 2 & 0.92 & 0.87 & 0.91 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Adding Spacing¶

Add space above/below a rule:

\midrule[1pt]  % Thicker rule
\addlinespace  % Add vertical space

Example:

\begin{tabular}{lc}
  \toprule
  Item & Value \\
  \midrule
  A & 100 \\
  B & 200 \\
  \addlinespace
  C & 300 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Typography Best Practice: Avoid Vertical Lines¶

Why avoid vertical lines?

Professional appearance: Academic journals and professional publications rarely use vertical lines
Visual noise: Vertical lines make tables look cluttered
Spacing: The booktabs package provides optimal spacing without lines
International standard: ISO, APA, and most style guides discourage vertical lines

Comparison¶

Bad (cluttered with lines):

\begin{tabular}{|l|c|r|}
  \hline
  A & B & C \\
  \hline
  D & E & F \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}

Good (clean, professional):

\begin{tabular}{lcr}
  \toprule
  A & B & C \\
  \midrule
  D & E & F \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Exception: Vertical lines are acceptable in technical documentation where cell boundaries must be absolutely clear (e.g., truth tables, matrices).

Multicolumn: Merging Columns¶

Use \multicolumn{cols}{align}{text} to merge cells horizontally:

\multicolumn{3}{c}{Merged across 3 columns}

Parameters: 1. Number of columns to merge 2. Alignment (l, c, r, or with |) 3. Cell content

Example: Header Spanning Columns¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Sales data by quarter}
  \begin{tabular}{lccc}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Quarter} \\
    \cmidrule{2-4}
    Product & Q1 & Q2 & Q3 \\
    \midrule
    Widget A & 120 & 150 & 135 \\
    Widget B & 98 & 110 & 125 \\
    Widget C & 145 & 132 & 140 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Nested Multicolumn¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Complex header structure}
  \begin{tabular}{lcccccc}
    \toprule
    & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Group A} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Group B} \\
    \cmidrule(lr){2-4} \cmidrule(lr){5-7}
    Item & X & Y & Z & X & Y & Z \\
    \midrule
    Test 1 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 \\
    Test 2 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Note: \cmidrule(lr){2-4} adds trim spacing on left (l) and right (r).

Multirow: Merging Rows¶

The multirow package allows vertical cell merging:

\usepackage{multirow}

Syntax: \multirow{rows}{width}{text}

rows: number of rows to span
width: width of cell (* for automatic)
text: cell content

Basic Example¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Grouped data}
  \begin{tabular}{llc}
    \toprule
    Category & Item & Value \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{3}{*}{Group A} & Item 1 & 10 \\
                              & Item 2 & 20 \\
                              & Item 3 & 30 \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{2}{*}{Group B} & Item 4 & 40 \\
                              & Item 5 & 50 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Combining multirow and multicolumn¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Complex table with merged cells}
  \begin{tabular}{llcc}
    \toprule
    \multirow{2}{*}{Model} & \multirow{2}{*}{Type} &
      \multicolumn{2}{c}{Performance} \\
    \cmidrule{3-4}
    & & Accuracy & Speed \\
    \midrule
    Model A & CNN & 0.95 & 12 ms \\
    Model B & RNN & 0.93 & 18 ms \\
    Model C & Transformer & 0.97 & 25 ms \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Vertical Alignment in multirow¶

By default, content is centered vertically. Adjust with optional parameter:

\multirow{3}{*}[2pt]{Text}  % Shift down 2pt
\multirow{3}{*}[-2pt]{Text} % Shift up 2pt

Colored Tables¶

Loading Packages¶

\usepackage[table]{xcolor}  % [table] option loads colortbl

Or separately:

\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{colortbl}

Row Colors¶

\begin{tabular}{lcc}
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  \rowcolor{gray!20}
  A & 10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & 40 \\
  \rowcolor{gray!20}
  C & 50 & 60 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Alternating Row Colors¶

\rowcolors{2}{gray!15}{white}  % Start from row 2, alternate gray/white

\begin{tabular}{lcc}
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  A & 10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & 40 \\
  C & 50 & 60 \\
  D & 70 & 80 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Cell Colors¶

\begin{tabular}{lcc}
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  A & \cellcolor{red!20}10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & \cellcolor{green!20}40 \\
  C & 50 & 60 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Column Colors¶

\begin{tabular}{l>{\columncolor{blue!10}}cc}
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  A & 10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & 40 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Practical Example: Highlighting¶

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Performance comparison with best results highlighted}
  \begin{tabular}{lcccc}
    \toprule
    Model & Acc. & Prec. & Recall & F1 \\
    \midrule
    Model A & 0.85 & 0.82 & 0.88 & 0.85 \\
    Model B & \cellcolor{green!20}0.92 & 0.90 & 0.91 & \cellcolor{green!20}0.91 \\
    Model C & 0.88 & \cellcolor{green!20}0.93 & \cellcolor{green!20}0.94 & 0.89 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Long Tables: longtable Package¶

For tables spanning multiple pages:

\usepackage{longtable}

Basic longtable¶

\begin{longtable}{lcc}
  \caption{Long table spanning pages} \label{tab:long} \\
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  \endfirsthead

  \multicolumn{3}{c}{{\tablename\ \thetable{} -- continued}} \\
  \toprule
  Item & Value 1 & Value 2 \\
  \midrule
  \endhead

  \midrule
  \multicolumn{3}{r}{{Continued on next page}} \\
  \endfoot

  \bottomrule
  \endlastfoot

  % Data rows
  A & 10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & 40 \\
  % ... many more rows ...
  Z & 510 & 520 \\
\end{longtable}

longtable Structure¶

\endfirsthead: Header for first page
\endhead: Header for subsequent pages
\endfoot: Footer for all pages except last
\endlastfoot: Footer for last page

Simplified longtable¶

If headers are the same on all pages:

\begin{longtable}{lcc}
  \caption{Dataset statistics} \\
  \toprule
  Feature & Mean & Std \\
  \midrule
  \endhead

  \bottomrule
  \endfoot

  Feature1 & 10.5 & 2.3 \\
  Feature2 & 8.7 & 1.9 \\
  % ... many rows ...
\end{longtable}

Table Width Control¶

tabularx: Flexible Column Width¶

\usepackage{tabularx}

The X column type expands to fill available space:

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lXr}
  \toprule
  ID & Description & Value \\
  \midrule
  1 & This is a very long description that will wrap automatically & 100 \\
  2 & Another long entry that needs wrapping & 200 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

Multiple X Columns¶

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{XXX}
  \toprule
  Column A & Column B & Column C \\
  \midrule
  Data & Data & Data \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

All three columns share the available width equally.

Fixed + Flexible Columns¶

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lXc}
  \toprule
  ID & Long Description & Code \\
  \midrule
  1 & This description will wrap and take most space & A1 \\
  2 & Another description & B2 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

tabulary: Smarter Width Distribution¶

\usepackage{tabulary}

\begin{tabulary}{\textwidth}{LCR}
  \toprule
  Left-aligned & Centered & Right-aligned \\
  \midrule
  Data & Data & Data \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabulary}

Column types: L, C, R, J (justified)

Fixed-Width Columns with Vertical Alignment¶

The array package provides enhanced column types:

\usepackage{array}

Column Types¶

m{width}: middle-aligned (vertically centered)
b{width}: bottom-aligned
p{width}: top-aligned (default)

Example¶

\begin{tabular}{lm{3cm}m{3cm}}
  \toprule
  ID & Description & Notes \\
  \midrule
  1 & Short text & Also short \\
  2 & This is a much longer description that wraps to multiple lines &
      This note also wraps and is vertically centered \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Custom Column Types¶

Define reusable column types:

\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{#1}}

\begin{tabular}{L{3cm}C{2cm}R{2cm}}
  \toprule
  Left-aligned paragraph & Centered & Right-aligned \\
  \midrule
  Data & Data & Data \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Decimal Alignment with siunitx¶

The siunitx package provides the S column type for aligning numbers on decimal points:

\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Data with decimal alignment}
  \begin{tabular}{lS[table-format=2.3]S[table-format=1.2]}
    \toprule
    {Item} & {Value 1} & {Value 2} \\
    \midrule
    A & 12.345 & 1.23 \\
    B & 9.876 & 0.45 \\
    C & 100.123 & 10.00 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Notes: - table-format=2.3: 2 digits before decimal, 3 after - Headers in S columns need braces: {Header}

Uncertainty Notation¶

\begin{tabular}{lS}
  \toprule
  {Measurement} & {Value} \\
  \midrule
  A & 12.34(5) \\  % 12.34 ± 0.05
  B & 98.7(12) \\   % 98.7 ± 1.2
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Table Notes: threeparttable¶

Add footnotes to tables:

\usepackage{threeparttable}

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \begin{threeparttable}
    \caption{Results with notes}
    \begin{tabular}{lcc}
      \toprule
      Model & Acc.\tnote{a} & Time\tnote{b} \\
      \midrule
      A & 0.95 & 12 ms \\
      B & 0.97 & 18 ms \\
      \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
    \begin{tablenotes}
      \small
      \item[a] Accuracy on test set
      \item[b] Average inference time
    \end{tablenotes}
  \end{threeparttable}
\end{table}

Rotating Tables¶

rotating Package¶

\usepackage{rotating}

sidewaystable Environment¶

For landscape tables:

\begin{sidewaystable}
  \centering
  \caption{Wide table in landscape}
  \begin{tabular}{lcccccccc}
    \toprule
    Item & Col1 & Col2 & Col3 & Col4 & Col5 & Col6 & Col7 & Col8 \\
    \midrule
    A & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\
    B & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 & 13 & 14 & 15 & 16 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{sidewaystable}

Rotating Individual Cells¶

\usepackage{graphicx}  % for \rotatebox

\begin{tabular}{lcc}
  \toprule
  Item & \rotatebox{90}{Long Header 1} & \rotatebox{90}{Long Header 2} \\
  \midrule
  A & 10 & 20 \\
  B & 30 & 40 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Practical Example: Research Paper Table¶

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[htbp]
  \centering
  \caption{Comprehensive performance comparison across datasets and metrics}
  \label{tab:comprehensive}
  \begin{tabular}{
    l
    l
    S[table-format=2.2]
    S[table-format=2.2]
    S[table-format=2.2]
    S[table-format=1.3]
  }
    \toprule
    \multirow{2}{*}{Dataset} & \multirow{2}{*}{Model} &
      \multicolumn{3}{c}{Accuracy (\%)} & {Time} \\
    \cmidrule(lr){3-5} \cmidrule(l){6-6}
    & & {Train} & {Val} & {Test} & {(s)} \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{3}{*}{MNIST}
      & CNN       & 99.21 & 98.87 & 98.45 & 12.340 \\
      & ResNet    & 99.45 & 99.12 & 98.89 & 18.720 \\
      & ViT       & \cellcolor{green!20}99.67 & \cellcolor{green!20}99.34 & \cellcolor{green!20}99.12 & 25.110 \\
    \midrule
    \multirow{3}{*}{CIFAR-10}
      & CNN       & 85.34 & 82.45 & 81.23 & 45.670 \\
      & ResNet    & 92.11 & 89.76 & 88.54 & 67.890 \\
      & ViT       & \cellcolor{green!20}94.23 & \cellcolor{green!20}91.45 & \cellcolor{green!20}90.12 & 89.230 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Best Practices Summary¶

Use booktabs: Professional appearance, proper spacing
Avoid vertical lines: Cluttered and unprofessional
Use \midrule sparingly: Only to separate logical groups
Align numbers: Use siunitx for decimal alignment
Caption above tables: Convention in most style guides
Keep it simple: Don't merge cells unless necessary
Consistent formatting: Same table style throughout document
Test with data: Ensure column widths work with realistic data
Color sparingly: Highlight key information only
Long tables: Use longtable for multi-page tables

Common Mistakes¶

Too many rules: More lines ≠ better table
Inconsistent spacing: Mix of \hline and \midrule
Unaligned numbers: Not using S columns from siunitx
Caption below: Tables should have captions above
Fixed widths: Use relative widths (\textwidth, \linewidth)
No \label: Can't reference the table
Overuse of merging: Makes tables hard to read

Exercises¶

Exercise 1: Basic Professional Table¶

Create a table comparing three algorithms with columns for name, accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score. Use booktabs formatting.

Exercise 2: Grouped Data¶

Create a table with data grouped by category. Use \multirow for the category column and \cmidrule for section dividers.

Exercise 3: Complex Header¶

Create a table with a two-level header:

                Group A              Group B
         X      Y      Z      X      Y      Z
Item 1   ...    ...    ...    ...    ...    ...

Exercise 4: Colored Table¶

Create a table with alternating row colors and highlighted cells for best results.

Exercise 5: Decimal Alignment¶

Create a financial table with properly aligned currency values using siunitx.

Exercise 6: Wide Table¶

Create a table with 10+ columns using tabularx or rotate it with sidewaystable.

Exercise 7: Long Table¶

Create a longtable with at least 50 rows that spans multiple pages with appropriate headers/footers.

Exercise 8: Complete Research Table¶

Replicate a table from a published paper in your field, including: - Proper booktabs formatting - Merged cells where appropriate - Table notes - Decimal alignment - Professional typography

Summary¶

This lesson covered: - Basic tabular review and column types - Professional tables with the booktabs package - Typography best practices (avoiding vertical lines) - Merging cells with \multicolumn and \multirow - Colored tables with xcolor and colortbl - Long tables with longtable - Table width control with tabularx and tabulary - Fixed-width columns with vertical alignment - Decimal alignment with siunitx - Table notes with threeparttable - Rotating tables with the rotating package

Professional table formatting significantly improves document quality and is essential for academic and technical writing.

Navigation: - Previous: 06_Floats_and_Figures.md - Next: 08_Cross_References.md - Back to Overview