Tables

Tables

• A table uses the tabular environment. You first describe the columns:

\begin{tabular}{l c r}
  left & centre & right \\
\end{tabular}

• {l c r} means three columns: left-aligned, centred, right-aligned.

Rows and cells

• Inside, & jumps to the next column and \\ starts a new row:

\begin{tabular}{l l}
  Apple & 5 \\
  Banana & 3 \\
\end{tabular}

• A row must not have more cells than the columns you declared (LaTeX stops with Extra alignment tab). Fewer is allowed: the missing cells stay empty.

Lines (optional)

• Add | between column letters for vertical lines, and \hline for horizontal ones:

\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}
  \hline
  Apple & 5 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

• For a cleaner look, professionals use the booktabs package instead of many lines.

Common mistakes

• More cells than columns. In {ll}, the row a & b & c \\ has three cells, which gives ! Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr.
• No column spec. \begin{tabular} on its own reads your first cell as the spec and gives ! LaTeX Error: Illegal character in array arg.
• Forgetting \\ at the end of a row. The next row's cells run on in the same row.