Listing inside tabularx?

Question

I have a tabularx environment where I want to put an lstlisting into. But Latex fails to compile it. Testcase:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{listings}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
 First column &
 \begin{lstlisting}
  Sample text
 \end{lstlisting} \\
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

I always get a ! Argument of \lst@next has an extra }. Two questions:

What's causing it?
How can I fix it?

Crosslink: Related questions on the topic of verbatim inside tabularx: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 (remark: last one has my answer using a "general" approach using my cprotectinside package) — user202729, Jan 11 '23 at 10:02

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 15 '17 at 13:42

12

You can use:

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
 First column &
\begin{lstlisting}^^J
  Sample text^^J
\end{lstlisting} \\
\end{tabularx}

Generally speaking, all verbatim-like commands and environments cannot be directly used in parameters of other commands. In tabularx environments, X columntype works actually as macro arguments(it reads the cell contents into boxes first). listings package partially fixes it, but still has some limits. See "5.1 Listings inside arguments" of manual of listings for more information.

edited Jul 15 '17 at 13:42

David Carlisle

757,742

answered Feb 10 '11 at 20:24

Leo Liu

77,365

Oh thanks. I read the listings doc at the end, but I forgot to put "^^J" also after the first brace! – Johannes Schaub - litb Feb 10 '11 at 20:30
3

What does the ^^J literal you appended do? It fixed my custom command to have code listings inside bclogo text boxes. Thanks! – Cloud Aug 11 '16 at 15:35
1

What is that ^^J ? Is this a symbol ? – nowox Aug 11 '19 at 11:09
1

@nowox ^^J is a line feed – Florian Bussmann May 02 '20 at 12:51
This does work, but it also adds additional empty lines before and after the listings' contents, thereby breaking the vertical alignment in the table cells. Any ideas if this can be avoided? – Stefan Jul 07 '21 at 11:00

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 15 '17 at 13:42

tabularx has to read its content before the macros are executed, so it doesn't support verbatim code.

Do the listing outside tabularx

a) Use an external file with \lstinputlisting. This can be done in combination with filecontents to generate this file automatically:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\newsavebox\mybox
\begin{document}
% Writes content to temp file
\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.abc}
 Sample text
\end{filecontents*}
% Or just add the 'listings' environment here
% and use `\input` instead.

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
 First column &
 \lstinputlisting{\jobname.abc} \\
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

b) Store the listing in a box and use the box inside tabularx:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{scrreprt}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}

\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{listings}

\newsavebox\mybox
\begin{document}
\begin{lrbox}{\mybox}
 \begin{lstlisting}
   Sample text
 \end{lstlisting}
\end{lrbox}

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lX}
 First column &
  \usebox\mybox \\
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

I see now what the advantage of putting listings in separate files are. I had no idea :) I tried using a box to put it outside, but sadly the width of the box will be wrong when the listing is rendered into the box :) — Johannes Schaub - litb, Feb 10 '11 at 20:29
@Johannes: this might be fixable by using some of the many options of listings or surrounding listings with a minipage environment with a suitable width. — Martin Scharrer, Feb 10 '11 at 20:34

Listing inside tabularx?

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