Autofit a table to the column width

Question

I am creating a two-column document using latex. I use the option \columnwidth to autofit a table to the column width, as shown in the following figure. The second column Value is too wide. How do I set equal width for two columns?

Here is my source code.

\begin{table}
    \centering
    \caption{Simulation parameters}
    \begin{tabular}{l|l}
        \hline
        Key                 & Value    \\
        \hline
        simulation duration & 12 hours \\
        update interval     & 1s       \\
        time-to-live        & 12 hours \\
        buffer size         & infinite \\
        message interval    & 20s      \\
        \hline
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\begin{table}
    \centering
    \caption{Simulation parameters}
    \begin{tabularx}{\columnwidth}{l|l}
        \hline
        Key                 & Value    \\
        \hline
        simulation duration & 12 hours \\
        update interval     & 1s       \\
        time-to-live        & 12 hours \\
        buffer size         & infinite \\
        message interval    & 20s      \\
        \hline
    \end{tabularx}
    \label{table: simulation parameters}
\end{table}

Do you want to fix the length of both columns to the same? You can use p{'width'} instead of l as the second tabular parameter to do this. If not, could you describe what you mean with "the second column is to wide"? I'm not exactly sure what's the problem in your first table. — Nijin22, May 30 '16 at 14:36

score 31 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 03 '16 at 11:11

31

EDIT

@Mico pointed out a much better solution to this problem, as tabularx already comes with the column type X, which automatically does what you want:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
    \caption{Simulation parameters}
    \begin{tabularx}{\columnwidth}{X|X}
        \hline
        Key                 & Value    \\
        \hline
        simulation duration & 12 hours \\
        update interval     & 1s       \\
        time-to-live        & 12 hours \\
        buffer size         & infinite \\
        message interval    & 20s      \\
        \hline
    \end{tabularx}
    \label{table: simulation parameters}
\end{table}

\end{document}

As you already know the total width of your table, you can define the width of the columns as a fraction of \columnwidth

\documentclass{article}

\newlength\mylength
\setlength\mylength{\dimexpr.5\columnwidth-2\tabcolsep-0.5\arrayrulewidth\relax}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
    %% \centering % not needed
    \caption{Simulation parameters}
    \begin{tabular}{p{\mylength}|p{\mylength}}
        \hline
        Key                 & Value    \\
        \hline
        simulation duration & 12 hours \\
        update interval     & 1s       \\
        time-to-live        & 12 hours \\
        buffer size         & infinite \\
        message interval    & 20s      \\
        \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \label{table: simulation parameters}
\end{table}

\end{document}

edited Jun 03 '16 at 11:11

Mico

506,678

answered May 30 '16 at 14:45

samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz

158,329

3

Since you're using a tabularx environment, you should write \begin{tabularx}{\columnwidth}{X|X}. (Note that with your method, the total width is \columnwidth+4\tabcolsep+\arrayrulewidth.) Separately, if the width is set to \columnwidth, the instruction \centering may be omitted. – Mico May 30 '16 at 15:11
1

@Mico Thanks for the suggestion, I edited my answer. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Jun 03 '16 at 10:14
1

+1. I've taken the liberty of editing the code of your second example a bit, e.g., by performing the calculation of the p columns in the preamble and by using a tabular environment instead of a tabularx environment. (The facilities of the tabularx environment aren't utilized in the second example.) – Mico Jun 03 '16 at 11:13
What is the meaning of p in p{\mylength}? – Viesturs Jan 25 '18 at 12:19
1

@Viesturs p is a column with specific width. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Jan 25 '18 at 12:21
What if I want to define the width of a column and also tell that the alignment be l, c or r? – Viesturs Jan 25 '18 at 12:23
2

@Viesturs Then you google and find answer like https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/199747/36296 – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Jan 25 '18 at 12:25

Autofit a table to the column width

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