Table (float) influenced by environment

Question

I define an environment that changes the standard text shape (to \small and \itshape). I then add a table inside this environment and I would like it to have the same appearance as defined in the environment.

Is this possible without modifying the table separately? And if so, how? The same question would apply to a figure (or any other float) inside the environment. Also, it would be nice if the table would adjust to the smaller textwidth inside the environment (look at the table caption to see what I mean).

MWE:

\documentclass{article}

%define environment
\newcounter{examplecounter}
\newenvironment{example}{\small\begin{quote}%
  \refstepcounter{examplecounter}%
  \textbf{Example \arabic{examplecounter}}%
  \quad%
\itshape%
}{%
  \end{quote}%
}

\begin{document}
This is normal text. 
\begin{example}
  This is small and italics text. 

  \begin{table}[htp]
    \centering
      \begin{tabular}{lrr}
        \hline
        Parameters & Values & Description \\
        \hline
        $t$   & 2 & Time\\
        $c$   & 0.01 & Bond coupon\\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
      \caption{This and the table contents should be small and italics
        as well.}
      \label{tab1}
  \end{table}   
\end{example}      
\end{document}

Output:

Answer 1

This variant redefines table such that it behaves normal except when used inside an example environment, where a small italics font is chosen. The justification for redefining table is that there are already lots of tables that should not be touched (see the discussion below the original post).

\documentclass{article}

\newcounter{examplecounter}
\newif\ifInExample
\newenvironment{example}%
  {\small\begin{quote}%
   \refstepcounter{examplecounter}%
   \textbf{Example \arabic{examplecounter}}%
   \quad
   \itshape
   \InExampletrue
  }%
  {\end{quote}%
  }

\makeatletter
\let\tableorig\table
\let\endtableorig\endtable
\renewenvironment{table}%
  {\ifInExample
     \let\@floatboxresetorig\@floatboxreset
     \def\@floatboxreset{\@floatboxresetorig\small\itshape}%
   \fi
   \begin{tableorig}%
  }%
  {\end{tableorig}%
  }
\makeatother

\begin{document}
This is normal text.

\begin{example}
  This is small and italics text. 
  \begin{table}[htp]
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{lrr}
      \hline
      Parameters & Values & Description \\
      \hline
      $t$        &      2 &        Time \\
      $c$        &   0.01 & Bond coupon \\
      \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \caption{This and the table contents are small and italics.}
    \label{tab1}
  \end{table}   
\end{example}

\begin{table}[htp]
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr}
    \hline
    Parameters & Values & Description \\
    \hline
    $t$        &      2 &        Time \\
    $c$        &   0.01 & Bond coupon \\
    \hline
  \end{tabular}
    \caption{This and the table contents are normalsize and upright.}
  \label{tab2}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

This is certainly the wrong markup, floats by design are independent of the current environment, it would be better to use a command that set up the style for example floats wherever they were saved, but anyway if you disable the commands that normalize the environment, the current environment is picked up.

\documentclass{article}

\makeatletter
\def\hmmm{\let\@parboxrestore\relax\let\@floatboxreset\relax}
\makeatother

%define environment
\newcounter{examplecounter}
\newenvironment{example}{\small\begin{quote}%
  \refstepcounter{examplecounter}%
  \textbf{Example \arabic{examplecounter}}%
  \quad%
\itshape%
}{%
  \end{quote}%
}

\begin{document}
This is normal text. 
\begin{example}
  This is small and italics text. 
\hmmm
  \begin{table}[htp]
    \centering
      \begin{tabular}{lrr}
        \hline
        Parameters & Values & Description \\
        \hline
        $t$   & 2 & Time\\
        $c$   & 0.01 & Bond coupon\\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
      \caption{This and the table contents should be small and italics
        as well.}
      \label{tab1}
  \end{table}   
\end{example}      
\end{document}

beware \@parboxrestore is also used in parboxes and table p columns, so if you do not want those to inherit the environment you might want to reset this command inside the table.

Answer 3

Instead of trying to shoehorn a non-floating table into the example environment, load the caption package and use the macro \captionof{table}{...} to create the table's caption. The caption package also lets you change the font size and shape of the caption. Separately, I suggest you use a centered minipage environment instead of a quote environment to contain the material of the example environment.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{caption} % for "\captionof" and "\captionsetup" macros
\usepackage{lipsum}  % for filler text
% Define "example" environment
\newcounter{examplecounter}
\newenvironment{example}{%
  \par
  \bigskip\noindent
  \refstepcounter{examplecounter}%
  \hspace{0.1\textwidth}%  % set indent and width 
  \begin{minipage}{0.8\textwidth} 
  \captionsetup{size=small,font=it}
  \textbf{Example \theexamplecounter}%
  \quad%
  \itshape% %font shape for remainder of "minipage" env.
}{%
  \end{minipage}
  \bigskip%
}

\begin{document}

\noindent
This is normal text. 
\begin{example}
  This is small and italic text. 
    \par\centering\medskip
      \begin{tabular}{lrr}
        \hline
        Parameters & Values & Description \\
        \hline
        $t$   & 2 & Time\\
        $c$   & 0.01 & Bond coupon\\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
      \captionof{table}{This caption and the table contents 
      now are small and italic as well.}
      \label{tab1}
\end{example}      

\lipsum[2] % filler text
\end{document}