Newline in a table cell which is centered

Question

This question may look like a duplicate but, none of the answers given to the possible duplicates contain the answer to this specific case.

I have a tabular, say \begin{tabular}{ccc}. While adding a new line to a cell, I want both resulting lines to be horizontally centered. Is there an elegant solution to this? If not is there a solution to this?

Actually, (at the moment) answers in https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/2441/250119 and https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/12703/250119 works well. — user202729, Apr 11 '23 at 17:55

score 98 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

98

How about using \shortstack inside a cell?

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document} 
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
    one & two & three \\
    one & two & \shortstack{a \\ bb \\ c}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

Moriambar

11,466

answered Dec 20 '11 at 15:53

Christian Lindig

14,627

Well, this worked like a charm, why didn't I see anyone mentioning this before? Simple, straightforward solution. – nimcap Dec 20 '11 at 15:55
1

+1 for \shortstack. – Philipp Dec 20 '11 at 16:11
30

+1 And to align the content, use \shortstack[r]{...} (r = right align, l = left align, c = center align). – Rob W May 14 '12 at 10:52
11

How to vertically align the content using \shortstack? – hengxin Oct 26 '13 at 06:28
1

@hengxin wrap the shortstack in a \multirow and then adjust like you would a multirow – Sanzio Angeli Dec 05 '20 at 22:56

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 24 '14 at 11:22

19

This is an old thread, but there is a new solution.

\usepackage{makecell}
%% tablestart
...
\makecell{line 1 \\ line2}
%% tableend

answered Sep 24 '14 at 11:22

Timo

191

Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. – Martin Schröder Sep 24 '14 at 12:07

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

10

If you want the cells to be centered horizontally as well as vertically I suggest the following solution:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\newcommand{\bigcell}[2]{\begin{tabular}{@{}#1@{}}#2\end{tabular}}

\begin{document} 

\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\toprule
a & \bigcell{c}{this schould be a longer line \\ this is a shorter one} & c \\ 
\midrule
 0,9892 & 0,9892 & 0,9892  \\
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

Moriambar

11,466

answered Dec 20 '11 at 16:02

Philipp

3,815

All answers given work, but I prefer this one as it gives adequate spacing at the top of a table cell (instead of touching the cells top line). – Christopher Bull Jul 13 '14 at 11:11
Is there a way to decrease the vertical space between the lines in the cell? Using \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{0.8} inside the bigcell definition leads to a bad looking vertical alignment. – Yannic Mar 02 '21 at 18:32

score 4 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

4

Another way I discovered is to use matrix. Not as simple as Christian's answer but provides vertical alignment along columns.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document} 
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
    one & two & three \\
    one & two & $\begin{matrix} \text{a} \\ \text{bb} \\ text{c} \end{matrix}$ \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

edited Jul 14 '17 at 20:23

Moriambar

11,466

answered Dec 20 '11 at 16:01

nimcap

5,135

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 03 '21 at 23:12

2

An easy solution with tblr environment of the new LaTeX3 package tabularray:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularray}
\begin{document}
\begin{tblr}{ccc}
    one & two & three \
    one & two & {a \ bb \ c}\
\end{tblr}
\end{document}

answered Sep 03 '21 at 23:12

L.J.R.

10,932

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 19 '15 at 18:47

1

You can also use \parbox like this:

\parbox[c][][c]{width}{\centering very long \\ line}

This has an advantage over \shortstack when also using \rowcolors to color table rows with alternating colors. \parbox results in a cell that has a single consistent color, and the next table row will have the alternative color. However, using \shortstack leads to two consecutive rows with the same color.

answered Jun 19 '15 at 18:47

Dana

111

A similar solution was proposed here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55860/any-way-to-center-text-within-a-parbox/55861#55861 – landroni Jun 13 '16 at 12:28

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 04 '21 at 06:49

1

With {NiceTabular} of nicematrix.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix}
\begin{document}
\begin{NiceTabular}{ccc}
    one & two & three \
    one & two & \Block[t]{}{a \ bb \ c}\
\end{NiceTabular}
\end{document}

answered Sep 04 '21 at 06:49

F. Pantigny

40,250

Newline in a table cell which is centered

7 Answers7

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