tcolorbox: auto adjusting column lengths

Question

I am using the code of a good answer provided to Beautiful table samples question:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\tcbuselibrary{skins}

\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}

\tcbset{tab1/.style={fonttitle=\bfseries\large,fontupper=\normalsize\sffamily,
colback=yellow!10!white,colframe=red!75!black,colbacktitle=Salmon!40!white,
coltitle=black,center title,freelance,frame code={
\foreach \n in {north east,north west,south east,south west}
{\path [fill=red!75!black] (interior.\n) circle (3mm); };},}}

\tcbset{tab2/.style={enhanced,fonttitle=\bfseries,fontupper=\normalsize\sffamily,
colback=yellow!10!white,colframe=red!50!black,colbacktitle=Salmon!40!white,
coltitle=black,center title}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tcolorbox}[tab2,tabularx={X||Y|Y|Y|Y||Y}]
Group & One     & Two     & Three    & Four     & Sum      \\\hline\hline
Red   & 1000.00 & 2000.00 &  3000.00 &  4000.00 & 10000.00 \\\hline
Green & 2000.00 & 3000.00 &  4000.00 &  5000.00 & 14000.00 \\\hline
Blue  & 3000.00 & 4000.00 &  5000.00 &  6000.00 & 18000.00 \\\hline\hline
Sum   & 6000.00 & 9000.00 & 12000.00 & 15000.00 & 42000.00
\end{tcolorbox}   

\end{document}

I need to write simple different words in each cell, but whatever the length of my words are, the columns always are of equal widths. I wonder how I can adjust the code so that each column width becomes as long as the longest word contained in one of its cells.

Of course they are of the same width, since you're using X and Y columntypes, the later being nothing different than X again. — , Jan 20 '18 at 17:28
I thought X and Y position the text either to left of right ... thank you for the hint — Billal Begueradj, Jan 20 '18 at 17:29
The typical way to adjust columns to their natural width is the tabulary package, but tcolorbox doesn't support that as a possibility. See e.g. Auto-fit table column widths based on content — Alan Munn, Jan 20 '18 at 17:29

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 20 '18 at 17:53

You can just use an X column in the first column of headings so that takes up any required width of the table, and for the others use l (or r or c or whatever) so they fit to the natural width of the content.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\tcbuselibrary{skins}

\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X}

\tcbset{tab1/.style={fonttitle=\bfseries\large,fontupper=\normalsize\sffamily,
colback=yellow!10!white,colframe=red!75!black,colbacktitle=Salmon!40!white,
coltitle=black,center title,freelance,frame code={
\foreach \n in {north east,north west,south east,south west}
{\path [fill=red!75!black] (interior.\n) circle (3mm); };},}}

\tcbset{tab2/.style={enhanced,fonttitle=\bfseries,fontupper=\normalsize\sffamily,
colback=yellow!10!white,colframe=red!50!black,colbacktitle=Salmon!40!white,
coltitle=black,center title}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tcolorbox}[tab2,tabularx={X||r|r|r|r||r}]
Group & One     & Two     & Three    & Four     & Sum      \\\hline\hline
Red   & 1000.00 & 2000.00 &  3000.00 &  4000.00 & 10000.00 \\\hline
Green & 2000.00 & 3000.00 &  4000.00 &  even wider cell & 14000.00 \\\hline
Blue  & 3000.00 & wider-words &  5000.00 &  6000.00 & 18000.00 \\\hline\hline
Sum   & 6000.00 & 9000.00 & 12000.00 & 15000.00 & 42000.00
\end{tcolorbox}   

\end{document}

Clever and effective approach, thank you a lot. – Billal Begueradj Jan 20 '18 at 17:54 — Billal Begueradj, Jan 20 '18 at 17:54

tcolorbox: auto adjusting column lengths

1 Answers1