How to format table to fit page

Question

Any suggestions on making the table below? The current set of code makes the table too wide on the page as seen in the second image. I tried putting all of the units on a new row with \\ \hline at the end, but it wasn't working.

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\caption{Scan parameters for linear ablations of collector probes.}
\label{tab:LAMS}
\begin{tabular}{|cccccc|}
\hline
    Laser \(\lambda\) [nm] & Scan Rate [\(\mu\)m/sec] & Scan Length [mm] 
&Pulse Rate [Hz] & Aperture Size [\(\mu\)m] &Energy Density [J/cm2] \\ \hline
    213 & 500 & 50-100 & 10 & 55 &  8 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Desired:

Current:

Maybe the following can help you: My table doesn't fit; what are my options? For scientific units, you should also consider using the siunitx package. — leandriis, Jul 26 '18 at 19:42

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 26 '18 at 20:02

I'd use makecell to have multiline column heads, and siunitx for a correct formatting of numbers and units. This is a possible code:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,headings=small]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage{makecell}
\setcellgapes{4pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering\sffamily
\sisetup{detect-family, range-phrase=--}
\makegapedcells
\setkomafont{captionlabel}{\sffamily}
\setkomafont{caption}{\sffamily}
\captionabove{Scan parameters for linear ablations of collector probes.}
\label{tab:LAMS}
\begin{tabular}{|cccccc|}
\hline
    \makecell{Laser \(\lambda\)\\ {[}\si{\nm}]} & \makecell{Scan Rate\\{[}\si{\um\per\s}]} & \makecell{Scan Length\\ {[}\si{\mm}]}
& \makecell{Pulse Rate\\ {[}Hz]} & \makecell{Aperture Size\\ {[}\si{\um}]} & \makecell{Energy Density\\ {[}\si{\J\per\cm^2}]} \\ \hline
    213 & 500 & \numrange{50}{100} & 10 & 55 & 8 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 27 '18 at 00:48

The reason for your issues is probably because you wanted to set the units in a row on its own together and they're all set inside [...]. This is falsely interpreted as passing an optional argument to \\. The way to correct for this is by supplying something that is not interpreted as [...] but sets nothing, like \relax or {}:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{Scan parameters for linear ablations of collector probes.}
  \begin{tabular}{ *{6}{c} }
    \toprule
    Laser $\lambda$ & Scan Rate & Scan Length & Pulse Rate & Aperture Size & Energy Density \\ 
    \relax[nm] & [$\mu$m/sec] & [mm] & [Hz] & [$\mu$m] & [J/cm$^2$] \\
    \midrule
    213 & 500 & 50-100 & 10 & 55 & 8 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

The above code also uses booktabs's rules for elegant-looking tables.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 27 '18 at 14:21

\relax at the end of the first table line along with \hline at the end of the second seems to have worked.

Here is an additional link to help with \relax: What is the difference between \relax and {}?

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering
\caption{Scan parameters for linear ablations of collector probes.}
\label{tab:LAMS}
\begin{tabular}{|cccccc|}
\hline
    Laser \(\lambda\) & Scan Rate  & Scan Length &Pulse Rate & Aperture Size  
&Energy Density \\ \relax
    [nm] & [\(\mu\)m/sec] &  [mm] & [Hz] &  [\(\mu\)m] & [J/cm2] \\ \hline
    213 & 500 & 50-100 & 10 & 55 &  8 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Werner.

How to format table to fit page

3 Answers3