Create a comparison type table where multiple line and bullet points exists

Question

I want to create a table like the following picture

I tried with this code basically from this post compact bulleted points in table

\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}
\newcolumntype{T}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{5.354cm}}
\begin{table*}
\caption{The table caption}

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|T|T|T|}
\hline
Column 1 & Column2 & Column 3\\
\hline
Multiple column and column & 
  \begin{tabular}[t]{ @{\makebox[1.5em][l]{\textbullet}} 
   p{\dimexpr\linewidth-1.5em} @{} }
multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item 
  text multiline item text \\
multiline item text multiline item text
\end{tabular}
&
\begin{tabular}[t]{ @{\makebox[1.5em][l]{\textbullet}} p{\dimexpr\linewidth- 
1.5em} @{} }
multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item 
 text multiline item text \\
multiline item text multiline item text
\end{tabular} \\
\hline

\end{tabularx}
\end{table*}

The result is But the problem is that there is some unnecessary space in the first column. I am not expert in latex. Is there any convenient and efficient way to make this type of table in latex?

Welcome to TeX.SE! You are setting the width of all columns, including the first one, explicitly. You could just choose a smaller width for the first column if you do not want to waste space. — , Sep 08 '18 at 20:20
welcome to tec.se! dsee http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/347253/ (actually your question is duplicate to this and many other similar :-) ) — Zarko, Sep 08 '18 at 20:21
BTW, you are not supposed to use tabularx here since you do not have any X type column. You could simply define a smaller column \newcolumntype{A}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{2.354cm}} and then do \begin{tabular}{|A|T|T|} (and of course end the thing with \end{tabular}). — , Sep 08 '18 at 20:32
@Zarko Did you read the question? It is written "But the problem is that there is some unnecessary space in the first column." I am not sure if your answer helps with that. Am I missing something? — , Sep 08 '18 at 20:36
@marmot, i check my answer again. there is no unnecessary space. it seems that op like to have first column of the l type (this has sense, if the text is short an in one column only. i suggest you that you write an answer and show this possibilities. — Zarko, Sep 08 '18 at 21:45
@Zarko I was interpreting this as a simple "The left column has to much space", which can be cured by making it smaller. And no, I do not intend to write an answer. — , Sep 08 '18 at 21:47

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 08 '18 at 21:17

I propose this simpler code, based on tabularx, with a customised itemize environment in the last two columns:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}
\usepackage{enumitem}
\usepackage{tabularx, caption}
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\compress}{\@minipagetrue}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
\caption{The table caption}
\setlist[itemize]{wide=0pt, leftmargin=*, itemsep=0pt, topsep=0pt, after=\vspace*{-\baselineskip}, rightmargin=-\leftmargini}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{3pt}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|>{\hsize=0.6\hsize}X|*{2}{>{\hsize=1.2\hsize\compress\arraybackslash}X|}}
\hline
Column 1 & Column2 & Column 3\\
\hline
Multiple column and column &
\begin{itemize}
 \item
multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item
  text multiline item text
\item
multiline item text multiline item text
\end{itemize}
&
\begin{itemize}
\item
multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item
 text multiline item text
 \item
multiline item text multiline item text
\end{itemize}
 \\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{table*}

\end{document}

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '18 at 23:24

let me extend my comment to an answer:

you provide only code snippet of table, so actual document layout is not known. therefore i use document with page borders determined by the `geometry package
answer is based on my answer to question "items list inside table cell are not well aligned".

in comparison to it i made the following changes:

from your question i conclude, that in the cells of the first columns you have short one line text. for such text is appropriate to use the l column type

since you use the tabularx table environment with left aligned columns' headers, i accordingly change definitions of I column and command mch:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[showframe,
            a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage{booktabs, tabularx}

% added packages and column definitions
\usepackage{ragged2e}           % for smart align of cells' content

    \usepackage{enumitem}       % for nice list
\newcolumntype{I}{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash%            % <-- for lists in columns
                       \itemize}X<{\enditemize}}
\newcommand\mch[1]{\multicolumn{1}{l}{\small{#1}}}  % <-- for columns headers

\begin{document}

    \begin{table}
    \setlength\tabcolsep{3pt}
    \setlist[itemize]{nosep,        % <-- new list setup
                     leftmargin = *,
                     before     = \vspace{-0.6\baselineskip},
                     after      = \vspace{-\baselineskip}
                     }
\caption{The table caption}
    \label{tab:itemize}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{ >{\RaggedRight}p{0.2\linewidth}  *{2}{I} }
    \toprule
Column 1 & \mch{Column 2} & \mch{Column 3}                          \\
    \midrule
Multiple column and column
    &   \item   multi line item text multi line item text multi line item text multi line item
  text multi line item text
        \item   x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
        &   \item   multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item
 text multiline item text
            \item   x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x \\
    \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

in the case, that texts in the first column are longer and had to be broken into more lines, than instead of l column you should use p{<width> column type and determine its width according to your taste. in this case the columns I will adopt to the rest of the table width automatically. for example with

\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{ >{\RaggedRight}p{0.2\linewidth}  *{2}{I} }

you will obtain:

Hello, @Zarko, I have used "longtable" according to your answer in https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/347253/items-list-inside-table-cell-are-not-well-aligned. But problem is that my article is two column in which longtable not work. Is there any way to use supertabular/xtab with your code? — Bloodstone Programmer, Sep 11 '18 at 07:00
@BloodstoneProgrammer, i'm sorry, but i'm not familiar with this two packages. table is two column wide, so it has to be span over two columns with use table*. if table is to long for one page, than i would rather split it into two part where for the first i will use [!b] placement specifier and for the second [!t]. — Zarko, Sep 11 '18 at 07:15
@BloodstoneProgrammer: You can try to nest your longtable in a strip environment from the cuted package (ncctools bundle) which leaves the two-column mode. — Bernard, Sep 11 '18 at 10:22
@Bernard, good idea. i forgot on this package :-(. thank you very much for the info. — Zarko, Sep 11 '18 at 14:01

Create a comparison type table where multiple line and bullet points exists

2 Answers2