highlighting numbers in table with ellipses

Question

I am trying to figure out how to highlight numbers in tabulars with circles (well, ellipses), ideally not with the large overhead of tikz. Something along the following, except that I don't know how 1 to autosize and autoplace the ellipses around the text=number based on the height and width of the text=number; and [2] how not to make it interfere with the tabular column justification. Is this easy or hard? Advice appreciated (as always).

\documentclass[12pt]{standalone}

\usepackage{ellipse}
\usepackage{color}

\setlength{\unitlength}{12pt}%

%% should not interfere with placement of number in table.
\newcommand{\enumber}[1]{
  \begin{picture}(0,0)
    \linethickness{1.5pt}%
    %% dimensions should be autosized (ideally, even height, but width is more important)
    %% location needs to be vertically centered
    \put(0,0.25){\color{red}\ellipse{2}{0.5}}%
    \put(0,0){\makebox[0mm][c]{#1}}
  \end{picture}
}


\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{lcr}
  Left & Center & Right \\
  \hline
  12.0 & 22.0   & 32.0 \\
  1212.0 & 2222.0   & 3232.0 \\
  \enumber{12.0} & 22.0   & 32.0 \\
  1212.0 & \enumber{2222.0}   & 3232.0 \\
  1212.0 & 2222.0   & \enumber{3232.0} \\
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

In case you are not completely against the usage of tikz, you might find something useful here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/4850/134144 or here: https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/139183/134144 — leandriis, Jul 13 '19 at 10:47

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 19 '19 at 18:30

It's easy. The trick is to use overlay and an appropriate inner sep to not interfere with the column alignment.

For a pure picture mode solution, wait for David Carlisle.

\documentclass[12pt, border=10pt]{standalone} 
\usepackage{tikz} 
\usetikzlibrary{fit}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}
\setlength{\unitlength}{12pt} 
\newcommand{\enumber}[1]{%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture]
        \node[inner sep=0pt](a){#1};
    \end{tikzpicture}%
    \begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
        \node[draw, red, fit=(a), ellipse, inner sep=1pt, line width=1.5pt]{};
    \end{tikzpicture}%
    }
\begin{document} 
\begin{tabular}{lcr} 
    Left & Center & Right \\ 
    \hline 
    12.0 & 22.0 & 32.0 \\ 
    1212.0 & 2222.0 & 3232.0 \\ 
    \enumber{12.0} & 22.0 & 32.0 \\ 
    1212.0 & \enumber{2222.0} & 3232.0 \\ 
    1212.0 & 2222.0 & \enumber{3232.0} \\ 
\end{tabular} 
\end{document}

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 16 '19 at 02:15

2

I use pure TikZ for this.

\documentclass[tikz,border=5mm]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[xscale=2,yscale=.8]
\path
(0,1) node[right]{Left}
(0,0)  node[right]{1}
(0,-1) node[right]{123} 
(0,-2) node[right]{12345} 

(1,1) node{Center}
(1,0)  node{234} 
(1,-1) node{45678} 
(1,-2) node{1} 

(2,1) node[left=0]{Right}
(2,0)  node[left=0]{6789}
(2,-1) node[left=0]{89}
(2,-2) node[left=0]{789};

% customizing ellipse as needed
\draw[red,thick] 
(0,0)+(0:.3) arc(0:360:.2 and .25)
(1,-1)+(0:.35) arc(0:360:.35 and .28)
(2,-2)+(0:.1) arc(0:360:.3 and .25); 
\draw (-.25,.5)--+(0:2.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

answered Jul 16 '19 at 02:15

Black Mild

17,569

doesn't work in the standard tabular environment, either :-( – ivo Welch Jul 17 '19 at 07:45
@ivo Welch: what do you mean? You can put any tikzpicture in the standard tabular environment – Black Mild Jul 17 '19 at 12:13
yes, but this example did not integrate with tabular. instead, it hand-placed text into locations. CarLatex in the next example solves this part, too. – ivo Welch Jul 19 '19 at 19:33
Manual positioning is a bit boring, isn't it? You could use a TikZ matrix, instead. – CarLaTeX Jul 19 '19 at 19:57
@CarLaTeX I am not good at remembering TikZ commands. Do you notice the simplicity in my code? and yes, TikZ's library matrix is nice – Black Mild Jul 19 '19 at 20:09
1

Yes, it's very simple if you have only few data, but it becomes complicated if you have to position manually many numbers :) – CarLaTeX Jul 19 '19 at 20:13

highlighting numbers in table with ellipses

2 Answers2