Table alignment (make the content centre)

Question

I want to make the content center, i have out of idea what else I can change.

\documentclass[12pt,oneside]{book}

 \usepackage{showframe}
 \renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
 \renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}

\usepackage{makecell,siunitx}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document} 

\begin{table}[htp!]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{
  l
  S[table-format=2.2,table-space-text-post=\%]
  S[table-format=3.2,,table-space-text-post=\%]
}
\toprule
    & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\thead{\makebox[0pt]{\textbf{Descriptive Analysis 1}}}}\\ 
     \cmidrule{2-3}
& \textbf{MM}
& \textbf{CM} \\
\midrule
N       & {10}  &  {10}      \\
    Mean    & 91.45\%  & 8.55\% \\
    Median  & 94.74\%  & 5.26\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 01 '19 at 18:31

5

You should fix the number of digits for the S column and two pairs of {} are required around the two textbf{...}. You may consider also removing the braces around {10} but I'll leave it for you to decide.

\documentclass{article}
 \usepackage{showframe}
 \renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
 \renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}

\usepackage{makecell,siunitx}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document} 

\begin{table}[htp!]
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1em}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{
  l
  S[table-format=2.2,table-space-text-post=\%]
  S[table-format=2.2,table-space-text-post=\%]
}
\toprule
    & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\thead{\makebox[0pt]{\textbf{Descriptive Analysis 1}}}}\\ 
     \cmidrule{2-3}
& {\textbf{MM}}
& {\textbf{CM}} \\
\midrule
    N      & {10}       & {10}     \\
    Mean   & 91.45\%  & 8.55\% \\
    Median & 94.74\%  & 5.26\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

answered Sep 01 '19 at 18:31

AboAmmar

46,352
4
58
127

Thanks. Could you explain more what is the meaning of \setlength{\tabcolsep}{1em}? thanks. – aan Sep 01 '19 at 18:42
@aan: \tabcolsep is half of teh horizontal white space between teh contents of adjacent cells. The command \setlength{\tabcolsep}{1em} sets this space to be as wide as 1em. (See also What are the various units (ex, em, in, pt, bp, dd, pc) expressed in mm?) – leandriis Sep 01 '19 at 20:04
@aan tabcolsepis half the space between two columns, i.e from the right margin of one cell to the Ieft margin in same cell in the next column, it is two tabcolsep. 1em is approximatly the same as the width of the letter m, or 12 pt here. The standard is 6pt and this example double it. The recommendation in some textbook I have, is 0.5em. It is better to set it relative to the fontsize using em than a fixed number of points. – Sveinung Sep 01 '19 at 20:18

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 01 '19 at 18:14

4

You need to override the S column to a c in all places where you don't have a percentage (and the numbers in the first column should be 4.2):

\begin{tabular}{
  l
  S[table-format=4.2,table-space-text-post=\%]
  S[table-format=3.2,,table-space-text-post=\%]
}
\toprule
    & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\thead{\makebox[0pt]{\textbf{Descriptive Analysis 1}}}}\\
     \cmidrule{2-3}
& \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{MM}}  & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{CM}} \\
\midrule
N       & \multicolumn{1}{c}{10}  &  \multicolumn{1}{c}{10}      \\
    Mean    & 91.45\%  & 8.55\% \\
    Median  & 94.74\%  & 5.26\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

answered Sep 01 '19 at 18:14

Rmano

40,848
3
64
125

"and the numbers in the first column should be 4.2" Could you please explain why? As far as I can see the numbers have only 2 digits before and 2 after the decimal separator. Why use 4.2 which corresponds to four digits before and two after the decimal separator? – leandriis Sep 01 '19 at 20:06
@leandriis Yep, I was wrong. Thinking too much in C format descriptors... – Rmano Sep 01 '19 at 21:01

Sveinung · Answer 3 · 2019-09-01T21:20:56.463

Here is how I interpret your table. Since you have aligned the table at decimal point, the number without decimal is set to the left. You may overcome this by enclosing the two nunbers 10 in curly brackets ({10}) or using \multicolumn{1}{c}{10}, but this is typographically probably not correct.

\documentclass[12pt,oneside]{book}

 \usepackage{showframe}
 \renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
 \renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}

\usepackage{makecell,siunitx}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document} 

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{@{}
  l
  S[table-format=2.2,table-space-text-post=\%]
  S[table-format=2.2,table-space-text-post=\%]  % As @Zarko says, reduce this numer to 1.1 if number 10 is centred, else 2.2
@{}}
\toprule
    & \multicolumn{2}{@{}c@{}}{\thead{\textbf{Descriptive Analysis 1}}}\\ 
     \cmidrule{2-3}
& \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{MM}}
& \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{CM}} \\
\midrule
%N      & {10}  &  {10}  \\ % Enclose in brackets to centre the content
N       & 10  &  10      \\
Mean    & 91.45\%  & 8.55\% \\
Median  & 94.74\%  & 5.26\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Zarko · Answer 4 · 2019-09-01T21:10:41.053

3

One more variation ...

Your problem arise from the fact that text in multicolumn cell is wider than natural width of the spanned columns. Problem is solved, if you make those column has equal wider width, for example with determine their widths enough large as it is done in the following MWE:

\documentclass[12pt,oneside]{book}
\usepackage{booktabs, makecell}
\renewcommand\theadfont{\small\bfseries}
\renewcommand\theadgape{}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}
\centering
\sisetup{table-format=2.2,
         table-space-text-post={\%},
         table-column-width=5em}     % <-----
\begin{tabular}{@{} l S S @{}}
\toprule
        & \multicolumn{2}{@{}c@{}}{\thead{Descriptive Analysis 1}}  \\
    \cmidrule{2-3}
        & {\thead{MM}}  & {\thead{CM}}  \\
\midrule
N       & {10}          & {10}          \\
Mean    & 91.45\%       & 8.55\%        \\
Median  & 94.74\%       & 5.26\%        \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

edited Sep 01 '19 at 21:10

answered Sep 01 '19 at 19:16

Zarko

296,517

I have zero overfull hboxes in my example. And the numbers 10 centre if I enclose them in curly brackets. – Sveinung Sep 01 '19 at 20:20
@Sveinung, sorry, I didn't test your solution :-(. I will do this asap. However, it has bigger reservation for integers in the last column and consequently work as you said. For this kind of tables number of sample are (usual) centered (since they are different type of data), so doing this is not typographical problematic. – Zarko Sep 01 '19 at 20:34
@Sveinung, I just test your answer. It also work without any warning , if you for the last column declare S[table-format=1.2,table-space-text-post=\%]. In this case you obtain better result, of course if you enclose number of samples in curly braces :-) – Zarko Sep 01 '19 at 20:40
Good observation, your are absolutely right, and I should have spotted it myself. Thank you. This assume the the figure 10 is centred. If not, it should be 2.2. – Sveinung Sep 01 '19 at 21:15

Table alignment (make the content centre)

4 Answers4