Symmetrical table, is booktabs recommended?

Question

I have the following table, used with booktabs. I call it "symmetric" as three states of two variables are compared, but it does not matter if a variable is written along the rows or along the columns. It is not a some variables (columns) describing observations (rows), but two variables and their correlation. I may also invert "X → Y" and "Y → X", it would be the same).

In this situation, using booktabs and its strict guidelines (especially “never, ever use vertical rules”) does not really make sense. Why is there a line below "X → Y" variable labels and not at right of "Y → X" variable labels?

What is the recommended way of displaying such a table? Should I use booktabs at all in this specific situation?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{Quality of links, one way versus the other}
  \begin{tabular}{llccc}
    \toprule
    & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{$X \rightarrow Y$} \\
    \cmidrule{3-5}
    & & good & uncertain & weak \\
    \midrule
    & good & 32 & 12 & 2 \\
    $Y \rightarrow X$
    & uncertain & 13 & 52 & 5 \\
    & weak & 4 & 2 & 3 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Well, your table structure is symmetric logically [or perhaps mathematically ?...though the values does not depict a symmetric matrix where, say, (good, weak) is 2, but (weak, good) is 4 !] The booktabs guidelines are for visual comfort and professional look. You can see any scientific journal article, where vertical lines are never used. They impair reading flow. To summarize: your table looks perfect. — Partha D., Sep 18 '19 at 14:19
@ParthaD. Yep, I understand why booktabs provides these guideline. The question is, does they really applies here? Doesn't they break signification (and readability) of the table, with "X→Y"'s labels separated from the data while "Y→X"' labels aren't? — Don't worry about mathematical symmetry, the table effectively does not really have mathematical sense, because of details missing in the example. — audeoudh, Sep 20 '19 at 09:14

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 18 '19 at 14:48

There can be some minor improvements (from my point of view): trimming the \cmidrule, a slightly larger spacing between the last 3 rows, and a larger spacing between caption and table:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs, caption}
\captionsetup{skip =4pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{Quality of links, one way versus the other}
  \begin{tabular}{llccc}
    \toprule
    & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{$X \rightarrow Y$} \\
    \cmidrule(lr){3-5}
    & & good & uncertain & weak \\
    \midrule
    & good & 32 & 12 & 2 \\[2pt]
    $Y \rightarrow X$
    & uncertain & 13 & 52 & 5 \\[2pt]
    & weak & 4 & 2 & 3 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 23 '19 at 13:50

Well…

Either you and don't worry of the semantic equivalence between "X→Y" and "Y→X", and you are just presenting a table. Then booktabs rules are OK, your code is OK, and Bernard's design is cool.
Or you absolutely want to separate your numbers from the labels and be "symmetric" (i.e. do the same formatting between "X→Y" and "Y→X"), and you accept breaking the booktabs rules; then put two tiny vertical rule (cmidrule's equivalent) between the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd columns.

Or, just do not put any rule in the table, just keep the toprule and the bottomrule (they are not annoying). You may need to put a little more space between column labels and following lines, as shown there.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{caption}
  \captionsetup{skip=4pt}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \caption{Quality of links, one way versus the other}
  \begin{tabular}{llccc}
    \toprule
    & & \multicolumn{3}{c}{$X \rightarrow Y$} \\
    %\cmidrule(lr){3-5}
    & & good & uncertain & weak \\
    %\midrule
    \addlinespace
    & good & 32 & 12 & 2 \\
    $Y \rightarrow X$
    & uncertain & 13 & 52 & 5 \\
    & weak & 4 & 2 & 3 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Symmetrical table, is booktabs recommended?

2 Answers2