Writing descriptions of columns of table

Question

How do you do table like this?

enter image description here

I don't need coloured background and blue borders.

This is what I have. Looks terrible. And doesn't even fit on page.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polski}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\begin{tabular}{c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c | c |}

Bit\\
    31 &&&&&&& 24&23 &&&&&&& 16&15 &&&&&&& 8&7 &&&&&& 1&0\\
S & E & E & E & E & E & E & E & E & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M \\
Znak & Wykładnik &&&&&&&& Mantysa

\end{tabular}
\caption{IEEE754}
\end{figure}

\listoffigures
\listoftables
\end{document}

Hi @papciuch and welcome to TeX.sx. In its current form, your question might not receive many answers. Please take a look at the How to Ask-page and try to improve your question according to the guidance found there. This may require you to show some effort on your part in terms of attempting a solution. If you have questions about what to do or if you don't quite understand what this means, please ask for clarification using the add comment function. — Dror, May 08 '12 at 07:36
Have also a look at the register package, which is for diagrams/tables like this. It might however not be able to create a table just like this. — Martin Scharrer, May 08 '12 at 18:26
@MartinScharrer, I don't need table that looks exactly the same. I just need to show the idea. — papciuch, May 08 '12 at 18:35
@papciuch: Then you should definitely have a look at the register package. — Martin Scharrer, May 08 '12 at 18:43
@papciuch I've modified my answer so that it can be more as you'd like it. — egreg, May 08 '12 at 19:57

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 11 '17 at 17:21

A solutions that, without too much code, does what's requested; the main trick is to reduce the \tabcolsep (and the font size):

\begin{figure}
\centering\small\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1.45pt}
\begin{tabular}{|*{32}{c|}}
\multicolumn{32}{l}{Bit}\\
\multicolumn{8}{|c|}{\tiny 31\hfill 24}&
\multicolumn{8}{c|}{\tiny 23\hfill 16}&
\multicolumn{8}{c|}{\tiny 15\hfill 8}&
\multicolumn{8}{c|}{\tiny 7\hfill 0} \\
\hline
S &
E & E & E & E & E & E & E & E &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M \\
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{}&
\multicolumn{8}{c|}{Wykładnik} &
\multicolumn{23}{c|}{Mantysa} \\
\cline{2-32}
\multicolumn{5}{|c}{Znak} & \multicolumn{27}{c}{}\\
\cline{1-5}
\end{tabular}
\caption{IEEE754}
\end{figure}

enter image description here

If cells are desired to have the same width, then I suggest some changes.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polski}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
\centering\small
{\sffamily
\newlength{\bitwidth}\settowidth{\bitwidth}{M}
\newcommand{\bitname}[1]{\makebox[\bitwidth]{#1}}
\newcommand{\bitrule}{\vrule height 6pt}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{2pt}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1.1pt}
\begin{tabular}{|*{32}{c|}}
\multicolumn{32}{l}{Bit}\\
\multicolumn{8}{@{\bitrule}c@{\bitrule}}{\tiny\,31\hfill 24\,}&
\multicolumn{8}{@{}c@{\bitrule}}{\tiny\,23\hfill 16\,}&
\multicolumn{8}{@{}c@{\bitrule}}{\tiny\,15\hfill 8\,}&
\multicolumn{8}{@{}c@{\bitrule}}{\tiny\,7\hfill 0\,} \\
\hline
\bitname{S} &
\bitname{E} & \bitname{E} & \bitname{E} & \bitname{E} &
\bitname{E} & \bitname{E} & \bitname{E} & \bitname{E} &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M &
M & M & M & M & M & M & M \\
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{}&
\multicolumn{8}{c|}{Wykładnik} &
\multicolumn{23}{c|}{Mantysa} \\
\cline{2-32}
\multicolumn{5}{|c}{Znak} & \multicolumn{27}{c}{}\\
\cline{1-5}
\end{tabular}}
\caption{IEEE754}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Since "M" is usually the widest character in a font, setting the "S" and the "E" so that they occupy as much space as an "M" is easy. I've modified slightly other aspects as indicated in comments.

enter image description here

echoing a comment in the answer by Harish Kumar, "Znak" looks too high in its box. but if you look at the original example, all the rows are more "airy" at the top. the tabular format provides a fixed vertical dimension that is suitable for a glyph with maximum height and depth for the current font, say, a parenthesis. in this case, it's probably easiest to insert a custom "strut" (zero-width vrule) at the beginning of each line; in the original, the line with "S", "E" and "M" is more open than the next two, so the dimensions wouldn't be the same. — barbara beeton, May 08 '12 at 12:48
@barbarabeeton If you use the package tabu (http://tug.ctan.org/pkg/tabu) or maybe tabularhtfrom the Oberdiek bundle (http://tug.ctan.org/pkg/tabularht), you may have more air above the letters, and keep the vertical lines correctly connected. — Sveinung, May 08 '12 at 17:59

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '17 at 16:32

8

If you need colors, you may use colortbl or table from xcolor and more preferably tikz. But this is a simple way with ordinary tabular:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{polski,array,fullpage}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htb]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|*{32}{@{}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{.4cm}@{}|} }

\multicolumn{32}{@{}l}{Bit}\\
\multicolumn{1}{|@{}c@{}}{31} &\multicolumn{6}{@{}r@{}}{}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}|}{24}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}}{23} &\multicolumn{6}{@{}r@{}}{}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}|}{16}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}}{15} &\multicolumn{6}{@{}r@{}}{}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}|}{8}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}}{7} &\multicolumn{5}{@{}r@{}}{}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}|}{1}&\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{}|}{0}\\\hline
S & E & E & E & E & E & E & E & E & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M & M \\\hline
& \multicolumn{8}{c|}{Wykładnik} &\multicolumn{23}{c|}{Mantysa}\\\cline{2-32}
\multicolumn{6}{|c}{Znak} & \multicolumn{26}{c}{}\\ \cline{1-6}
\end{tabular}
\caption{IEEE754}
\end{table}

\listoffigures
\listoftables
\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jun 12 '17 at 16:32

Moriambar

11,466

answered May 08 '12 at 09:15

What is purpose of fullpage? I want this table to appear on list of figures so I'll keep \begin{figure} ;) – papciuch May 08 '12 at 09:25
@papciuch: It will aloow you to make use of full page. (LaTeX leaves large margins by default). Alternatively you can use geometry package to adjust the paper size, margins etc. PS. Remove fullpage and see the difference. – May 08 '12 at 09:28
@HarishKumar Using fullpage may not be what the OP wants. – egreg May 08 '12 at 09:29
1

@HarishKumar One can't be forced to change layout in order to fit a table: it's the other way around. – egreg May 08 '12 at 09:35
I think there is too much space below 'Znak'. I know this space is for letters like y, g or j, but they don't appear in this word. How can I get 'Znak' closer to the bottom line? – papciuch May 08 '12 at 10:00
1

@papciuch: use \multicolumn{5}{|c}{\raisebox{-0.3ex}{Znak}}. – May 08 '12 at 10:12

Writing descriptions of columns of table

2 Answers2

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