Create a Tabular Table

Question

I would like to develop a tabular table like this.

However, when I use the reference code from https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Tables#Creating_a_simple_table_in_LaTeX , with code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth} { 
  | >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X 
  | >{\centering\arraybackslash}X 
  | >{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}X | }
 \hline
 Place/Transition & Explanation & Time  \\
 \hline
 T_1 and T_(2(n+1))  & Robot operation which relates to loadlocks. Transition T_1indicates that wafer unloading from the loadlocks and T_(2(n+1)) means that the robot loads the wafer to the loadlocks. & w \\
\hline
 item 31  & item 32  & item 33 \\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

The result is as follows.

Perhaps, does anyone have any other reference to create a tabular table that I want, please?

When I Replace \begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth} by \noindent\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth} , here is the result:

Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

The problem is, as stated in the comments, that you omit the necessary syntax for math mode. Because of this, TeX will at some point read a _ which is only a valid character in math mode. Hence, it will switch to math mode automatically, but since it does not know where the math mode should end, it keeps typesetting in math mode which results in this strange output.

It is very easy to solve this problem by using the correct syntax for math mode. Since you don't need pragraphs in columns one and three, you could also switch to another column defintion:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth} { |
  l |
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X |
  c |
}
  \hline
  Place/Transition & Explanation & Time  \
  \hline
  $T_1$ and $T_{2(n+1)}$  & Robot operation which relates to loadlocks. Transition $T_1$ indicates that wafer unloading from the loadlocks and $T_{2(n+1)}$ means that the robot loads the wafer to the loadlocks. & w \
  \hline
  item 31 & item 32 & item 33 \
  \hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

An alternative solution could be created with the help of the booktabs package, which can help you reduce the amount of borders between cells:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.25}
\begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth} { 
  l 
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X 
  c 
}
  \toprule
  Place/Transition & Explanation & Time  \
  \midrule
  $T_1$ and $T_{2(n+1)}$  & Robot operation which relates to loadlocks. Transition $T_1$ indicates that wafer unloading from the loadlocks and $T_{2(n+1)}$ means that the robot loads the wafer to the loadlocks. & w \
  item 31 & item 32 & item 33 \
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

---

Note that you might want to replace 0.8\textwidth by \linewidth if you want to extend the table to the width of a text column in a two-column layout:

\documentclass[journal]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\noindent%
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth} { |
  l |
  >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X |
  c |
}
  \hline
  Place/Transition & Explanation & Time  \
  \hline
  $T_1$ and $T_{2(n+1)}$  & Robot operation which relates to loadlocks. Transition $T_1$ indicates that wafer unloading from the loadlocks and $T_{2(n+1)}$ means that the robot loads the wafer to the loadlocks. & w \
  \hline
  item 31 & item 32 & item 33 \
  \hline
\end{tabularx}
\newpage
Right column
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here's an idea that's complementary to the second table in @JasperHabicht's answer: Get rid of the whitespace padding at either end, and allow line breaks in column 1.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx} % for 'tabularx' env. and 'X' column type
\usepackage{booktabs} % for well-spaced horizontal rules
\usepackage{ragged2e} % for '\RaggedRight' macro
\newlength\mylen
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\settowidth\mylen{Transition} % target width of column 1
\begin{tabularx}{0.8\textwidth} {@{} 
     >{\RaggedRight}p{\mylen} >{\RaggedRight}X c @{}}
 \toprule
 Place\slash Transition & Explanation & Time  \
 \midrule
 $T_1$ and $T_{2(n+1)}$  & 
 Robot operation which relates to loadlocks. Transition $T_1$ indicates that wafer unloading from the loadlocks, and $T_{2(n+1)}$ means that the robot loads the wafer to the loadlocks. & 
 $w$ \
 \addlinespace
 item 31 & item 32 & item 33 \
 \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{center}
\end{document}