7

I have looked through and tried quite a few probable solutions but am unable to get this right. I am posting the best minimal example I currently have of what I am trying to accomplish here. Being new, I am not allowed to post images, so please do copy the two files and compile.

I want the title to be at the top of both the sides/columns of the table and also to manage the extra whitespace at the end of table.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[left=2cm, top=3cm, right=2cm, bottom=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{xtab}

\begin{document}

\section{List}

\topcaption{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}
\label{tab:xxxxx}

\twocolumn

\tablehead{\hline x & x*x \\ \hline}

\begin{xtabular}{| l || c |}
\input{squares.tex}
\end{xtabular}
\end{document}

Data File to test the script above :: squares.tex

101 & 10201 \\
102 & 10404 \\
103 & 10609 \\
104 & 10816 \\
105 & 11025 \\
106 & 11236 \\
107 & 11449 \\
108 & 11664 \\
109 & 11881 \\
110 & 12100 \\
111 & 12321 \\
112 & 12544 \\
113 & 12769 \\
114 & 12996 \\
115 & 13225 \\
116 & 13456 \\
117 & 13689 \\
118 & 13924 \\
119 & 14161 \\
120 & 14400 \\
121 & 14641 \\
122 & 14884 \\
123 & 15129 \\
124 & 15376 \\
125 & 15625 \\
126 & 15876 \\
127 & 16129 \\
128 & 16384 \\
129 & 16641 \\
130 & 16900 \\
131 & 17161 \\
132 & 17424 \\
133 & 17689 \\
134 & 17956 \\
135 & 18225 \\
136 & 18496 \\
137 & 18769 \\
138 & 19044 \\
139 & 19321 \\
140 & 19600 \\
141 & 19881 \\
142 & 20164 \\
143 & 20449 \\
144 & 20736 \\
145 & 21025 \\
146 & 21316 \\
147 & 21609 \\
148 & 21904 \\
149 & 22201 \\
150 & 22500 \\
151 & 22801 \\
152 & 23104 \\
153 & 23409 \\
154 & 23716 \\
155 & 24025 \\
156 & 24336 \\
157 & 24649 \\
158 & 24964 \\
159 & 25281 \\
160 & 25600 \\
161 & 25921 \\
162 & 26244 \\
163 & 26569 \\
164 & 26896 \\
165 & 27225 \\
166 & 27556 \\
167 & 27889 \\
168 & 28224 \\
169 & 28561 \\
170 & 28900 \\
171 & 29241 \\
172 & 29584 \\
173 & 29929 \\
174 & 30276 \\
175 & 30625 \\
176 & 30976 \\
177 & 31329 \\
178 & 31684 \\
179 & 32041 \\
180 & 32400 \\
181 & 32761 \\
182 & 33124 \\
183 & 33489 \\
184 & 33856 \\
185 & 34225 \\
186 & 34596 \\
187 & 34969 \\
188 & 35344 \\
189 & 35721 \\
190 & 36100 \\
191 & 36481 \\
192 & 36864 \\
193 & 37249 \\
194 & 37636 \\
195 & 38025 \\
196 & 38416 \\
197 & 38809 \\
198 & 39204 \\
199 & 39601 \\
200 & 40000 \
David Carlisle
  • 757,742
mukesh
  • 71
  • Welcome to TeX.sx! – Marco Daniel Sep 29 '12 at 08:56
  • This question is very similar to http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/13895/multicolumn-long-table-or-enumeration. Please take a look at it as the information there might help you. If so, that's great, and we'll probably close this question as a duplicate just to keep the place tidy and to help people find answers quickly. If not, please edit your question here to explain why so that people can better focus their attention to help you. – lockstep Sep 30 '12 at 10:11
  • Try using longtable. See here http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/45980/balancing-long-table-inside-multicol-in-latex – mythealias Sep 30 '12 at 21:23
  • Thanks for the suggestion and apologies for the tardiness in my reply. Both the solutions got me almost where I wanted to be, but fell short - Probably due to my limited experience in LaTex.

    Solution pointed out by lockstep had the effect that if a short portion of the table went to the next page, it would occupy just one column and not split itself up into 2. Also it started a new page at the end.

    Solution pointed out by mythealias has the table head entries missing for the subsequent pages/table breaks. This misaligns the next table entry with the original table head.

     – mukesh Oct 06 '12 at 01:42
  • I ended up breaking the input tex file into symmetric segments. And then used multiple tabulars inside a table, It seems to give the table the appearance I want, but then I haven't tested it as part of a larger document yet. – mukesh Oct 06 '12 at 01:49
  • @mukesh longtable repeats heading on each page (you need to use the \endhead command and aligns columns on subsequent runs of latex, they may not be aligned the first time. – David Carlisle Dec 01 '12 at 23:04

1 Answers1

11

longtable can in fact work in two column mode, it just needs a bit of encouragement not to give up and issue an error message:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[left=2cm, top=3cm, right=2cm, bottom=3cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{longtable}


\makeatletter
\let\saved@longtable\longtable
\long\def\foo#1\LT@err#2#3#4!!{\def\longtable{#1#4}}
\expandafter\foo\longtable!!

\long\def\foo#1\@outputpage#2\@outputpage#3!!{%
\def\LT@output{#1\@opcol#2\@opcol#3}}
\expandafter\foo\LT@output!!
\makeatother

\begin{document}




\twocolumn[\section{List}]



\begin{longtable}{| l || c |}
\caption{Some square numbers\label{tab:xxx}}\\
$n$&$n$-squared\\
\hline
\endfirsthead
$n$&$n$-squared\\
\hline
\endhead
a&b\\\relax
\input{squares.tex}
\end{longtable}
\end{document}
David Carlisle
  • 757,742
  • +1. Will this patch appear in next version of longtable? –  Dec 22 '12 at 16:31
  • 2
    @HarishKumar I only wrote it five minutes ago. If it survives a bit of testing it might... – David Carlisle Dec 22 '12 at 16:32
  • 1
    Though I use only longtable, when it comes to two columns, I am forced to switch to supertabular. This patch is really welcome. Hope it gets into the main package. :-) –  Dec 22 '12 at 16:34
  • After five years ... is any news about including this patch to longtable? Just now tested your answer. Unfortunately I receive error " ! Infinite glue shrinkage found in box being split. @outputdblcol ...\vsplit @outputbox to\maxdimen \toks@ \expandafter {\topm... l.113 1 80 & 32400 \ " :-( – Zarko May 27 '17 at 21:12
  • It worked for me temporarily last year, now I get the same error about Infinite glue shrinkage found in box being split.

    I switched to supertabular: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/23488/making-a-long-table-continue-over-two-columns

     – dukeeloo May 19 '21 at 15:13
  • It worked for me temporarily last year, now I get the same error about Infinite glue shrinkage found in box being split.

    I switched to supertabular: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/23488/making-a-long-table-continue-over-two-columns

     – dukeeloo May 19 '21 at 15:13
  • Here is also a good solution that puts a longtable inside multicols: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/46001/113546 – Pieter van Oostrum May 19 '21 at 15:33