align list of symbols with dash

Question

I'm trying to make a list of symbols and I have something like this

P --- pressure

eta --- viscosity

lambda(P,T) --- thermal conductivity

...

I need to align this list with dash symbol. I tried to make it with nomencl package and tabbing but it didn't help me.

cgnieder · Answer 1 · 2013-07-19T10:27:46.897

The KOMA-Script classes have a list that basically does what you want:

\begin{labeling}[<separator>]{<widest label>}
  ...
\end{labeling}

This evironment can be used with the standard classes, too, by loading the scrextend package. The list would then maybe look like:

\begin{labeling}[---]{\hspace*{4em}}
  \item[$P$] pressure 
  \item[$\eta$] viscosity
  \item[$\lambda(P,T)$] thermal conductivity
\end{labeling}

You can probably make nomencl use the list and you can definitely customize acro or glossaries to use it. Here's a way with acro:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{scrextend}% only if you don't use a KOMA-Script class
\usepackage{acro}

\newenvironment{myacrolist}
  {\labeling[---]{\hspace*{4em}}}% choose length for widest label
  {\endlabeling}
\acsetup{list-type=myacrolist}

\DeclareAcronym{pressure}{
  short = \ensuremath{P} ,
  long  = pressure ,
  sort  = pressure
}
\DeclareAcronym{viscosity}{
  short = \ensuremath{\eta} ,
  long  = viscosity ,
  sort  = viscosity
}
\DeclareAcronym{therm-conduct}{
  short = \ensuremath{\lambda(P,T)} ,
  long  = thermal conductivity ,
  sort  = conductivity thermal
}
\begin{document}

\acuseall
\printacronyms[name=Nomenclature]

\end{document}

score 11 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '17 at 17:56

11

There are many ways, the following uses a simple tabular (for more than one page, package longtable can be used):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{@{}>{$}l<{$}@{ --- }l@{}}
 p & pressure \\
 \eta & viscosity \\
 \lambda(P,T) & thermal conductivity \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Remarks:

The dash symbol is added in the tabular's preamble between the first and second column.
Math mode is enabled for the first column with the help of package array and its specification with > and >.

edited Jun 12 '17 at 17:56

Moriambar

11,466

answered Jul 19 '13 at 10:14

Heiko Oberdiek

271,626

You should probably use p{<width>} column type if you have quite long descriptors. – Martin - マーチン Jul 19 '13 at 10:17
1

@Martin: Or X of package tabularx (or its combinations with longtable. – Heiko Oberdiek Jul 19 '13 at 10:33

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 15 '17 at 05:10

6

You can capture this using table. See below:

\begin{tabular}{llp{.7\textwidth}}
$P$ &---& pressure\\
$\eta$ &---& viscosity\\
$\lambda(P,T)$ &---& thermal conductivity\\
\end{tabular}

Note: I have edited the answer to include p{<width>} for long sentences.

edited Jul 15 '17 at 05:10

ShreevatsaR

45,428
10
117
149

answered Jul 19 '13 at 10:11

Jagath

4,287

Thx for the answer, I used the variant with tabular, and it works well for short descriptions. Unfortunately I have a long sentences and it doesn't fit to the page and some of them are staying to far from the first symbol. How can I move part of this senteces to the new line with no indent? – anatoly Jul 19 '13 at 11:48
@anatoly you'll need for example a p{<width>} type column, see the array documentation for details. – cgnieder Jul 19 '13 at 11:50
@cgnieder: I have updated the answer as well. – Jagath Jul 19 '13 at 13:06

align list of symbols with dash

3 Answers3

Linked