How to make really wide tables narrower

Question

Is there a way to fix extremely wide tables?

I have the following table:

\begin{tabular}{lllll}
            \toprule
                &  Manual Tests & Randoop 2.5 Minutes With GUI Code &  Randoop 2.5 Minutes Without GUI Code &  Randoop 5 Minutes Without GUI Code \\ \midrule
    \% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}

And it looks like so:

look

Is there a way to make the cells slimmer? If relevant I am using scrreprt.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '11 at 17:56

You can use p{width} column type for a fixed column, text will wrap automatically. For example:

\begin{tabular}{*{5}{p{3cm}}}
\toprule
  &  Manual Tests & Randoop 2.5 Minutes With GUI Code &  Randoop 2.5 Minutes Without GUI Code &  Randoop 5 Minutes Without GUI Code \\ \midrule
\% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

You can also use \shortstack and use \\ for manual line break. For example:

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\toprule
  &  Manual Tests & \shortstack{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ With GUI Code} &  \shortstack{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} &  \shortstack{Randoop 5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} \\ \midrule
\% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\shortstack here can be replaced by a small tabular envronment, for better vertical alignment:

\newcommand{\minitab}[2][c]{\begin{tabular}{#1}#2\end{tabular}}

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\toprule
  &  Manual Tests & \minitab{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ With GUI Code} &  \minitab{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} &  \minitab{Randoop 5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} \\ \midrule
\% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Furthermore, you can use makecell package for more flexible commands. \shortstack or \minitab can be replaced by \makecell, \thead etc.

% \usepackage{makecell}
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
\toprule
  &  Manual Tests & \thead{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ With GUI Code} &  \thead{Randoop 2.5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} &  \thead{Randoop 5 Minutes\\ Without GUI Code} \\ \midrule
\% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Thank you. That makecell package did the trick. – Tiago Veloso Feb 10 '11 at 18:07 — Tiago Veloso, Feb 10 '11 at 18:07

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '11 at 17:58

You could break lines in wide cells. For this you could use p cells instead of l, such as p{2cm}.

I recommend

Using the tabularx package to adjust the table to the text width
Using features of the array package to insert commands into the column definition
Getting better breaks in cells by ragged2e
Loading microtype for finer automatic justification
Using booktabs of course, you do it already as I can see.

It's a bit much to tell - just check out the package documentation.

Here's a quick example for your table:

\documentclass{scrreprt}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{microtype}
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\RaggedRight}X}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\RaggedRight}p{#1}}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{P{2.5cm}lYYY}
\toprule
    &  Manual Tests & Randoop 2.5 Minutes With GUI Code &  Randoop 2.5 Minutes Without GUI Code &  Randoop 5 Minutes Without GUI Code \\ \midrule
    \% Covered Instructions &  \textbf{82.40\%} &  21.25\% &  21.30\% &  \textbf{22.10\%} \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

enter image description here

In this example, how would you vertically align the Manual Tests Cell? — Tiago Veloso, Feb 19 '11 at 19:38
@Tiago: Take a look at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/7208/how-to-vertically-center-the-text-of-the-cells — doncherry, Aug 31 '11 at 15:34

How to make really wide tables narrower

2 Answers2