LaTeX not recognizing \end found in a \newcommand

Question

I'm trying to both start and end a table with \newcommand. I'd like to switch to using \EndTableSetupFourColumns (as it removes several warnings and is easier to understand for other readers) but for some reason LaTeX does not seem to recognize the \end{tabu} found within, so I have to insert it manually as seen below.

This problem seems to be limited to tabu - when I was using tabulars I did not have this issue. I looked through the tabu documentation and could not find anything that would indicate this wouldn't work.

Looking at \end{tabu} in \newcommand shows that it won't work, however, it is something I'd like to work around for code readability, if nothing else.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{longtable,tabu}

\newcommand{\TableSetupFourColumns}{%
\rowcolors{2}{gray!25}{white}
\begin{tabu} to \textwidth {lccX}
    \rowcolor{gray!50}}

\newcommand{\EndTableSetupFourColumns}{%
\end{tabu}}

\begin{document}

\section{Test 1}
This is text.\par \noindent
\TableSetupFourColumns
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
\end{tabu}
%\EndTableSetupFourColumns

\end{document}

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 09 '17 at 19:22

6

tabu needs to "see" \end{tabu}; it cannot be hidden in a macro. You're better served by defining a new environment:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{longtable,tabu}

\newenvironment{tabu4}
  {\rowcolors{2}{gray!25}{white}
   \begin{tabu} to \textwidth {lccX}
   \rowcolor{gray!50}}
  {\end{tabu}}

\begin{document}

\section{Test 1}
This is text.

\medskip

\noindent
\begin{tabu4}
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
    Test            & test  & test  & test\\
\end{tabu4}

\end{document}

enter image description here

edited Jun 09 '17 at 19:22

David Carlisle

757,742

answered Apr 23 '13 at 15:13

egreg

1,121,712

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. However, when I perform the same with longtabu I'm getting a Misplaced \cr error at each \end tag.
I'll see if I can get a MNWE of that up.
– JuniorIncanter Apr 23 '13 at 20:43
1

@LearningLaTeX I'm afraid that longtabu is a different matter. – egreg Apr 23 '13 at 20:44
Well that would explain my issue. Can I not perform this with longtabu at all then? Would using \newcommand work for longtabu, or could I get it working with \newenvironment? – JuniorIncanter Apr 23 '13 at 20:49
@LearningLaTeX If in the example I change tabu4 to longtabu4 and tabu in the definition to longtabu, I don't have any problem. – egreg Apr 23 '13 at 20:51
Yeah, it seems to be an interaction between my fancyhdr's \fancyhead and \fancyfoot when the table is big enough to span more than one page. I've got a MNWE that I'll post if I can't figure out how to fix it myself. – JuniorIncanter Apr 24 '13 at 13:54
For reference, I was running into the issues found here (as well as the solution): http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/49622/longtabu-and-scrpage2-line-breaks-in-page-header-cause-compilation-errors – JuniorIncanter Apr 24 '13 at 14:10

LaTeX not recognizing \end found in a \newcommand

1 Answers1