Add third column to acronym

Question

I am using the acronympackage for acronyms, symbols and constants in my report. I would like the list of constants to be slightly different than the other two lists. I want to use the \acroextra{} macro to add the value of the constants and to print them in a third column.

At the moment I have something like this:

\documentclass[10pt]{report}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[]{acronym}

\begin{document}
\large \textbf{Symbols}
\begin{acronym}[longest]
\acro{lam}[$\lambda$]{wavelength}
\acro{temp}[$T$]{Temperature}
\end{acronym}

\large \textbf{Constants}
\begin{acronym}[longest]
\acro{c}[$c$]{speed of light \acroextra{299 792 458 m/s}}
\acro{sig}[$\sigma$]{Stefan–Boltzmann constant \acroextra{$5.670367 10^{-8}$ W/(m$^2$K$^4$)}}
\end{acronym}

\vspace{1in}

Some text and acro calls
\end{document}

This gives:

I would like it result in something like this:

Can I make this work with a second width in the environment (\begin{acronym}[longest short][longest long]) or something? The values could also be right aligned if that is simpler.

Answer 1

You can use the \makebox[width][position]{text} command. The box contains your constants names. The width of the box is specified by the optional width argument. With position you can specify the position of text within the box with l (flushleft), r(flushright),... . The values can be placed after the box. For easier handling i put the box inside a newcommand like this:

\newcommand{\acrosecondcolumn}[1]{
      \acroextra{\makebox[55mm][l]{#1}}
    }

Example entry:

\acro{c}[A]{\acrosecondcolumn{B}C}

1.column: A ---whitespace--- 2.column: B ---whitespace--- 3.column: C

Solution:

MWE:

\documentclass[10pt]{report}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[]{acronym}

\newcommand{\acrosecondcolumn}[1]{
  \acroextra{\makebox[55mm][l]{#1}}
}

\begin{document}
\large \textbf{Symbols}
\begin{acronym}[longest]
\acro{lam}[$\lambda$]{wavelength}
\acro{temp}[$T$]{Temperature}
\end{acronym}

\large \textbf{Constants}
\begin{acronym}[longest]
\acro{c}[A]{\acrosecondcolumn{B}C}
\acro{c}[$c$]{\acrosecondcolumn{speed of light}299 792 458 m/s}
\acro{sig}[$\sigma$]{\acrosecondcolumn{Stefan–Boltzmann constant}$5.670367 10^{-8}$ W/(m$^2$K$^4$)}
\end{acronym}
\vspace{1in}
Some text and acro calls
\end{document}

Answer 2

A solution with glossaries package, which is a little bit more powerful than acronym considering its configurability and features.

Here, a new glossary with a special symbolvalue key is defined, it is a variation of my answer here to a similar question.

Make sure to run in this order (assuming the document is called foo.tex)

1. pdflatex foo
2. makeglossaries foo
3. pdflatex foo

---

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[nomain]{glossaries}              % use glossaries-package


\setlength{\glsdescwidth}{15cm}

\newglossary[slg]{symbolslist}{syi}{syg}{Symbolslist} % create add. symbolslist


\glsaddkey{symbolvalue}{\glsentrytext{\glslabel}}{\glsentrysymbolvalue}{\GLsentrysymbolvalue}{\glssymbolvalue}{\Glssymbolvalue}{\GLSsymbolvalue}
\glssetnoexpandfield{symbolvalue}

\makeglossaries                                   % activate glossaries-package


% ==== EXEMPLARY ENTRY FOR SYMBOLS LIST =========================================
\newglossaryentry{symb:Pi}{name=\ensuremath{\pi},
  description={Geometrical symbol},
  symbolvalue={},
  type=symbolslist
}

\newglossaryentry{planck}{
  name=\ensuremath{h},
  description={Planck's constant},
  symbolvalue={\SI{6,6d-34}{\joule\second}},
  type=symbolslist
}

\newglossaryentry{lightspeed}{
  name=\ensuremath{c},
  description={Speed of light},
  symbolvalue={\SI{299792432}{\meter/\second}},
  type=symbolslist
}





\newglossarystyle{symbsymbolvaluelong}{%
\setglossarystyle{long3col}% base this style on the list style
\renewenvironment{theglossary}{% Change the table type --> 3 columns
  \begin{longtable}{lp{0.6\glsdescwidth}>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}}%
  {\end{longtable}}%
\renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%  Change the table header
  \bfseries Sign & \bfseries Description & \bfseries Value \\
  \hline
  \endhead}
\renewcommand*{\glossentry}[2]{%  Change the displayed items
  \glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} %
  & \glossentrydesc{##1}% Description
  & \glssymbolvalue{##1}  \tabularnewline
}
}


\begin{document}
\glsaddall
\printglossary[type=symbolslist,style=symbsymbolvaluelong]   % list of symbols
\end{document}