Simple way to have a table with a different number of columns in each row

Question

So my question is how would i go about presenting the following table of emails correctly so it displays the metadata in the first line and then the subject of the email in the lines following.

In crude ASCII diagram I would want it to look something like the following

[sender email        ] [Recipient email         ][Date       ]

[TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL ]

Below is the LaTeX code that needs adaptation.

\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ | p{3cm} | p{3cm} | p{3cm} | p{3cm} |} 
\hline
 Sender & Recipient & Date and Time Of Sending\\ 
\hline
\hline
   chkwasher@comcast.net & checkwashing@gmail.com & 6/31/2006 21:00\\  
\hline
 TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL \\
\hline
 \end{tabular}
 \end{center}

Welcome to [tex.se]! It looks like you are looking for the \multicolumn command. See e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/131867/15925 — Andrew Swann, Oct 01 '17 at 16:23
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score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 01 '17 at 16:37

I suggest you use a tabularx environment, along with a multicolumn{3}{...}{...} directive for the text of the email messages. To give the table a more "open" look, I would omit all vertical rules and employ fewer, but well-spaced horizontal rules.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs,ragged2e}
\usepackage[hyphens,spaces,obeyspaces]{url}
\newcommand\mc[1]{\multicolumn{3}{@{}>{\RaggedRight}p{\textwidth}@{}}{#1}}
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash\small}X}


\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} YYY @{}} 
\toprule
 Sender & Recipient & Date and Time of Sending\\ 
\midrule
\url{chkwasher@comcast.net} & \url{checkwashing@gmail.com} & 6/31/2006 21:00\\ 
\addlinespace
\mc{TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL 
    TEXT OF EMAIL TEXT OF EMAIL} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Simple way to have a table with a different number of columns in each row

1 Answers1