cells not centering after multicell

Question

I'm trying to create a tabular with all the cells centered. I have found a way to make this possible but all the cells have to contain:

\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{"Text"}

Is there a way to center the text without the need to add the multicolumn command everywhere?

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{a4wide}      
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}     
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{makecell}
\usepackage{slashbox}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[H]
\centering
\begin{tabular}    {|c|p{.7\textwidth/5}|p{.7\textwidth/5}|p{.7\textwidth/5}|p{.7\textwidth/5}|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{\backslashbox{Distance [m]}{Module}} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Range Test [dBm]} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Throughput Test [Kbps]}\\\cline{2-5}
   & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{A-B} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{A-C} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{A-B} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{A-C} \\\cline{1-5}
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{10} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{•} & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{15} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{20} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{25} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{30} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{35} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{40} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{45} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\multicolumn{1}{|c|}{50} & • & • & • & • \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular} 
\end{table}

\end{document}

when I try and use only centered cells I get the issue that the cells are not equally sized.

Maybe https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/12703/35864 can help you. The accepted answer shows how to define fixed-width (like p{...}) centred (like c) columns. — moewe, Mar 13 '19 at 09:28
Thank you for your comment. The point is that I would rather not hardcode the size of the cells and keep this variable. — BobLee, Mar 13 '19 at 09:31
Currently you are hard-coding the size with p{.7\textwidth/5}, so I thought that is what you are after. If you want automatic sizing you may want to look into tabularx (https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/89166/35864) or tabulary. — moewe, Mar 13 '19 at 09:33
Yes when i remove that and exchange it with 'c' I get the issue that the cells aren't distributed evenly. — BobLee, Mar 13 '19 at 09:43
The question I linked (https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/12703/35864) shows how to define fixed-width centred columns. You would have \newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\let\newline\\\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}} and would then use C{.7\textwidth/5} instead of p{.7\textwidth/5} or c. — moewe, Mar 13 '19 at 09:46
So you mean that I either have to choose between having a fixed size with center or a non defined size without center? — BobLee, Mar 13 '19 at 10:02
No, I'm saying if you follow the link (or use the code I reproduced in my comment above) you don't have to choose, you can have both. (It is just not available out of the box.) — moewe, Mar 13 '19 at 10:03

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 13 '19 at 11:05

Here a much shorter code:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
%\usepackage{a4wide}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{makecell}
%\usepackage{slashbox}
\usepackage{diagbox}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[H]
\centering\setlength{\extrarowheight}{2pt}
\begin{tabular} {|c|*{4}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{.7\textwidth/5}|}}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{\diagbox[height=\dimexpr2\line +6pt]{Distance \rlap{{[m]}}}{Module}} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Range Test [dBm]} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Throughput Test [Kbps]}\\[2pt]\cline{2-5}
   & A-B & A-C & A-B & A-C \\\cline{1-5}
10 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
15
 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
20 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
25 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
30 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
35 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
40 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
 45 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
50 & • & • & • & • \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '21 at 20:26

Here is how you can construct that table with {NiceTabular} of nicematrix.

 \documentclass{article}
 \usepackage{nicematrix}
 \usepackage{float}
\begin{document}
 \begin{table}[H]
 \centering\setlength{\extrarowheight}{2pt}
 \begin{NiceTabular}{w{c}{3cm}*{4}{w{c}{0.14\textwidth}}}[hvlines]
 \Block{2-1}{\diagbox{Distance [m]}{Module}} & \Block{1-2}{Range Test [dBm]} && \Block{1-2}{Throughput Test [Kbps]}\
    & A-B & A-C & A-B & A-C \
 10 & • & • & • & • \
 15 & • & • & • & • \
 20 & • & • & • & • \
 25 & • & • & • & • \
 30 & • & • & • & • \
 35 & • & • & • & • \
 40 & • & • & • & • \
 45 & • & • & • & • \
 50 & • & • & • & • \
 \end{NiceTabular}
 \end{table}
\end{document}

You need several compilations (because nicematrix uses PGF/Tikz nodes under the hood).

Zarko · Answer 3 · 2019-03-13T10:59:07.407

text in your columns is not centered since you prescribe p{...} column type. as mentioned in comments to your question you should modify column type to:

>{\centerng\arraybackslash}p{<column width>}

However, I would not use slashbox for first cell in table and for table I would use tabularx table environment and equal width in all columns:

Also I would remove all unnecessary multicolumns:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{a4wide}
%\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{mathtools}
%\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{array, makecell, multirow, tabularx}
%\usepackage{slashbox}

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[htb]
    \centering
    \renewcommand\arraystretch{1.2}
\begin{tabularx}{0.7\linewidth}{| c | *{4}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X|}}
    \hline
    & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{Module}            \\
    \cline{2-5}
\multirow{3}{=}{\centering  Distance [m]}
    & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Range Test [dBm]}
                                & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Throughput Test [Kbps]}   \\
    \cline{2-5}
   &  A-B   &   A-C &   A-B & A-C        \\
   \cline{1-5}
10  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
15  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
20  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
25  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
30  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
35  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
40  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
45  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
50  &   •   &   •   &   •   & •         \\
    \hline
\end{tabularx}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

Thank you for your comment. When I copy your code and paste it in my working document I don't get the same results. I get the error " X Columns too narrow (table too wide)" it looks like the distance column is the size of the page and the others are slapped against it on the right. — BobLee, Mar 13 '19 at 10:23
@DylanBeijersbergen: You can try with \multirow{3}{*}{\centering Distance [m]} & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{Module} \\ \cline{2-5} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Range Test [dBm]}... — leandriis, Mar 13 '19 at 10:31
I get the error that the last cell on the right is slightly larger then the rest. https://i.stack.imgur.com/fpJvo.png — BobLee, Mar 13 '19 at 10:38
@DylanBeijersbergen, to your preamble I only add the package tabularx. if your real document has different page layout, than it can happen, that table has different size. try to increase the table environment width from 0.7\linewidth to for example 0.75\linewidth to even to \linewidth. — Zarko, Mar 13 '19 at 10:51

cells not centering after multicell

3 Answers3