Table multicolumn centering

Question

I wrote the following code for a table:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|} 
\hline
x & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{y} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz}  \\ 
\hline
  & t & w                  & h & f                                           \\ 
\hline
  &   &                    &   &                                             \\ 
\hline
  &   &                    &   &                                             \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

The result is :

How can I center the columns including "h" and "f" under the multi-column including "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"?

Actually, this is how I want it to be:

Thanks

Does this answer solve your question? (Of course, you'll need to replace bcbcbcbc with zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...) — Mico, Dec 23 '20 at 01:42
I'm not sure how I should change my code--I'm a beginner with tables and multicol/multirow — Ali, Dec 23 '20 at 01:53

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 23 '20 at 02:11

In order to adapt the code in this answer to your document, all you need to do is take the following three steps.

First, copy the following preamble code into your document:

\usepackage{calc}  % to ease performing of some calculations
\usepackage{array} % for 'w' column type
\newlength\lenA \newlength\lenB
% Retrieve the usable width of the combined header cell:
\settowidth\lenA{bcbcbcbc} 
% Compute the usable width of the underlying columns:
\setlength\lenB{(\lenA-2\tabcolsep-\arrayrulewidth)/2}

Next, change bcbcbcbc to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (or whatever the combined header of colums 4 and 5 may contain).

Finally, change

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}

to

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|w{c}{\lenB}|w{c}{\lenB}|}

The full MWE (minimum working example) and its associated output:

\documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{calc}  % to ease performing of some calculations
   \usepackage{array} % for 'w' column type
   \newlength\lenA \newlength\lenB
   % Retrieve the usable width of the combined header cell:
   \settowidth\lenA{zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz} % rather than &quot;bcbcbcbc&quot;
   % Compute the usable width of the underlying columns:
   \setlength\lenB{(\lenA-2\tabcolsep-\arrayrulewidth)/2} 


\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|w{c}{\lenB}|w{c}{\lenB}|} 
\hline
x & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{y} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz}  \ 
\hline
  & t & w                  & h & f                                           \ 
\hline
  &   &                    &   &                                             \ 
\hline
  &   &                    &   &                                             \
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

How professional your code is....Marvelous... – MadyYuvi Dec 23 '20 at 12:38 — MadyYuvi, Dec 23 '20 at 12:38

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 23 '20 at 09:10

The desired feature seems to be very natural, but unfortunately, it is not implemented in internal algorithm of TeX (i.e. in \halign primitive). So, we must to do more complicated macros with compromises if we want such feature. The accepted answer here (by Roland) gives bigger but fixed width of the h and f column. The Mico's answer does a measurement of big multispan, but it must be given outside the table. My solution does measurement inside the table. But we must know what columns will be affected by this problem and do some special settings in the table declaration.

Because I don't know LaTeX, I show the implementation using OpTeX, but the principles are similar. You can run this example by optex document. You can try to change the number of zzz or hhh and you can see, what happens.

\newdimen\bigpartw
\def\bigpart#1{\setbox0=\hbox{#1}\global\bigpartw=\wd0 \box0 }
\def\multipart#1#2;;{%
   \setbox0=\hbox{\ignorespaces #2\unskip}%
   \ifdim\wd0<#1\bigpartw \setbox0=\hbox to#1\bigpartw{\hss\unhbox0\hss}\fi
   \hss\box0\hss}
\table{|c|c|c|:(\multipart{0.5})c(;;)|:(\multipart{0.5})c(;;)|}{
   \crl
   x & \mspan2[c|]{y} & \mspan2[c|]{\bigpart{zzzzzzzzzzzzz} } \crl
     & t & w          &  hh &  f                              \crl
     & a & b          &  c  &  d                              \crl
}
\end

Roland · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-23T02:09:21.570

3

You may use tabularx:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\newcolumntype{A}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}
\begin{table}[htbp]
    \centering
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| c | c | c | A | A |}
        \hline
            x     & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{y} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz}   \ \hline
                  & t        & w      & h & f   \ \hline
                  &          &      &     &   \ \hline
    \end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

edited Dec 23 '20 at 02:09

answered Dec 23 '20 at 01:55

Roland

6,655

Did the OP want the first three columns to become wider as well? – Mico Dec 23 '20 at 02:00
I want them to be fit to the text I'll add in each cell. – Ali Dec 23 '20 at 02:02
Don´t know. I just though it looks nicer. – Roland Dec 23 '20 at 02:02
2

The column specs should be like this: \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| c | c | c | A | A |} .. – AboAmmar Dec 23 '20 at 02:04
@ Abo Ammar Yes – Roland Dec 23 '20 at 02:07
Thank you all for your great answers. – Ali Dec 23 '20 at 02:12

Table multicolumn centering

3 Answers3