# Making a nice table

I have made following table which is not looking elegant. Could anybody help me in making it more better. Following is the tex code that I have used.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{amsmath, times, amsfonts, mathrsfs, amssymb}
\usepackage{amsmath, times, amsfonts, mathrsfs, amssymb}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\small \caption{\small Computation of number of iterations and error norms for Example 4.2:}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c}
\hline
Value of $\beta$ &  $k$  & $\|A^{-1} - X_{k}\|_2$ & $\|X_k - X_{k-1}\|_2$   \\ [0.3ex] % inserts table
&  & & &   &  & \\
%
\hline
0.9  & 0  &  0.489897948556636  & 0.462668212869655  \\
& 1 &   0.044911860348910 & 0.044385148438250 \\
& 2 &  6.418447480230614e-004 & 6.417891668548070e-004  \\
& 3 &   5.683044758299918e-008 &   5.683044739894235e-008  \\
& 4 &   1.861900614935455e-016 &   1.861900614935455e-016  \\
& 5 &   0 &   0 \\  [1ex]
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:nonlin}
\end{table}
\end{document}


-
Are the 15 digits all significant? –  egreg May 5 '13 at 19:01
@egreg Ya they are significant. I have to use them. –  srijan May 5 '13 at 19:02
I told you, that 15th digit was a 8 not an 9, your fired. –  Nicholas Hamilton May 5 '13 at 20:20

This seems a job for booktabs and siunitx. The first provides good horizontal rules with appropriate spacing, the second is specialized in typesetting numbers with or without units of measure.

Type S columns make alignments at the decimal point; one can specify the number format:

table-format=1.15


means one digit for the integer part and 15 for the fractional part;

table-figures-exponent=2


means "keep two digits for the exponent";

table-sign-exponent=true


means that the exponent can be negative.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts,mathrsfs,amssymb}
\usepackage{newtxtext,newtxmath} % better than "times"
\usepackage{booktabs} % pretty tables
\usepackage{siunitx}  % number formatting

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[htbp]
\centering\small

\caption{Computation of number of iterations and error norms for Example 4.2}
\medskip

\begin{tabular}{
c
c
*{2}{
S[table-format=1.15,
table-figures-exponent=2,
table-sign-exponent=true]
}
}
\toprule
Value of $\beta$ &
$k$ &
{$\|A^{-1} - X_{k}\|_2$} &
{$\|X_k - X_{k-1}\|_2$} \\
\midrule
0.9 & 0 &  0.489897948556636      & 0.462668212869655      \\
& 1 &  0.044911860348910      & 0.044385148438250      \\
& 2 &  6.418447480230614e-004 & 6.417891668548070e-004 \\
& 3 &  5.683044758299918e-008 & 5.683044739894235e-008 \\
& 4 &  1.861900614935455e-016 & 1.861900614935455e-016 \\
& 5 &  0                      & 0                      \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\label{table:nonlin}
\end{table}
\end{document}


-
Thanks for the answer. When I am running tex code It is saying Enter file name. –  srijan May 5 '13 at 19:40
The table-format option is just a wrapper/parser for various table- keys, one can also use table-format=1.15e-2. –  Qrrbrbirlbel May 5 '13 at 19:41
@srijan What file doesn't LaTeX find? –  egreg May 5 '13 at 19:43
I get ERROR: Package xkeyval Error: "table-format" undefined in families "key". I get the same with the two others as well. However, @srijan could also get ERROR: LaTeX Error: File "newtxtext.sty" not found. –  Pål GD May 5 '13 at 21:58
@PålGD I'm afraid you have an outdated TeX distribution –  egreg May 5 '13 at 22:03