# Proper centering with cmidrule and multi- row and column

The code below produces the following figure:

The issue I am having is that Sample is not vertically aligned, I get proper alignment if \cmidrule(l){2-3} \cmidrule(l){4-5} is removed.

How do I get proper alignment while maintaining the two horizontal lines?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]\centering
\begin{tabular}{lcccc}
\toprule
\multirow{2}{*}{Sample} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{I} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{II} \\
\cmidrule(l){2-3} \cmidrule(l){4-5}
& A & B & C & D \\
\midrule
S1 & 5 & 8 & 12 & 2 \\
S2 & 6 & 9 & 2 & 6 \\
S3 & 7 & 9 & 5 & 8 \\
S4 & 8 & 9 & 8 & 2 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

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Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. – karlkoeller Jan 27 '14 at 16:18
Off topic: I would use \cmidrule(lr) instead of \cmidrule(l). – Manuel Jan 27 '14 at 16:36

Use the optional argument of \multirow.

Substituting

\multirow{2}{*}{Sample}


with

\multirow{2}[3]{*}{Sample}


does what you want.

MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]\centering
\begin{tabular}{lcccc}
\toprule
\multirow{2}[3]{*}{Sample} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{I} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{II} \\
\cmidrule(lr){2-3} \cmidrule(lr){4-5}
& A & B & C & D \\
\midrule
S1 & 5 & 8 & 12 & 2 \\
S2 & 6 & 9 & 2 & 6 \\
S3 & 7 & 9 & 5 & 8 \\
S4 & 8 & 9 & 8 & 2 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}


Output:

Note that I've also changed \cmidrule(l) to \cmidrule(lr) for a better looking table, as suggested by Manuel in the comments.

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