How to add extra spaces between rows in tabular environment?

Question

I couldn't find any option that lets me expand the vertical space between rows in tabular environment. For example,

\begin{tabular}{c c}
    $f^{(n)}(x)$ & $f^{(n)}(0)$ \\
    $-2xe^{-x^{x^{x^2}}}$ & 0 
\end{tabular}

This looks awkward because of the powers of x. I wonder if there is an option to expand the vertical spaces between these rows?

Answer 1

You have at least three options here:

• Increasing the array stretch factor using \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{<factor>} where <factor> is a numeric value:

  \documentclass{article}
  \begin{document}
  \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{2}
  \begin{tabular}{c c}
    $f^{(n)}(x)$ & $f^{(n)}(0)$ \\\hline
    $-2xe^{-x^{x^{x^2}}}$ & 0
  \end{tabular}
  \end{document}
  

  

• Explicitly specifying the row skip using \\[<len>] where <len> is any length:

  \documentclass{article}
  \begin{document}
  \begin{tabular}{c c}
    $f^{(n)}(x)$ & $f^{(n)}(0)$ \\[1cm] \hline
    $-2xe^{-x^{x^{x^2}}}$ & 0
  \end{tabular}
  \end{document}
  

  

• Modifying the array package's \extrarowheight length using \setlength{\extrarowheight}{<len>}, where <len> is any length:

  \documentclass{article}
  \usepackage{array}% http://ctan.org/pkg/array
  \begin{document}
  \setlength{\extrarowheight}{20pt}
  \begin{tabular}{c c}
    $f^{(n)}(x)$ & $f^{(n)}(0)$ \\\hline
    $-2xe^{-x^{x^{x^2}}}$ & 0
  \end{tabular}
  \end{document}
  

  

In the above examples, the \hline was used to illustrate the effect of the different styles used. The choice depends on the specific usage/typesetting of the tabular within your document.

Finally, if the contents of your entire tabular is math, you could typeset it in an array environment:

\[
  \begin{array}{c c}
    f^{(n)}(x) & f^{(n)}(0) \\
    -2xe^{-x^{x^{x^2}}} & 0
  \end{array}
\]