# Newline in a table cell which is centered

This question may look like a duplicate but, none of the answers given to the possible duplicates contain the answer to this specific case.

I have a tabular, say \begin{tabular}{ccc}. While adding a new line to a cell, I want both resulting lines to be horizontally centered. Is there an elegant solution to this? If not is there a solution to this?

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How about using \shortstack inside a cell?

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
one & two & three \\
one & two & \shortstack{a \\ bb \\ c}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

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Well, this worked like a charm, why didn't I see anyone mentioning this before? Simple, straightforward solution. –  nimcap Dec 20 '11 at 15:55
+1 for \shortstack. –  Philipp Dec 20 '11 at 16:11
+1 And to align the content, use \shortstack[r]{...} (r = right align, l = left align, c = center align). –  Rob W May 14 '12 at 10:52
Very cool, thanks! –  sharky Jul 17 '12 at 7:58
How to vertically align the content using \shortstack? –  hengxin Oct 26 '13 at 6:28

If you want the cells to be centered horizontally as well as vertically I suggest the following solution:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\newcommand{\bigcell}[2]{\begin{tabular}{@{}#1@{}}#2\end{tabular}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\toprule
a & \bigcell{c}{this schould be a longer line \\ this is a shorter one} & c \\
\midrule
0,9892 & 0,9892 & 0,9892  \\
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

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All answers given work, but I prefer this one as it gives adequate spacing at the top of a table cell (instead of touching the cells top line). –  Christopher Bull Jul 13 '14 at 11:11

This is an old thread, but there is a new solution.

\usepackage{makecell}
%% tablestart
...
\makecell{line 1 \\ line2}
%% tableend

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Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. –  Martin Schröder Sep 24 '14 at 12:07

Another way I discovered is to use matrix. Not as simple as Christian's answer but provides vertical alignment along columns.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
one & two & three \\
one & two & $\begin{matrix} \text{a} \\ \text{bb} \\ text{c} \end{matrix}$ \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

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You can also use \parbox like this:

\parbox[c][][c]{width}{\centering very long \\ line}


This has an advantage over \shortstack when also using \rowcolors to color table rows with alternating colors. \parbox results in a cell that has a single consistent color, and the next table row will have the alternative color. However, using \shortstack leads to two consecutive rows with the same color.

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