How to improve table code?

Question

I am trying to write a tex code that output a table like below:

I wrote the following code:

    \newcounter{NumberReqF}
    \newcommand{\ReqF}{\stepcounter{NumberReqF}\theNumberReqF ~- }
    \newcounter{NumberReqNF}[NumberReqF]
    \newcommand{\ReqNF}{\stepcounter{NumberReqNF}\theNumberReqF .\theNumberReqNF ~- }

        \setcounter{NumberReqF}{0}
        \setcounter{NumberReqNF}{0}
        \noindent \begin{table}[h!]
            \begin{tabular}{|p{0.40\columnwidth}|p{0.15\columnwidth}|p{0.15\columnwidth}|c|c|}
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{3}{|p{0.70\columnwidth}|}{\ReqF Requisito Funcional} & \multicolumn{2}{p{0.30\columnwidth}|}{Oculto ()}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{5}{|p{\columnwidth}|}{Aqui vai a descrição do requisito funcional, falando como ele funciona e tal mais algo. Pra testa o espaço vo coloca mais esse text pra que veja como a tabela se comporta}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{5}{|p{\columnwidth}|}{\centering Requisitos Não-Funcionais}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                Nome & Restrição & Categoria & Desejável & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{Permanente}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \ReqNF nome do resquisito não-funcional &  &  &  & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \ReqNF nome do resquisito não-funcional &  &  &  & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{}\tabularnewline
                \hline
            \end{tabular}
        \end{table}

it outputs:

But the code is so complex How could I improve it? Making it easy to read, write new rows. I intend to add many table like it. I was thinking about create a new command also but I have no idea how.

Answer 1

First some general notes:

Try to avoid doing this [h!] even with the ! it restricts the places where latex can place the float.

Don't put \noindent before the \begin{table} it needs to go (if anywhere) before \begin{tabular}

Your table was overfull and generated warnings \columnwidth Overfull \hbox (47.99474pt too wide) because it had full width entries which were then surrounded by rules and inter-column space, so making it wider than full width.

Several entries I suspect can be one line so use \multicolumn{1}{c|} rather than p columns

the last column is c already but you had several entries \multicolumn{1}{c|} resetting it to c.

In the following I have used the tabularx package to do some of the width calcuations, and the calc package to make taking account of the array rules easier.

Maybe something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
 \newcounter{NumberReqF}
    \newcommand{\ReqF}{\stepcounter{NumberReqF}\theNumberReqF ~- }
    \newcounter{NumberReqNF}[NumberReqF]
    \newcommand{\ReqNF}{\stepcounter{NumberReqNF}\theNumberReqF .\theNumberReqNF ~- }

        \setcounter{NumberReqF}{0}
        \setcounter{NumberReqNF}{0}

\usepackage{tabularx,calc}
\newcolumntype{Y}[1]{>{\setlength\hsize{#1\hsize}%
                       \raggedright\arraybackslash}X}
\newcolumntype{F}{|p{\columnwidth-2\tabcolsep-2\arrayrulewidth}|}
\setlength\extrarowheight{2pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\columnwidth}{|Y{0.5}|Y{0.25}|Y{0.25}|c|c|}
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{3}{|l|}{\ReqF Requisito Funcional} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{Oculto ()}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{5}{F}{Aqui vai a descrição do requisito funcional, falando como ele funciona e tal mais algo. Pra testa o espaço vo coloca mais esse text pra que veja como a tabela se comporta}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \multicolumn{5}{|c|}{Requisitos Não-Funcionais}\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                Nome & Restrição & Categoria & Desejável & Permanente\tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \ReqNF nome do resquisito não-funcional &  &  &  & \tabularnewline
                \hline 
                \ReqNF nome do resquisito não-funcional &  &  &  &\tabularnewline
                \hline
            \end{tabularx}
        \end{table}


\end{document}