How do I set right alignment in a longtable column with a fixed width?

Question

How do I set right alignment in a longtable column with a fixed width?

I have \begin{longtable}{p{3cm}p{8cm}}

and I'd like my first column to be aligned on the right.

Answer 1

You can define a new column as

\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{3cm}}

The MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{R}{>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash}p{6cm}}
%
\begin{document}
\begin{longtable}{Rp{8cm}}\toprule
 col1 & col2 \\\midrule
 \lipsum[1] & \lipsum[2]  \\ \bottomrule
\end{longtable}
\end{document}

PS. The package booktabs is used to get beautiful rules instead of \hline.