Using tabularx, multirow, and parbox for line-wrapping

Question

I am using a multirow inside a tabularx, but because the multirow doesn't wrap, I am putting the multirow's text inside a parbox environment:

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}XX@{}} \toprule
blah & \multirow{2}{*}{\parbox{\columnwidth}{blah}} \\
blah & \\
\end{tabularx}

What should I put as the parbox's width so that it responds to the column width that tabularx chooses?

Answer 1

\linewidth, since that will be the width of the column as adjusted by tabularx's X-column. Here's an example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,multirow,booktabs}% http://ctan.org/pkg/{tabularx,multirow,booktabs}
\begin{document}
\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}XX@{}} \toprule
blah & \multirow{2}{*}{\setlength{\fboxsep}{-\fboxrule}\fbox{\parbox{\linewidth}{blah}}} \\
blah & \\
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Contrary to belief, \columnwidth does not span the width of a table column.

Answer 2

\multirow would linewrap if you passed a length rather than *

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,multirow,booktabs}% http://ctan.org/pkg/{tabularx,multirow,booktabs}
\begin{document}
\def\blah{blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah}

\noindent\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}XX@{}} \toprule
\blah & \multirow{2}{\linewidth}{\blah \blah} \\
\blah & \\
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}