# Multirows, multicolums and vertical centring in the tabu environment

I have a table, using the tabu environment, in which I would like multirow and multicolumn cells. Inside the cells, any content that doesn't vertically fill the cell should be vertically centred.

However, I can't seem to get it to behave sensibly - everything looks slightly jumbled and uncomfortable and some text spills over the cell boundaries.

I have tried to use X[-1,m] for every column in the column descriptor, without success.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{multirow}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Recommendations for treatment }

\begin{tabu} {X[-1]|X[-1]|X[-1]|X}
\hline
T1 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour.\\
\cline{2-4}
& N+ & $<2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour. Surgery to neck.\\
\cline{1-4}
T2 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  &  \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& N+ & $<2{cm}$ & \\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
\cline{1-4}
T3 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& N+ & $<2{cm}$ & \\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck. Postoperative radiotherapy in selected cases.\\
\cline{1-4}
T4 & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0} & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Surgery to the primary tumour and neck with planned postoperative radiotherapy to primary site, and to neck if indicated.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& N+ & $<2 {cm}$ & \\
& & $>2 {cm}$ &\\
\hline
\end{tabu}
\end{table}

\end{document}


Result is:

What is the "right" way to achieve this kind of result in tabu enviroments? Or should I be using a different environment?

Here's one possibility; instead of tabu I used the tabularx package; I set the last column to be \RaggedRight from the ragged2e package; to improve the vertical spacing I also redefined \arraystretch. For some of the cells, the second optional argument of \multirow was used to fine tune the position:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{multirow}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Recommendations for treatment}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.4}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth} {l|l|l|>{\RaggedRight}X}
\hline
\multirow{5}{*}[-1ex]{T1} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour.\\
\cline{2-4}
& \multirow{3}{*}[-1ex]{N+} & $<2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour. Surgery to neck.\\
\cline{1-4}
\multirow{3}{*}[-2ex]{T2} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  &  \multirow{2}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& \multirow{2}{*}{N+} & $<2{cm}$ & \\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck.\\
\cline{1-4}
\multirow{4}{*}[-2ex]{T3} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0}  & \multirow{2}{*}{\vbox{Radiotherapy or surgery to the primary tumour and neck.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& \multirow{3}{*}{N+} & $<2{cm}$ & \\
\cline{3-4}
&  & $>2{cm}$ & Surgery to the primary tumour and neck. Postoperative radiotherapy in selected cases.\\
\cline{1-4}
\multirow{3}{*}[-2ex]{T4} & \multicolumn{2}{l|}{N0} & \multirow{3}{*}{\vbox{Surgery to the primary tumour and neck with planned postoperative radiotherapy to primary site, and to neck if indicated.}}\\
\cline{2-3}
& \multirow{2}{*}{N+} & $<2 {cm}$ & \\
& & $>2 {cm}$ &\\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}


• Wonderful! Is there any way to vertically centrally align the "T1" and "N+" cells as well? Apr 29 '13 at 11:39