Formatting table

Question

I have a table that is created with the following code:

\begin{table}[htdp]
\caption{Comparison of Elements in Air on the Space Station and sea level on Earth}    
\centering
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
Chemical Component & Percentage in Earth's Atomsphere & Ideal Values for the Space Station &         Astronaut Exhalation\\ \hline
Nitrogen      & 78.084\% & 78.000\% & 74.200\% \\ \hline
Oxygen        & 20.946\% & 21.000\% & 15.300\% \\ \hline
Argon         & 0.934\%  &  0.000\% & 0.000\% \\ \hline
Carbon Dioxide& 0.033\%  &  0.000\% & 3.600\% \\ \hline
Water Vapour  & 0.030\%  &  1.000\% & 0.800\% \\ \hline
Trace Elements& 0.003\%  &  0.000\% & 0.800\% \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\label{default}
\end{table}

But it sticks over the page so how could i format it so that it fits on a page in portrait mode not landscape.

Answer 1

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,ragged2e}
\newcolumntype{x}{>{\Centering}X}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htdp]
\caption{Comparison of Elements in Air on the Space Station and sea level on Earth}\label{default}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{|>{\RaggedRight}p{2.5cm}|x|x|x|}\hline
Chemical Component & Percentage in Earth's Atomsphere & Ideal Values for the Space Station & Astronaut Exhalation\\ \hline
Nitrogen      & 78.084\% & 78.000\% & 74.200\% \\ \hline
Oxygen        & 20.946\% & 21.000\% & 15.300\% \\ \hline
Argon         & 0.934\%  &  0.000\% &  0.000\% \\ \hline
Carbon Dioxide& 0.033\%  &  0.000\% &  3.600\% \\ \hline
Water Vapour  & 0.030\%  &  1.000\% &  0.800\% \\ \hline
Trace Elements& 0.003\%  &  0.000\% &  0.800\% \\ \hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}

btw: the vertical lines do not make a table more readable ...

Answer 2

To learn about table design in general, I cannot praise the documentation of the booktabs package enough (see a before-and-after example from the documentation below). For your problem at hand, I would suggest to either come up with shorter column titles or to break them into several lines. This problem has been discussed as How to break a line in a table.

In another answer Alan Munn has formatted the table from the question using the booktabs package and solved the problem how to break the column titles into two lines. I find it close to perfection.

Answer 3

Use the array package to have better control over table column specifications. Your problem is caused by the length of your column headings; you need to have specified widths but still centred titles. It's generally not advisable to have vertical lines in tables, nor to put the units (here '%') in each cell (they should go in the column heading). Given that all your numeric values are decimals, you also want to line up the decimal points. A right justified column can do this, but the dcolumn package provides more flexibility. As Christian mentions, the `booktabs package is the gold standard here.

Here's a version of your table using these principles.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs,array,dcolumn}

\newcolumntype{d}{D{.}{.}{2.3}}
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering}p}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htdp]
\caption{Comparison of Elements in Air on the Space Station and sea level on Earth}    
\centering
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{p{1.25in}ddd}
\toprule
\multicolumn{1}{C{1.25in}}{Chemical Component} & \multicolumn{1}{C{1in}}{Earth's Atmosphere (\%)} & \multicolumn{1}{C{1.25in}}{Ideal Values for the Space Station (\%)} &         \multicolumn{1}{C{1in}}{Astronaut Exhalation (\%)}\\
\midrule
Nitrogen & 78.084 & 78.000 & 74.200 \\
Oxygen & 20.946 & 21.000 & 15.300 \\
Argon & 0.934 & 0.000 & 0.000 \\
Carbon Dioxide & 0.033 & 0.000 & 3.600 \\
Water Vapour & 0.030 & 1.000 & 0.800 \\
Trace Elements & 0.003 & 0.000 & 0.800 \\ 
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\label{default}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 4

I could feel my \halign-sense tingling. Mainly to highlight one other recommendation; to always left-align everything (or at least give you an idea how'd that look). But also the other option of splitting the column-heading row to two rows. It might not feel such a good idea, but the one thing going for it, is the lack of manually declared column widths. I should probably point out that some of the following is borderline heresy.

\vbox{\openup.4em% make the row separating space a bit bigger
  \def\title#1&{\omit#1\hfil&}% omit the preamble formatting + left-align
  \def\decsplit#1.#2 {\quad\llap{#1}.\rlap{#2}}% quad = 2*enspace; enspace = digit width
  % only thing "seen" is the decimal point itself
  \hrule height 1pt \medskip
  \halign{#\hfil\tabskip1em&&\decsplit#\hfil\cr
    \title Chemical&\title Earth's&\title Ideal Values for the&\title Astronaut\cr
    \noalign{\vskip-.4em}% make the gap between header rows smaller
    \title Component&\title Athmosphere (\%)&\title Space Station (\%)&\title Exhalation (\%)\cr
    \noalign{\smallskip\hrule\medskip}
    Nitrogen      &78.084 &78.000 &74.200 \cr
    Oxygen        &20.946 &21.000 &15.300 \cr
    Argon         & 0.934 & 0.000 & 0.000 \cr
    Carbon Dioxide& 0.033 & 0.000 & 3.600 \cr
    Water Vapour  & 0.030 & 1.000 & 0.800 \cr
    Trace Elements& 0.003 & 0.000 & 0.800 \cr
  }
  \medskip
  \hrule height 1pt
}

Answer 5

You should stack the long cell titles e.g. by manually placing them over several rows or using \shortstack:

\shortstack{Ideal Values\\for the\\Space Station}

You might want to add a \strut to the \\ to get a constant distance between the lines.