# Adding space between columns in a table

I notice that the space between each column of a table in LaTeX is not quite wide (at least for me). Is there any way to set this? I found the \hspace, but I don't get how to use this in the table.

• @Stefan: exactly the same as yours, sorry for not posting it :) Well I found something bit more general. If we want that this \tabcolsep changed everywhere, we can do \renewcommand{\tabcolsep}{0.15cm}
– zfm
Apr 24, 2011 at 22:40
• @zfm: No, \renewcommand{\tabcolsep}{...} is definitely wrong; the correct way is with \setlength. Apr 24, 2011 at 22:55
• @egreg: that's wrong? why? when I try it, I see that the space between column is added
– zfm
Apr 25, 2011 at 8:23
• @zfm: Yes. \tabcolsep is not a command like \section: it's a parameter which has a value and changing its meaning with \renewcommand might break a package trying to set its value with the correct method. Apr 25, 2011 at 10:52
• Duplicate (more comprehensive): Column and row padding in tables
– Werner
Feb 2, 2015 at 19:22

The parameter to act on is \tabcolsep, whose value is usually 6pt. So

\setlength{\tabcolsep}{12pt}


will double the intercolumn space. The parameter stores half the space between columns: in LaTeX each column is preceded and followed by a horizontal space \tabcolsep wide.

• In my case \tabcolsep is by default 2pt but this may be the \documentclass{revtex}. Oct 21, 2020 at 19:30
• +1 so it's 200 :) Aug 23, 2021 at 1:47

You can add space by inserting @{\hskip whatever} between the column specifiers, as in

\begin{tabular}{l@{\hskip 1in}c@{\hskip 0.5in}c}
One&Two& Three\\
Four& Five& Six
\end{tabular}


Actually, you can add whatever you like between the columns in place of the usual intercolumn space, e.g.,

\begin{tabular}{l@{ or }c@{\hskip 0.5in}c}
One&Two& Three\\
Four& Five& Six
\end{tabular}

• Really interesting, thanks. For anyone else, if discovered: \hskip defines the horizontal space, it is not additional to any other measure. E.g. @{\hskip -0.1cm} produces a bad output (just test it). Aug 5, 2013 at 13:13
• doesn't play well with \rowcolor... May 5, 2018 at 9:52
• Note that this overrides the default space setting, so {l@{\hskip 0in}c} means no space between the l and the c column. May 23, 2018 at 15:30
• doesn't play nice with multicolumn for me, not sure what the issue is Apr 5, 2019 at 14:02

If you need to adjust the spacing for just one table you could also add/remove some space before the table and restore previous value after it:

\addtolength{\tabcolsep}{-1pt}
\begin{tabular}{cc}
text & text
\end{tabular}

• In my opinion, this seems better-suited as a comment.
– Werner
May 24, 2015 at 12:14
• this was pretty helpful for me just now actually, nice one
– baxx
Oct 17, 2015 at 15:34
• If you need to adjust the spacing for just one table you could put your code into curly braces and the change will affect just the table that is inside { \setlength{\tabcolsep}{12pt} \begin{tabular}{cc} ..... } May 17, 2018 at 11:59

You can adjust the length \tabcolsep, for example:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{cc}
text & text
\end{tabular}
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{3em}

\begin{tabular}{cc}
text & text
\end{tabular}
\end{document}


\tabcolsep is the space which is inserted before and after a column. Note, this means that the space between two columns is 2\tabcolsep.

• @stefan How can I specify a particlular tabcolsep for only one column using pgfplotstabletypeset Aug 26, 2013 at 0:54
• @ADP It seems like this could be posted as a new question, since this question is not about one column only and not related to pgfplots. Aug 26, 2013 at 7:09

If you need a more natural and flexible way to adjust space between rows or columns in tables, you may try tabularray package. You can use colsep (also leftsep and rightsep) and rowsep (also abovesep and belowsep) options with tblr environment.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabularray}

\begin{document}

\begin{tblr}{
hlines, vlines,
rows = {rowsep=8pt},
columns = {colsep=8pt},
}
Alpha   & Beta  & Gamma  & Delta \\
Epsilon & Zeta  & Eta    & Theta \\
Iota    & Kappa & Lambda & Mu    \\
\end{tblr}

\bigskip

\begin{tblr}{
hlines, vlines,
row{1} = {abovesep=1pt,belowsep=10pt},
column{2} = {leftsep=1pt,rightsep=10pt},
}
Alpha   & Beta  & Gamma  & Delta \\
Epsilon & Zeta  & Eta    & Theta \\
Iota    & Kappa & Lambda & Mu    \\
\end{tblr}

\end{document}