Move tabular entry to bottom of row

Question

How do I get the last column text to be at the bottom of the row?

That is I want the XXX to be aligned with the line containing the arrow.

I tried playing around with \multirow{3}{-3ex}{XXX}, but obviously I don't understand \multirow.

Code:

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

\begin{document}
    \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{l X p{1.3cm}}
        & Header & Title \\\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(lr){3-3}
        a. & Some text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 
            text text text text text text text text text text 
            Want XXX on this line $\rightarrow$%
         & XXX\\
    \end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Answer 1

(Edited answer, using different mechanism)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\makeatletter
\def\foo#1{\leavevmode
\expandafter\ifx\csname PDFSAVE#1\endcsname\relax
\expandafter\gdef\csname PDFSAVE#1\endcsname{0sp}%
\fi
\pdfsavepos\write\@auxout{\gdef\string\PDFSAVE#1{\the\pdflastypos}}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
    \noindent
    \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{l X p{1.3cm}}
        & Header & Title \\\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(lr){3-3}
        a. & \foo{a}Some text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 
            text text text text text text text text text text 
            Want XXX on this line $\rightarrow$\foo{b}%
         & \smash{\raisebox{\dimexpr\PDFSAVEb sp-\PDFSAVEa sp\relax}{XXX}}\\
    \end{tabularx}
\end{document}

---

The original answer moved the baseline of the X column to the bottom using

\renewcommand\tabularxcolumn[1]{b{#1}}

But that affects all X columns, and also makes the a. align on the bottom row. The latter problem could be fixed by moving the a. into the second column (with a hanging indent)

If you only want to change the alignment of some X columns in a table, then you can use:

>{\begin{minipage}[b]{\hsize}}X<{\end{minipage}} :-) 

Answer 2

If you want to play with \multirow, you can use the second optional argument, which is the "fixup", a length for fine tuning the position.

In your case it should be -2\baselineskip

MWE:

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

\begin{document}
    \noindent
    \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{l X p{1.3cm}}
        & Header & Title \\\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(lr){3-3}
        a. & Some text text text text text text text text text text text text text text
            text text text text text text text text text text
            Want XXX on this line $\rightarrow$%
         & \multirow{1}{*}[-2\baselineskip]{XXX}\\
    \end{tabularx}
\end{document} 

Output:

Answer 3

Depending on the type of content associated with XXX, the following is an easy way of obtain the bottom-alignment that doesn't require knowledge of the preceding column entries:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}[t]{l X p{1.3cm}}
  & Header & Title \\\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(lr){3-3}
  a. & Some text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 
      text text text text text text text text text text 
      Want XXX on this line $\rightarrow$
   & \\[-\normalbaselineskip] && XXX
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Idea: Set XXX on its own line, but overlaid with the bottom of the previous line using \\[-\normalbaselineskip].

Answer 4

Here is a solution with {NiceTabularX} of nicematrix and its built-in command \Block.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}
\begin{NiceTabularX}{\linewidth}[t]{l X p{1.3cm}}
    & Header & Title \\\cmidrule(lr){2-2}\cmidrule(lr){3-3}
    a. & Some text text text text text text text text text text text text text text 
        text text text text text text text text text text 
        Want XXX on this line $\rightarrow$%
     & \Block[B]{}{XXX \strut} 
\end{NiceTabularX}
\end{document}

You need several compilations (because nicematrix uses PGF/TikZ nodes under the hood).