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I want to create a LaTeX table with three rows which have different row heights. How can I do this?

The following code

\renewcommand\arraystretch{2.4} \setlength\minrowclearance{2.4pt}

seems make each row has the same height.

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3
  • 6
    you could probably use \rule{0pt}{<lenght>} to create a line with 0 width but a certain vertical length.
    – Martin H
    Jun 1, 2011 at 7:32
  • I obtain an error that \minrowclearance is an undefined control sequence. Do you need to load a package?
    – Karlo
    Dec 11, 2019 at 10:58
  • 1
    @Karlo \usepackage{colortbl}
    – David Collins
    Jan 19, 2021 at 8:54

4 Answers 4

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85

Try this:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{cc}
\hline
hi & tall one\\[10ex]
\hline
hi & medium one\\[5ex]
\hline
hi & standard one\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

So you can specify the height of a row with the optional argument

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5
  • 29
    how do you vertically centralize the elements in a cell, using the [ex] optional argument?!
    – Ivan Machado
    Nov 21, 2012 at 22:57
  • 12
    Using \\[<space>] adds space to the end of the last cell, so if the last cell of each row has significantly different contents, then the row height can vary. This is easily solved by adding an extra column, and keeping it empty. Then \\[<space>] always makes the row <space> as a minimum.
    – Nathanael Farley
    Dec 17, 2012 at 11:03
  • 6
    @NathanaelFarley This won't help when you have hlines as then adding an additional column will produce extra lines at the end. Additionally, it still keeps the contents vertically spaced near the top rather than within the cell in the center vertically
    – Aram Papazian
    Aug 15, 2014 at 13:07
  • 3
    @AramPapazian This can be fixed by using columns like {cc@{}c@{}} as the @{} will make the space either side of the empty column 0 pt.
    – Nathanael Farley
    Aug 18, 2014 at 9:12
  • @NathanaelFarley you wrote "Then \\[<space>] always makes the row <space> as a minimum." but this is not what happens. If I replace your tabular with the following, \begin{tabular}{cc} 1 & \\[0mm] 2 & \\[5mm] \end{tabular} the first row is 4.36mm high while the second measures 9.36mm. The 5mm goes into some equation but it's not the minimum height when leaving the last column blank.
    – Bastian
    Jun 16, 2021 at 14:56
12

As none of the current answers address the issue of how to center the content vertically, I here introduce \xrowht[<footprint>]{<length>} to add an extra .5<length> of height above and below a \vphantom of a <footprint>. The default footprint takes the height of a 0 character, which is great if the data has no descenders. For data with descenders, an optionally specified footprint of () makes more sense.

\xrowht can be added to any cell in the row. Here, I add it to the 1st column cells, for convenience.

In the MWE, the 1st row is unmodified, then for successive rows, 10pt, 20pt, 30pt, and 40pt are symmetrically added. I also use an optional footprint in the 2nd row, which contains descenders.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{stackengine}
\newcommand\xrowht[2][0]{\addstackgap[.5\dimexpr#2\relax]{\vphantom{#1}}}
\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[h]
      \begin{tabular}{|c|l|}
        \hline
         col1 & col2 \\
        \hline\xrowht[()]{10pt}
        1 & 2g \\
        \hline\xrowht{20pt}
        3 & 4 \\
        \hline\xrowht{30pt}
        5 & 6 \\
        \hline\xrowht{40pt}
        7 & 8 \\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

enter image description here

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11
  • How can I extend the first row? Just natively adding \xrowht{20pt} afterr the first \hline results in \xrowht{20pt}...
    – Theova
    Feb 27, 2020 at 16:56
  • Sorry, copy paste error: ... it results in main.tex|56 error| Misplaced \noalign. main.tex|56 error| Misplaced \omit.
    – Theova
    Feb 27, 2020 at 17:09
  • 1
    Right, the problem is with including multicol: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{stackengine} \usepackage{multicol} \newcommand\xrowht[2][0]{\addstackgap[.5\dimexpr#2\relax]{\vphantom{#1}}} \begin{document} \begin{table}[h] \begin{tabular}{|c|l|} \xrowht{20pt} \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{ multicol } \\ \hline\xrowht{20pt} col1 & col2 \\ \hline\xrowht[()]{10pt} 1 & 2g \\ \hline\xrowht{20pt} 3 & 4 \\ \hline\xrowht{30pt} 5 & 6 \\ \hline\xrowht{40pt} 7 & 8 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \end{table} \end{document}
    – Theova
    Feb 27, 2020 at 17:37
  • 1
    @Theova Move the \xrowht macrow inside the \multicolumn, such as \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{ \xrowht{20pt} multicol } \\
    – Steven B. Segletes
    Feb 27, 2020 at 17:41
  • 1
    @ Steven: Thank you very much. This works as desired :-)
    – Theova
    Feb 29, 2020 at 15:46
4

It is easy peasy to set row heights and get perfect middle alignment for multirow cells with new LaTeX3 package tabularray:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabularray}
\NewColumnType{M}[1]{Q[m,c,#1]}  

\begin{document}

\begin{tblr}{colspec={M{3cm}M{3.5cm}M{3.5cm}},row{2-4}={7ex}}
  \hline
    Alpha & Beta & Gamma \\
  \hline 
    \SetCell[r=3]{c} Text & Text & Text \\
  \hline
    & \SetCell[r=2]{c} Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text & Text \\
  \hline
    & & Text Text Text Text Text Text Text Text \\
  \hline  
\end{tblr}

\end{document}

enter image description here

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2

Code for a latex table with adjustable row height. (Credits to previous posts)

    \begin{table}[h]
      \begin{tabular}{|c|l|}
        \hline
         col1 & col2 \\%[2ex]
        \hline
        & \\[-2ex]
        1 & 2 \\[0.75ex]
        \hline
        & \\[-2ex]
        3 & 4 \\[2ex]
        \hline
        & \\[2ex]
        5 & 6 \\[3ex]
        \hline
        & \\
        7 & 8 \\
        \hline
      \end{tabular}
    \end{table}

Your table will look like this.

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1
  • 1
    Looks easier to implement for me. thank you so much
    – Freeman
    Oct 1, 2021 at 11:53

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