# The vertical lines in my tabular environment are scattered

I'm using pdflatex and have some trouble: the vertical lines in my tabular environment are all scattered.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{| l | c | l |}
\hline
Abbreviation & Description & Relation\\
2 & einstein & $E = m*c^2$
\\\hline\\
3 & pythagoras  & $c^2=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$\\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{document}


It's probably connected to the formula inside the cell. Any help is greatly appreaciated.

• Just FYI, it's generally considered a Really Bad Idea to use vertical lines in tables. I'm afraid I don't have the needed citation to hand at the moment, but I'm sure another user will step in to provide it. – Brent.Longborough Nov 7 '14 at 17:13

You need two ampersands to create columns in the empty line.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{| l | c | l |}
\hline
Abbreviation & Description & Relation\\
2 & einstein & $E = m*c^2$ \\\hline && \\
3 & pythagoras  & $c^2=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$\\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{table}
\end{document}


I have provided a quick fix. See MWE below:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
{%
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.3}
\begin{tabular}{| l | c | l |}
\hline
Abbreviation & Description & Relation\\\hline
2 & einstein & $E = m*c^2$
\\\hline
3 & pythagoras  & $c^2=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
}

\vspace*{1cm}
{%
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.3}
\begin{tabular}{ l  c l }
\toprule
Abbreviation & Description & Relation\\
\midrule
2 & einstein & $E = m*c^2$
\\
3 & pythagoras  & $c^2=\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
}
\end{document}