# Table Row Color Covers Text

I am trying to create a table with alternating row colors using the xcolor package with the [table] option. The following example demonstrates that the row coloring (uncommenting the \rowcolors..) may hide/cover the table contents. In particular there seems to be an issue with the @-expressions.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\footnotesize
\centering
%\rowcolors{2}{gray!15}{white}
\begin{tabular}{lr@{\hspace{.1em}}c@{\hspace{.1em}}lcc}
&&&& Col 1 & Col 2 \\ \toprule
Row 1 & $(100$ & $\times$ & $100)$    & $1$ & $2$ \\
Row 2 & $(100$ & $\times$ & $1000)$& $3$ & $4$ \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

1. How can we prevent that?
2. A second question is whether there is an easy way to cover the entire line with color; one can observe the white padding in the gray line.

• Welcome to TeX.SX! Please add a minimal working example that takes the form \documentclass{...}\usepackage{....}\begin{document}...\end{document}. If possible, it should compile and have the minimum amount of code needed to illustrate your problem. This makes it much easier for people to help you - and much more likely that they will! – Andrew May 3 '15 at 0:38
• Apologies @Andrew. I have updated the code sample in the question. Thnx – megas May 3 '15 at 0:49

For the first question, you can remove the \tabcolsep separately for those two columns like

r<{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}}>{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}\,}c
<{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}\,}>{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}}lcc}


and for second, you can define a \bottomrulec like

\newcommand{\bottomrulec}{%
\arrayrulecolor{gray!15}\specialrule{\belowrulesep}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}\specialrule{\heavyrulewidth}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}
}


and use it instead of \bottomrule. Here are the coloured versions for \toprule and \midrule in case if you need them.

\newcommand{\toprulec}{%
\arrayrulecolor{black}\specialrule{\heavyrulewidth}{\aboverulesep}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{gray!15}\specialrule{\belowrulesep}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}
}
\newcommand{\midrulec}{%
\arrayrulecolor{gray!15}\specialrule{\aboverulesep}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}\specialrule{\lightrulewidth}{0pt}{\belowrulesep}
}


\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\newcommand{\bottomrulec}{% Coloured \toprule
\arrayrulecolor{gray!15}\specialrule{\belowrulesep}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}\specialrule{\heavyrulewidth}{0pt}{0pt}
\arrayrulecolor{black}
}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\footnotesize
\centering
\rowcolors{2}{gray!15}{white}
\begin{tabular}{lr<{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}}>{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}\,}c
<{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}\,}>{\hspace{-\tabcolsep}}lcc}
&&&& Col 1 & Col 2 \\ \toprule
Row 1 & $(100$ & $\times$ & $100)$    & $1$ & $2$ \\
Row 2 & $(100$ & $\times$ & $1000)$& $3$ & $4$ \\
\bottomrulec
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}


The white space comes from booktabs adding some vertical padding above and below table rules. A workaround consists in setting this padding to $0$ pt and replacing it with vertical spacing with the cellspace package: it defines a minimal such vertical spacing and is compatible with \rowcolors (the column specifier must be preceded by the letter S).

As for the issue with @{}, I replace it with adding negative horizontal spacing on leaving cells in the second column and on entering the third, with >{} and <{}.

\documentclass[preview]{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{tabularx, booktabs, caption, array}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\usepackage{cellspace}
\setlength\cellspacetoplimit{6pt}
\setlength\cellspacebottomlimit{6pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\setlength\aboverulesep{0pt}
\setlength\belowrulesep{0pt}
\rowcolors{2}{gray!15}{white}% <{\hskip-\arraycolsep}>{\hskip-\arraycolsep{}}
$\begin{array}{Slr <{{}\hskip-\arraycolsep}>{\hskip-\arraycolsep\mkern-.5mu}lcc} && & \text{Col 1} & \text{Col 2} \\ \toprule \text{Row 1} & (100 \times{} & 100) & 1 & 2 \\ \text{Row 2} & (100 \times{} &1000) & 3 & 4 \\ \bottomrule \end{array}$
\end{table}

\end{document}


• Thanks Bernard. That was really helpful. One quick question: I have never used array instead of tabular for a table before. Is that choice important in this solution or is it convenient assuming that most of the table contents is numerical? – megas May 3 '15 at 2:20
• It was only because most cells seemed to be in math mode. However loading the array package is always useful, as you get access to some useful functionalities, even in a tabular environment. – Bernard May 3 '15 at 7:56