Folding Long narrow tables within a page

Question

I have a table with 1000 (variable, can be any) rows and 3 (fixed) columns. Each cell has a 10 digit number.

Displaying it in a single continuous stream of rows is not looking good and not maximal use of available print space.

I want it to be displayed from current point till end of current page. The remaining rows has to be folded and displayed till the bottom of the page and the process should continue till there is enough width available in the page. Subsequent rows should go into subsequent pages with same logic. The last set of rows should be evenly distributed from the top of the page so that the last row contains same number of columns as the first row.

Also the header of the columns need to be repeated in each of the instances of the columns. And if possible, the lines to be displayed between the rows and columns.

Thanks in Advance. Aravind

Answer 1

Here's a possibility:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{capt-of}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage{lipsum} % just for the example

\newcommand{\entry}[3]{%
  \makebox[\columnwidth][s]{\num{#1}\hfil\num{#2}\hfil\num{#3}}\par
}
\newenvironment{pseudotabular}[1]% the argument is the caption
 {\setlength\columnsep{1cm}%
  \begin{multicols}{2}[\captionof{table}{#1}]
  \footnotesize
  \setlength\parindent{0pt}}
 {\end{multicols}}

\begin{document}

You can see the result in table~\ref{long}.

\lipsum[2]

\begin{pseudotabular}{A long table\label{long}}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
...
\end{pseudotabular}

\end{document}

Another possibility is xtab, but tricking it into automatically getting balanced columns is almost impossible.

See Trick Supertabular into Multicols in new command and http://www.guitex.org/home/en/forum/5-tex-e-latex/26889-supertabular-e-twocolumn-riempimento-parziale-altezza-testo

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multicol,capt-of}
\usepackage{xtab}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\usepackage{lipsum} % just for the example

\newcommand{\entry}[3]{%
  \num{#1}&\num{#2}&\num{#3}\\\hline
}
\makeatletter
\def\mod@estimate@lineht{% 
  \ST@lineht=\arraystretch \baslineskp
%  \ST@lineht=.95\ST@lineht
  %\global\advance\ST@lineht by 1\p@ 
  \ST@stretchht\ST@lineht\advance\ST@stretchht-\baslineskp
  \ifdim\ST@stretchht<\z@\ST@stretchht\z@\fi
  \ST@trace\tw@{Average line height: \the\ST@lineht}% 
  \ST@trace\tw@{Stretched line height: \the\ST@stretchht}% 
}
\newenvironment{strictxtabular}
  {\let\estimate@lineht\mod@estimate@lineht\xtabular}
  {\endxtabular}
\newcommand{\TrickSupertabularIntoMulticols}{%
  \let\mcnewpage=\newpage
  \renewcommand\newpage{%
    \if@firstcolumn
      \hrule width\linewidth height0pt
      \columnbreak
    \else
      \mcnewpage
    \fi
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

You can see the result in table~\ref{long}.

\lipsum[2]

\begin{multicols}{2}[\captionof{table}{A table\label{long}}]
\footnotesize\setlength{\tabcolsep}{2pt}
\TrickSupertabularIntoMulticols

\tablehead{%
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries First} &
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Second} &
  \multicolumn{1}{c}{\bfseries Third} \\
}
\tabletail{\hline}
\begin{strictxtabular}{@{}|r|r|r|@{}}
\hline
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
\entry{1010101010}{2121212121}{3232323232}
...
\end{strictxtabular}
\end{multicols}

\end{document}