How to increase length of rules?

Question

Is there a way to increase the length of my rules using \toprule, \bottomrule, and \midrule? I want them to extend past the text on both sides of the table a little bit.

Here's my minimal code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lc}
\toprule 
\emph{X} & \emph{Y} \\
\midrule 
1 & 2\\
3 & 4\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can force the space between columns using the @{<stuff>} column specification, where <stuff> could be \hspace{<len>} for a specific length. Using these on the outer columns you can make the horizontal rules extend out horizontally:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ l c }
  \toprule 
  \emph{X} & \emph{Y} \\
  \midrule 
  1 & 2\\
  3 & 4\\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\bigskip

\begin{tabular}{ @{\hspace{2\tabcolsep}} l c @{\hspace{2\tabcolsep}} }
  \toprule 
  \emph{X} & \emph{Y} \\
  \midrule 
  1 & 2\\
  3 & 4\\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\end{document}