Making nice tables

Question

I am working on a seminar paper, and I would like to code the following type of table into my LaTeX document. I was only able to create this table by first entering in and formatting everything in Microsoft Excel. Then, I copied and pasted the table from Excel into Word (Keep source formatting). From there, I saved the Word document as a PDF, and in the PDF, I cut out the table by taking a "snapshot" (possible in Adobe Acrobat Reader), then pasting that into Word again. Then I could save the copied-back-into-Word picture of the table as a PNG (.png). From there, I used \includegraphics[.]{Table1.png}. I got my "desired" result, however the table looks rather sloppy, as you can see below.

I am looking for any tips on how I can program the table in LaTeX in such a way that it looks nice (with all of the same formatting, lines, etc.) as seen in my version below! I've tried exhaustively all of the tables, tabular, tabbing, array commands in LaTeX without any such success.

Answer 1

Some suggestions, in no particular order.

• Engage in as little visual formatting as possible. It's much better to set some top-level parameters and let LaTeX do the formatting.

• Numeric data with decimal markers tend to be easier to read if they're aligned on the decimal markers.

• Use the facilities of the caption package to format the caption to your liking.

• You'll get a much better look the line-drawing macros of the booktabs package -- \toprule, \cmidrule, \midrule and \bottomrule -- than with the basic LaTeX commands \hline and \cline.

• Don't overuse bold-face. For readability, a table primarily needs to be laid out very well. Bold-facing should hardly ever be necessary.

• Using a tabularx environment instead of the more basic tabular environment will simplify making the 6 data columns all have the same widths.

• For footnote-like material at the bottom of a table, use \footnotesize -- or \small if you think that \footnotesize makes the contents look to, well, small.

• One formatting choice I'd question in the screenshot you posted is the left-aligning of the entries in the data columns. I think that centering would be a more natural choice. The following code and screenshot shows both looks. I think the second table, which centers the contents of the data columns, is more visually balanced. In terms of code, it differs from the first tabularx environment only in the use of \mC instead of \mX wrapper macros. (\mC and \mX are defined in the preamble as handy shortcut macros.)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,dcolumn,booktabs,caption,ragged2e,geometry}
\geometry{a4paper,margin=2.5cm} % set page and textblock parameters
\captionsetup{justification = RaggedRight, singlelinecheck=false,
              font = bf, skip = 0.33\baselineskip}
\newcolumntype{d}[1]{D..{#1}} % for aligning numerical data on decimal marker
\newcommand\mX[1]{\multicolumn{1}{X}{#1}} % handy shortcut macro
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\Centering\arraybackslash}X}
\newcommand\mC[1]{\multicolumn{1}{C}{#1}} % another handy shortcut macro

\begin{document}
\begin{table}[t]
\caption{Baseline OLS and 2SLS results. Contents of data columns left-aligned.}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}l*{6}{d{1.5}}@{}}
\toprule
& \mX{(1)} & \mX{(2)} & \mX{(3)} & \mX{(4)} & \mX{(5)} & \mX{(6)}  \\
\cmidrule(l){2-7}
& \mX{OLS} & \mX{OLS} & \mX{OLS} & \mX{OLS} & \mX{2SLS} & \mX{2SLS}  \\
\midrule
Tax identification number (TIN) 
   & 0.533^{***} & & & & & 1.376^{**}\\
   & (0.12)      & & & & & (0.66)\\
Constant 
   & 8.020^{***} & & & & & 7.367^{***} \\
   & (0.58)      & & & & & (0.86)\\
Observations & \mX{404} & & & & & \mX{369}\\
R\textsuperscript{2} & \mX{0.21} & & & & & \\
First-stage F-statistic & & & & & 10.77 & 12.77 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\medskip
\footnotesize
Dependent variable: log monthly profits.

Robust standard errors in parentheses.

$^{*}$, $^{**}$ and $^{***}$ indicate significance \dots

Instrument in columns (5) \dots

(1) Baseline OLS, (2) \dots

Control estimates left out of table.

See: Table 4 in \dots
\end{table}


\begin{table}[h]
\caption{Baseline OLS and 2SLS results. Contents of data columns centered.}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}l*{6}{d{1.5}}@{}}
\toprule
& \mC{(1)} & \mC{(2)} & \mC{(3)} & \mC{(4)} & \mC{(5)} & \mC{(6)}  \\
\cmidrule(l){2-7}
& \mC{OLS} & \mC{OLS} & \mC{OLS} & \mC{OLS} & \mC{2SLS} & \mC{2SLS}  \\
\midrule
Tax identification number (TIN) 
   & 0.533^{***} & & & & & 1.376^{**}\\
   & (0.12)      & & & & & (0.66)\\
Constant 
   & 8.020^{***} & & & & & 7.367^{***} \\
   & (0.58)      & & & & & (0.86)\\
Observations & \mC{404} & & & & & \mC{369}\\
R\textsuperscript{2} & \mC{0.21} & & & & & \\
First-stage F-statistic & & & & & 10.77 & 12.77 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Here a solution using tabularx and siunitx which has a nice facility to reserve space after entries with table-space-text-post. One nasty trick this solution uses is \noalign{\vspace{3pt}} to add some additional vertical space after \bottomrule. I like to set footnotes in tables over the length of the table and use \quad instead of line breaks, but that's a matter of taste, I think.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}

\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs,ragged2e,caption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{table}[t]
  \caption{Baseline OLS and 2SLS results}
  \label{tab:foo}
  \footnotesize
  \sisetup{%
    table-number-alignment=left,
    table-format=1.3,
    table-space-text-post=***}%
  \begin{tabularx}{1.0\linewidth}{@{}X*{6}{S}}
    \toprule
    & {(1)} & {(2)} & {(3)} & {(4)} & {(5)} & {(6)} \\
    \cmidrule{2-7}
    & {OLS} & {OLS} & {OLS} & {OLS} & {2SLS} & {2SLS} \\
    \midrule
    Tax identification numbeer (NIT)
    & 0.533 *** & 0.0835 & 0.431*** & 0.0119 & 1.173** & 1.376** \\
    & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.12)}
            & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.13)}
                    & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.12)}
                            & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.12)}
                                    & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.69)}
                                            & \multicolumn{1}{l}{(0.66)} \\
    Constant & 8.020*** & 6.122*** & 7.794 *** \\
    \bottomrule
    \noalign{\vspace{3pt}}
    \multicolumn{7}{@{}p{\linewidth}@{}}{\RaggedRight %
    Dependent variable: log monthly profits.\quad
    Robust standard erros in parentheses.\quad
    *, **, *** indicate significance at \SI{10}{\percent},
    \SI{5}{\percent} and \SI{1}{\percent}, respectively. \newline
    \begin{enumerate*}[label=(\arabic*), itemjoin={{, }}]
    \item Baseline OLS
    \item OLS with firm size control
    \item OLS with background characteristics
    \item OLS with firm size and background controls
    \item 2LSL ...
    \end{enumerate*}  
    }
  \end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Answer 3

A variation of combination Arash Esbati and Mico answers:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}

\usepackage{tabularx,booktabs,ragged2e,caption}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[inline]{enumitem}

\newcommand\br{)}
\newcommand\mcs[1]{\multicolumn{1}{l}{(#1)}}
\newcommand\mcx[1]{\multicolumn{1}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}{#1}}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{table}[t]
  \caption{Baseline OLS and 2SLS results}
  \label{tab:foo}
  \footnotesize
  \sisetup{%
    table-number-alignment=left,
    table-format=1.3,
    table-space-text-post=***}%
  \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{l*{6}{S}}
    \toprule
    & \mcx{1}   & \mcx{2}   & \mcx{3}   & \mcx{4}   & \mcx{4}   & \mcx{5}   \\
    \cmidrule(lr){2-7}
    & {OLS}     & {OLS}     & {OLS}     & {OLS}     & {2SLS}    & {2SLS}    \\
    \midrule
    Tax identification number (TIN)
    & 0.533 *** & 0.0835    & 0.431*** & 0.0119 & 1.173** & 1.376** \\
    & \mcs{0.12} & \mcs{0.13} & \mcs{0.12} & \mcs{0.12} & \mcs{0.69} & \mcs{0.66} \\
Constant & 8.020*** & 6.122*** & 7.794 *** \\
    \midrule[0.8pt]
    \multicolumn{7}{p{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep\relax}}{\RaggedRight %
    Dependent variable: log monthly profits.

    Robust standard erros in parentheses.

    *, **, *** indicate significance at \SI{10}{\percent},

    \SI{5}{\percent} and \SI{1}{\percent}, respectively. 

    \begin{enumerate*}[label=(\arabic*), itemjoin={{, }}]
    \item Baseline OLS
    \item OLS with firm size control
    \item OLS with background characteristics
    \item OLS with firm size and background controls
    \item 2LSL with all firm size and background controls
    \end{enumerate*}

    Control estimates left out of table.
    }
  \end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

which gives:

Answer 4

You could also try using some online Latex Table converter or even the Excel to Latex plugin:

https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/excel2latex/?lang=en

This con­verter al­lows you to write a ta­ble in Ex­cel, and ex­port the cur­rent se­lec­tion as LATEX markup which can be pasted into an ex­ist­ing LATEX doc­u­ment, or ex­ported to a file and in­cluded via the \input com­mand.