# Line Break within Tabular - parbox does not work!

so I'm trying to create the following table:

\begin{tabular}{*{5}{c}}
\toprule
\parbox{2cm}{Stringer/Web} & \parbox{2cm}{Area of Stringer [$m^2$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Bending Stress $\sigma$ [$MPa$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Shear Flow due to Bending $q_B$ [$N/m$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Shear Stress $\tau$ [$MPa$]}
\end{tabular}


However, the result looks terrible with the line breaks happening all over the place and the resulting text looks atrocious. Please help?

MWE:

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{tabu}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\numberwithin{equation}{section}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{*{5}{c}}
\toprule
\parbox{2cm}{Stringer/Web} & \parbox{2cm}{Area of Stringer [$m^2$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Bending Stress $\sigma$ [$MPa$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Shear Flow due to Bending $q_B$ [$N/m$]} &
\parbox{2cm}{Shear Stress $\tau$ [$MPa$]}
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

• Welcome to TeX.SX! Please make your example a compilable MWE. – TeXnician Apr 8 '17 at 11:24
• Also, please include an example of what you think is atrocious… – Moriambar Apr 8 '17 at 11:26
• How do I do that? What is MWE? Also how can I attach a picture here, then I'll show you what I mean by atrocious – Hrms Apr 8 '17 at 11:30
• Try \raggedright inside the parboxes. Though i do'nt know why you are using them in the first place. – Johannes_B Apr 8 '17 at 11:32
• ! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}. – David Carlisle Apr 8 '17 at 11:44

Doing the units with siunitx and having a tabular that matches the textwidth.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{>{\raggedright}m{#1}}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{lXXXX}
\toprule
Stringer/Web &
Area of Stringer in \si{\meter\squared} &
Bending Stress $\sigma$ in \si{\mega\pascal} &
Shear Flow due to Bending $q_B$ in \si{\newton\per\meter} &
Shear Stress $\tau$ in \si{\mega\pascal}
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

• When I run this code I get: File `xparse.sty' not found. \ProvidesExplPackage – Hrms Apr 8 '17 at 11:50
• That means you have an incomplete and maybe outdated LaTeX installation. – Johannes_B Apr 8 '17 at 11:52
• I have the newest MikTex, which I updated just before I started working – Hrms Apr 8 '17 at 11:53
• @Hrms Basic MikTeX or the complete install? – Johannes_B Apr 8 '17 at 11:53
• Basic. I just added \usepackage{xparse} and now it works! Looks a lot better, thank you. Can you explain the code to me, so I can use it properly? I'm confused about \renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{>{\raggedright}m{#1}} – Hrms Apr 8 '17 at 11:55