Adjusting cell height in tables wider than a full page

Question

Suppose there is a table too wide to fit on a page. What you can do in this case is to print the table on multiple pages, such that it can be seen side-by-side, by using multiple table environments and separating these with page breaks.

Given these column definitions:

\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\raggedright\let\newline\\\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\let\newline\\\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedleft\let\newline\\\arraybackslash\hspace{0pt}}p{#1}}

Table code for a 2-page wide table is akin to:

\begin{longtable}{|L{80pt}|L{80pt}|}
\hline
header 1 & header 2 \\
\hline
value 11 this is a much longer value which causes issues by overflowing into another line and misaligning this table with the other table & value 12 \\
value 21 & value 22 \\
\hline
\end{longtable}
\pagebreak
\begin{longtable}{|L{80pt}|L{80pt}|}
\hline
header 3 & header 4 \\
\hline
value 13 & value 14 \\
value 23 & value 24 \\
\hline
\end{longtable}

Note that the values are variable. In essence, 'any reasonably long text' could be inside each cell.

This works and aligns as long as within the set of all the values there are no values which span multiple lines, e.g. no cells with line breaks. However, as soon as there are cells with line breaks, these line breaks will only appear in their respective table.

How does one go about aligning the tables? E.g. in table i, column j set its column height to be at least the maximum of the column heights of all the tables for column j.

Answer 1

You can create a two page tabular and display half at a time using \adjustbox. Figuring out where the gap is could pose a problem. I also threw in some code to start the two pages on a even page.

BTW, I am not familiar with column type L, so used p instead.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{lipsum}% MWE only

\newsavebox{\twopage}

\newcommand{\evenpage}{\ifodd\value{page}\afterpage{\evenpage}%
  \else
    \hspace*{\fill}\adjustbox{Clip=0pt 0pt {0.5\width} 0pt}{\usebox{\twopage}}
    \newpage
    \adjustbox{Clip={0.5\width} 0pt 0pt 0pt}{\usebox{\twopage}}
    \newpage
  \fi}

\begin{document}
\savebox{\twopage}{\begin{tabular}
{|p{80pt}|p{80pt}|@{\hspace{2\tabcolsep}}|p{80pt}|p{80pt}|}
\hline
header 1 & header 2 & header 3 & header 4 \\
\hline
value 11 & value 12 & value 13 & value 14 \\
value 21 & value 22 & value 23 & value 24 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}}%
\evenpage
\lipsum[1-8]
\end{document}

---

I thought I would try to make this more like a table, including a caption split over two pages.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{lipsum}% MWE only
\usepackage{blindtext}% MWE only
%\usepackage{showframe}% debugging tool
\usepackage{caption}

\newsavebox{\twopage}
\newsavebox{\twopagecaption}
\newlength{\twopagecaptionht}

\makeatletter
\@ifpackageloaded{caption}%
{\newcommand\makecaption[2]{%
  {\captionlabelfont #1}%
  {\caption@iflf\captionlabelfont\relax\caption@lsep}%
  {\captiontextfont
    \caption@ifstrut
      {\vrule\@height\ht\strutbox\@width\z@}%
      {}%
    \nobreak\hskip\z@skip % enable hyphenation
    \caption@tfmt{#2}%
    \caption@ifstrut
      {\ifhmode\@finalstrut\strutbox\fi}%
      {}%
  }%
}}%
{}

\newcommand{\splitcaption}[2][\empty]% #1 = short caption (optional), #2 = caption
{\setbox\twopagecaption=\vbox{\parindent=0pt
  \refstepcounter{table}%
  \ifx\empty#1\relax
    \addcontentsline{lot}{table}%
      {\protect\numberline{\thetable}{\ignorespaces #2}}%
  \else
    \addcontentsline{lot}{table}%
      {\protect\numberline{\thetable}{\ignorespaces #1}}%
  \fi
  \let\vskip=\@gobble
  \@ifundefined{makecaption}{}{\let\@makecaption=\makecaption}%
  \@makecaption{\fnum@table}{\ignorespaces #2}%
\par}}
\makeatother

\newcommand{\evenpage}{\clearpage
  \ifodd\value{page}\afterpage{\evenpage}%
  \else
    \noindent\begin{minipage}[c][\textheight][c]{\textwidth}
      \hspace*{\fill}\adjustbox{Clip=0pt 0pt {0.5\width} 0pt}{\usebox{\twopage}}\par
      \vskip\abovecaptionskip
      \twopagecaptionht=\dimexpr \ht\twopagecaption + \dp\twopagecaption\relax
      \dimen0=\dimexpr 0.5\twopagecaptionht + 0.5\baselineskip\relax
      \setbox0=\vsplit\twopagecaption to \dimen0
      \dimen0=\dimexpr \ht\twopagecaption + \dp\twopagecaption\relax
      \advance\twopagecaptionht by -\dimen0
      \ifdim\twopagecaptionht<\dimen0 \twopagecaptionht=\dimen0\fi
      \vbox to \twopagecaptionht {\unvbox0\vfill}%
      \global\twopagecaptionht=\twopagecaptionht
    \end{minipage}\par
    \noindent\begin{minipage}[c][\textheight][c]{\textwidth}
      \adjustbox{Clip={0.5\width} 0pt 0pt 0pt}{\usebox{\twopage}}\par
      \vskip\abovecaptionskip
      \vbox to \twopagecaptionht {\unvbox\twopagecaption\vfill}%
    \end{minipage}%
  \fi}

\begin{document}
\listoftables

\savebox{\twopage}{\begin{tabular}
{|p{80pt}|p{80pt}|@{\hspace{2\tabcolsep}}|p{80pt}|p{80pt}|}
\hline
header 1 & header 2 & header 3 & header 4 \\
\hline
value 11 & value 12 & value 13 & value 14 \\
value 21 & value 22 & value 23 & value 24 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}}%
\splitcaption[short caption]{\blindtext}%
\afterpage{\evenpage}
\lipsum[1-8]
\end{document}