# Coloring Rows in a Spaced Table

I am trying to create a table with fractions in it and every other row being coloured. Because of the fractions, I am having to space out the rows in the table, but this seems to be conflicting with the colouring of the rows and now the colouring isn't working.

Here is where my code is at the moment:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{color, colortbl}
\definecolor{Gray}{gray}{0.9}
\def\xstrut{\rule[-2ex]{0pt}{5ex}}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{cellspace}
\setlength\cellspacetoplimit{3pt}
\setlength\cellspacebottomlimit{3pt}
\usepackage{makecell}
\setcellgapes{3pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering\makegapedcells
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1em}
\begin{tabular}{c | cc | cc}
\toprule
\textbf{Parameters} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{A} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{B} \\ \midrule
\rowcolor{Gray} $(2, n, 3)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{2}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{2}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{2}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{2}$ \\

$(2, n, 4)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{4}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{4}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{4}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{4}{3}$ \\

\rowcolor{Gray} $(4, n, 8)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{1}{4}$ & $\displaystyle 4$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{5}{8}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{8}{5}$ \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\caption{Comparison of A and B}
\label{tab:results}
\end{table}

\end{document}


which produces the following table:

which I am happy with, but I would like the second and fourth rows shaded.

Any help would be really appreciated.

• Thank you, but I have done multiple examples with coloured rows, I just can't get it working in this one particular example. I have just tried to combine my spaced table with the example in the link you just gave, and it compiles fine with no errors, yet the rows are still not shaded. – arthurmilton May 4 '17 at 18:39

There's indeed a problem with (part of) makecell and colours in tables. There's also a problem with booktabs: rules have some vertical padding and this produces white strips at top and bottom of coloured rows. The simplest solution consists in suppressing this padding in coloured tables, and replacing it with a customised padding obtained with cellspace.

In the following code I replaced the old color package with xcolor and option [table], which makes loading colortbl needless, and adds new functionalities with the \rowcolorscommand:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage[table, svgnames]{xcolor}
\definecolor{Gray}{gray}{0.9}
\def\xstrut{\rule[-2ex]{0pt}{5ex}}

\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{cellspace}
\setlength\cellspacetoplimit{3pt}
\setlength\cellspacebottomlimit{3pt}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[!htbp]
\centering%
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{1em}
\setlength\aboverulesep{0pt}
\setlength\belowrulesep{0pt}
\rowcolors{1}{}{Gray}
\begin{tabular}{Sc | ScSc | cc}
\toprule
\textbf{Parameters} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{A} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{B} \\ \midrule
$(2, n, 3)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{2}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{2}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{2}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{2}$ \\

$(2, n, 4)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{4}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{4}{3}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{3}{4}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{4}{3}$ \\

$(4, n, 8)$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{1}{4}$ & $\displaystyle 4$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{5}{8}$ & $\displaystyle \dfrac{8}{5}$ \\ \bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\caption{Comparison of A and B}
\label{tab:results}
\end{table}

\end{document}


• Fantastic, exactly what I needed. Thank you! – arthurmilton May 4 '17 at 19:32
• Congrats to 100k!!!! – user31729 May 4 '17 at 19:38
• @Christian Hupfer: Thanks! Do I deserve a glass of champagne? – Bernard May 4 '17 at 19:40
• @Bernard: Well, ... uhmm.... ask the other 100k users in chat please ;-) – user31729 May 4 '17 at 19:41
• @Bernard Please, if you can, make a visit to the chat! We should have a party for you! Congratulations! – egreg May 4 '17 at 20:07