\toprule over two minipages?

Question

I have two tables side by side, in one minipage each. My question is, how to use \toprule and \bottomrule to span the entire width of the table environment (as opposed to spanning only the current tabular)? By "entire width" I don't mean literally having length equal to \textwidth, but to be smart about it like \toprule is.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  % I want a \toprule (?) here (?) to (cleverly) span
  % the entire table environment.
  \begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}
    \begin{tabular}{c}
      \toprule            % This spans only this (leftmost) table.
      \\
      % Table Content.
      \\
      \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
  \end{minipage}
  ~
  \begin{minipage}[t]{.5\textwidth}
    \begin{tabular}{c}
      \toprule            % This spans only this (rightmost) table.
      \\
      % Table Content.
      \\
      \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
  \end{minipage}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Answer 1

Nest tables.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs,array}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}

\begin{tabular}{
  @{}
  p{\dimexpr.5\textwidth}
  @{}
  p{\dimexpr.5\textwidth}
  @{}
}
\toprule
\begin{tabular}{c}
\toprule
Table Content. \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
&
\begin{tabular}{c}
\toprule
Table Content. \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}

\end{table}

\end{document}