compact bulleted points in table

Question

Here is the table I am trying to create, which contains the

   \documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}
    \newcolumntype{Y}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}
     \newcolumntype{T}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{2.5cm}}



         \begin{document}
         \begin{table*}
            \caption{My table caption}
            \label{tab:Table1}
              \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}TX@{}}
               \toprule
                 Column1 & Case of Column2\\
                \midrule
                 column 1 value & 
                  \begin{itemize}
                  \vspace*{-\baselineskip}
                  \item multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text
                  \vspace*{-\baselineskip}
                  \item multiline item text multiline item text
                  \vspace*{-\baselineskip}
                  \end{itemize}  \\
               \bottomrule
              \end{tabularx}
              \end{table*}
             \end{document}

Although this is not an elegant solution it eliminates the space before, after and between the bullet points regardless of the spacing scheme in rest of the document. Since the item text itself is multiline text the line spacing is a lot.

Can anyone suggest an elegant solution to create a very compact bulleted points within a table cell. I experimented with the solution given here How to remove the whitespace BEFORE itemize/enumerate?

Answer 1

You may achieve your formatting objective by (a) loading the enumitem package and using some of its capabilities -- specifically, setting the options nosep, wide=0pt, leftmargin=*, and after=\strut -- and (b) encasing the itemize environment inside aminipage` environment.

Aside: If the itemize environment were not contained in a table column, setting the option nosep would suffice to suppress the whitespace space padding above and below the itemize environment (as well as the whitespace between the items). However, because the itemize environment occurs inside the column of a tabularx environment, it turns out to be necessary to embed the itemize environment in a minipage environment.

Finally, in case you're curious to find out what the option after=\strut does: It ensures that the bottom row of the itemize environment isn't too close to the horizontal line drawn by \bottomrule. Note that in your example, the final item row contains no words with characters with descenders (such as g, p, q, and y). Without the \strut, the material in the bottom line of the itemize environment would simply look to be too close to the line drawn by \bottomrule.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx,enumitem,ragged2e}
\newcolumntype{Y}{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}X}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
\caption{My table caption}
\label{tab:Table1}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} lY @{}}
   \toprule
   Column1 & Column2\\
   \midrule
   column 1 value & 
   \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}
   \begin{itemize}[nosep, wide=0pt, leftmargin=*, after=\strut]
   \item multiline item text multiline item text multiline    
         item text multiline item text multiline item text
   \item multiline item text multiline item text
   \end{itemize}  
   \end{minipage}\\
   \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Set the list using a tabular:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}

\newcolumntype{T}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{2.5cm}}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ @{} T X @{} }
  \toprule
  Column1 & Case of Column2 \\
  \midrule
  column 1 value & 
  \begin{tabular}[t]{ @{\makebox[1.5em][l]{\textbullet}} p{\dimexpr\linewidth-1.5em} @{} }
    multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text \\
    multiline item text multiline item text
  \end{tabular} \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

The inner-tabular is set similar to a list, spreading the full \linewidth of the outer-tabularx X-column and is [t]op-aligned to ensure it aligns vertically with the surrounding cell entries.

Adjust the width for the \makebox to change the bullet alignment.

---

For an enumerated list of items, you can use the regular enumi counter (for the first level of enumeration inside an enumerate environment:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}

\newcolumntype{T}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{2.5cm}}

\newcommand{\settabenum}{\makebox[1.5em][l]{%
  \refstepcounter{enumi}%
  \xdef\@currentlabel{\@currentlabel}%
  \theenumi.}}

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ @{} T X @{} }
  \toprule
  Column1 & Case of Column2 \\
  \midrule
  column 1 value & \setcounter{enumi}{0}% Reset the enumeration counter, if needed
  \begin{tabular}[t]{ @{\settabenum} p{\dimexpr\linewidth-1.5em} @{} }
    multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text \\
    multiline item text multiline item text
  \end{tabular} \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

In the above example there is no need to \setcounter{enumi}{0}, but if you have other enumerate lists in your document, you may have to reset this within your tabular.

If you want to be able to reference some of the items, then we have to use a different setup:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{booktabs,tabularx}

\newcolumntype{T}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{2.5cm}}

\newcommand{\settabenum}{%
  \refstepcounter{enumi}%
  \makebox[0pt][r]{\makebox[1.5em][l]{%
  \theenumi.}}}

\begin{document}

See item~\ref{second}.

\bigskip

\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{ @{} T X @{} }
  \toprule
  Column1 & Case of Column2 \\
  \midrule
  column 1 value & \setcounter{enumi}{0}% Reset the enumeration counter, if needed
  \begin{tabular}[t]{ @{\hspace{1.5em}} >{\settabenum} p{\dimexpr\linewidth-1.5em} @{} }
    multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text multiline item text \\
    multiline item text multiline item text \label{second}
  \end{tabular} \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}