Why does >{\centering} in my column spec produce an error?

Question

I want to create a column in a tabular with column specifier 'p' and centred text. I have tried to achieve this using the example below.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
  \begin{tabular}{c l >{\centering}p{2cm}}
    a & b & c \\
    a & b & c 
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Why does this create the following error, and what is the correct way to do this?

! Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr.
<recently read> \endtemplate 

l.10     a &
             b & c
You have given more \span or & marks than there were
in the preamble to the \halign or \valign now in progress.
So I'll assume that you meant to type \cr instead.

I'm using Miktex 2.9

Answer 1

\documentclass{article}    
\usepackage{array}
\begin{document}

  \begin{tabular}{ c l >{\centering\arraybackslash}p{2cm}}
    a & b & c \\
    a & b & c 
  \end{tabular}

\end{document}

\centering redefines the double backslash. However, a better choice is to use

\documentclass{article}    
\usepackage{array,ragged2e}
\begin{document}

  \begin{tabular}{ c l >{\Centering}p{2cm}}
    a & b & c \\
    a & b & c 
  \end{tabular}

\end{document}