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I have many tables of data interspersed with text that I want to have formatted identically. Right now I'm setting widths manually for each one in tabular:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[no-math]{fontspec}
\setmainfont{NotoSerif}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{setspace} 
\usepackage{lipsum} 
\usepackage{gb4e,cgloss}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{p{3cm} >{\em} p{3.5cm} @{\hskip 1in}  p{3cm} >{\em} p{3.5cm}}
    word1       &   description &   word1a  &   description \\
    word2       &   description &   word2a  &   description \\
    \end{tabular}
\end{document}

I don't like having to set the width manually for each table, especially because it makes changing the widths a hassle. How can I define a custom table environment with certain column widths in the preamble?

Actually, a solution where the data could be listed more simply, e.g. with spaces or with brackets would also be swell, something like this: 

\begin{customtable}
word1 description word1a description \\
word2 description word2a description \\ 
\end{customtable}
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2
  • Welcome to TeX.SX! Delimiting with spaces can be done, but what if a description has multiple words? Using & seems easier, after all, because it's a very distinguishable character.
    – egreg
    Sep 20, 2018 at 9:30
  • Because 98% of the descriptions are single words and so delimiting with spaces would reduce the need for typing several thousand '&' symbols.
    – Makenna
    Sep 20, 2018 at 12:05

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

Just define an environment customtable which includes a tabular:

\documentclass[]{article}

\usepackage{array}

\newenvironment{customtable}
  {%
    \begin{tabular}
      {p{3cm} >{\itshape} p{3.5cm} @{\hskip 1in}  p{3cm} >{\itshape} p{3.5cm}}%
  }
  {%
    \end{tabular}%
  }

\begin{document}
\begin{customtable}
  word1 & description & word3 & description \\
  word2 & description & word4 & description \\
\end{customtable}
\end{document}

Introducing your space delimited syntax is possible with e.g. the following (primitive implementation, better is in no doubt possible):

\documentclass[]{article}

\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{environ}

\makeatletter
\NewEnviron{CustomTable}
  {%
    \expandafter\parseRows\BODY\\\endparseRows
    \begin{tabular*}{\linewidth}
      {
        >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{4em}
        >{\raggedright\arraybackslash\itshape} p{8em}
        @{\extracolsep{\fill}}
        >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{4em}
        >{\raggedright\arraybackslash\itshape} p{8em}
      }%
      \CustomTableBody
    \end{tabular*}%
  }
\newcommand\parseRows{}
\newcommand\CustomTableBody{}
\newcommand\parseRow{}
\def\parseRows#1\\#2\endparseRows
  {%
    \if\relax\detokenize{#1}\relax
      \expandafter\@gobble
    \else
      \parseRow#1 \endparseRow
      \edef\CustomTableBody{\unexpanded\expandafter{\CustomTableBody\\}}%
      \expandafter\@firstofone
    \fi
    {%
      \expandafter\parseRows\@firstofone#2\\\endparseRows
    }%
  }
\def\parseRow #1 #2 #3 #4\endparseRow
  {
    \edef\CustomTableBody
      {\unexpanded\expandafter{\CustomTableBody#1&#2&#3&#4}}%
  }

\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{CustomTable}
  word1 description word3 description \\
  word2 description word4 description \\
  word3 {good multi word description} word4 description \\
  word3 {good multi word description} \\
\end{CustomTable}
\end{document}

The syntax might be fragile, use at your own risk.

enter image description here

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0

You may like this implementation that allows to insert the items sequentially.

By default tabular is used, but there is an optional argument for specifying longtable.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a4paper,margin=2cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{longtable,array}

\ExplSyntaxOn

\NewDocumentCommand{\customtable}{O{tabular}m}
 {
  \makenna_customtable:nn { #1 } { #2 }
 }

\seq_new:N \l_makenna_customtable_rows_seq
\seq_new:N \l__makenna_customtable_item_seq
\tl_new:N \l_makenna_customtable_body_tl
\int_new:N \l_makenna_customtable_length_int

\cs_generate_variant:Nn \seq_set_split:Nnn { Nnx }

\cs_new_protected:Nn \makenna_customtable:nn
 {
  \seq_set_split:Nnn \l_makenna_customtable_rows_seq { \\ } { #2 }
  \int_set:Nn \l_makenna_customtable_length_int
   {
    \int_div_round:nn { \seq_count:N \l_makenna_customtable_rows_seq } { 2 }
   }

  \tl_clear:N \l_makenna_customtable_body_tl

  \int_step_inline:nnnn
   { 1 } % start
   { 1 } % step
   { \l_makenna_customtable_length_int } % end
   {
    \seq_set_split:Nnx \l__makenna_customtable_item_seq { ~ }
     { \seq_item:Nn \l_makenna_customtable_rows_seq { ##1 } }
    \tl_put_right:Nx \l_makenna_customtable_body_tl
     {
      \seq_use:Nn \l__makenna_customtable_item_seq { & } &
     }
    \seq_set_split:Nnx \l__makenna_customtable_item_seq { ~ }
     { \seq_item:Nn \l_makenna_customtable_rows_seq { ##1 + \l_makenna_customtable_length_int } }
    \tl_put_right:Nx \l_makenna_customtable_body_tl
     {
      \seq_use:Nn \l__makenna_customtable_item_seq { & } \exp_not:N \\
     }
   }
  \begin{#1}{p{3cm} >{\em} p{3.5cm} @{\hspace{2.5cm}}  p{3cm} >{\em} p{3.5cm}}
  \l_makenna_customtable_body_tl
  \end{#1}
 }

\ExplSyntaxOff

\begin{document}

\section{Six items}

\customtable{
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
}

\section{Nine items}

\customtable{
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word7 description \\
  word8 description \\
  word9 description \\
}

\section{Many items}

\customtable[longtable]{
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
  word6 {three word description} \\
  word1 description \\
  word2 description \\
  word3 description \\
  word4 description \\
  word5 description \\
}

\end{document}

enter image description here

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4
  • Thanks! That's really nice. But I actually don't want multicolumn tables, the four items on each row actually go together. Which part of the syntax do I change have a single column table with 4 items per row?
    – Makenna
    Sep 21, 2018 at 6:00
  • Also, which part replaces the & with space? There's so much here I'm having a hard time picking out which commands do what.
    – Makenna
    Sep 21, 2018 at 6:03
  • @Makenna Your example features a four column table with two items per row.
    – egreg
    Sep 21, 2018 at 8:33
  • Oh. I see how that was ambiguous. I changed the original example to make it more clear now.
    – Makenna
    Sep 21, 2018 at 13:41

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