My problem is that I have many tables in my document with the same layout, and I want to specify the maximum width of a specific column to be 5 cm. I tried with p{5cm} but it make the column fix 5 cm wide and it looks odd with only a short word in it. I want it to be as narrow as possible, and split it into two lines, if it's wider than 5 cm. Is there any solution for my problem?
27
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I changed your title to reflect what you are actually asking. – Willie Wong Oct 30 '10 at 11:55
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I reworded a sentence from your question to make it a little clearer. Feel free to revert if you prefer the previous version. – Yossi Farjoun Oct 31 '10 at 12:07
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You can do it with varwidth:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array} % for defining a new column type
\usepackage{varwidth} %for the varwidth minipage environment
\begin{document}
\newcolumntype{M}{>{\begin{varwidth}{4cm}}l<{\end{varwidth}}} %M is for Maximal column
Table with short rows:
\begin{tabular}{|M|}
hello hello hello
\end{tabular}
Same table, with long row:
\begin{tabular}{|M|}
hello hello hello hello hello hello
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
Which compiles to:
Thank-you for inspiring me to look for this answer. It is a nice question!
answered Oct 30 '10 at 12:26
0
you can also do:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array} % for defining a new column type
\begin{document}
Table with short rows:
\begin{tabular}{|p{4in}|}
hello hello hello
\end{tabular}
Same table, with long row:
\begin{tabular}{|p{2in}|}
hello hello hello hello hello hello
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
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5I don't think that this answers the question. You specify a fixed column width, not a maximal one. – Hendrik Vogt Dec 10 '10 at 15:30
