Comprehensive list of tools that simplify the generation of LaTeX tables

Question

Manually hacking tables in LaTeX is one of the less funny things when preparing a document. Naturally, there are quite a few tools that promise to simplify this. In fact, I have somewhat lost track of all the tools available, and I'd like to gather your valuable experience into one big post. Some of the tools are mentioned in Tool for manipulating LaTeX tables (HTML to LaTeX), but I feel there's much more around.

I'd suggest that somebody starts an overview with an alphabetic list (so that I can accept this answer and it stays on top), and that everyone replies with a "community wiki" entry, one reply per tool, and inserts the tool into the list.

Personally, I use Excel2LaTeX, but I'm unhappy with having to fire up Windows in order to generate the LaTeX code. I'm thinking of a rewrite as a standalone Python tool using the xlrd library, but I'm not too inclined to reinvent the wheel.

Answer 1

Often, I have the use-case that I want to convert a given data table into a "suitable" LaTeX table.

Typically, my data is of numeric type and requires number formatting, perhaps alignment at a decimal point, and in most cases, it requires elementary post-processing (like quotients, differences, gradients).

Since I needed such stuff very often, I wrote some C++ scripts which generated .tex files. It was useful - but I realized very early that it is insufficient; it is just not flexible enough and -as any external tool- produces unwanted complications due to the many tools involved.

My solution is the LaTeX package pgfplotstable. It is a LaTeX table generator, i.e. it converts input data explicitly by a set of configurable rules into something like \begin{tabular}....\end{tabular}.

DISCLAIMER NOTE: I wrote the package.

Among its features are

• separation of data + format
• data in form of external data files (CSV with customizable separators) or inline tables (inside of the .tex file)
• central format definition (for example in the preamble or in form of styles)
• format numbers with the full power of LaTeX
• supports simple text columns as well
• simple support for alternating row colors (colortbl)
• simple support for standart LaTeX table packages (booktabs, longtable, colortbl, multirow, \multicolumn,...)
• can produce completely new columns containing postprocessed data, with the powerful pgf math engine
• can convert single-column output to two-column output
• is written completely in TeX (no external tools required)
• highly customizable
• has a manual with lots of examples.

You may want to inspect the link mentioned above and its examples to see if it fits your needs.

Answer 2

^{I was reluctant to publish this humble tool, but here it goes.}

excel2datatool

excel2datatool is a Java application I wrote to help me with a personal project. Since it was useful for me and I do believe it's generic enough for other purposes, I decided to make it publicly available. The repository is hosted on GitHub.

The whole idea is to read Microsoft Excel formats and generate .csv + .tex + datatool. Some might argue that this app is basically a CSV converter. Well, it is, but since I had to write a complementary .tex file with \DTLloaddb, I decided to automate steps.

The app does not rely on Microsoft Excel. It supports both xls and xlsx out of the box. The usage is quite easy, double-click excel2datatool.jar in Windows and Mac, or run java -jar excel2datatool in Linux. The code is Java 5, 6, 7 and OpenJDK 6 compliant.

Pros

• There's no need for Microsoft Excel or other office tool.
• It supports both xls and xlsx formats out of the box.
• Runs on every major operating system.
• The LaTeX file generation is optional, so you can use it as a normal CSV converter.

Cons

• I wrote the app.
• Since it doesn't rely on external applications, the payload is quite big (9.5Mb).
• The LaTeX file will contain the most basic datatool usage, with \DTLloaddb. There are no advanced commands.
• No command line interface.
• Some people might not like the drag-and-drop style.
• The application tries its best to parse the Excel file, but there are probably some more complex files which won't be correctly converted.

Answer 3

Excel2LaTeX

An Excel add-in that converts parts of a spreadsheet into equivalent LaTeX tables.

Free.

CTAN: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/excel2latex/

Source: https://github.com/krlmlr/Excel2LaTeX

Pros

• Most Excel formatting is supported.
  • Bold and italic (if applied to the whole cell)
  • Left, right, center, and general alignment (per-cell or per-column)
  • Vertical and horizontal borders (per-cell or per-column, single or double)
  • Font color (using the xcolor package)
  • Fill color (using the colortbl package)
  • Rotation (using the rotating package)
  • Merged cells (using the multirow package, if needed)
  • Can convert \, $, _, ^, %, &, and # to appropriate macros, or leave them in-place
  • Supports booktabs package
  • Uses bigstrut package when booktabs is not available
• Can surround tabular environment with table environment template
• Copy output to clipboard or export to a .tex file for inclusion using \include
• Save table specifications to your Excel worksheet, then export all tables at once
• Configurable: Repeatedly convert the same ranges with one click

Cons

• Requires Windows or OS X, and Excel to do the conversion

Answer 4

Orgmode

Orgmode is a notes/planning mode for Emacs that has a nice table feature.

http://orgmode.org/

Pros

• Column widths auto-adjust based on contents
• Behaves as a spreadsheet, including calculations, row/column insert and delete, row/column moves, rectangular selection
• Import and export of TAB or whitespace separated data
• Lots of export options (LaTeX, HTML, PDF)

Cons

• Requires Emacs which has a significant learning curve if you are not already using it
• Some advanced LaTeX table formatting is still done manually after export

Answer 5

LyX

LyX has a relatively decent table editor. By selecting View->View Source, one can directly see the resulting LaTeX code and easily copy&paste (and also learn) it from there. Furthermore, it is easy to typeset the result via LaTeX to get an impression on the actual look of the table. Other benefits are built-in support for booktabs and longtable.

The immediate representation of the resulting LaTeX source helped me a lot to actually learn the whistles and bells about LaTeX tabulars. Today I am fluent enough to use LyX only very seldom for this purpose.

You can even paste a table copied from e.g. Excel into LyX by following these instructions:

1. In LyX, insert a table with the same dimensions as the one in the excel.
2. Place the mouse cursor in the top left cell of the table.
3. From the menu of LyX, choose Edit → Paste Special → Plain Text, Join Lines.

Answer 6

LaTeX Tables Generator

Nice online LaTeX tables generator, supports:

• multicolumn;
• multirow;
• visual editing;
• custom borders;
• booktabs styles, coloring and various centering.

Answer 7

R + xtable package

R has the package xtable which generates LaTeX output - useful if you want R results in tabular form. This is an easy way if you're working in the R environment anyway.

Free.

Pros

• At least the following table types can be converted to a nice table out of the box:

  • One-way and two-way cross tabulations
  • Data frames
  • Model estimation results

  (Anyone more familiar with xtable please append to this list.)

• Support for booktabs and longtable

• Optional enclosing in table environment with caption
• Formatting of numbers and cell contents can be specified
• Optional filtering ("sanitizing") of TeX special characters
• More flexibility in conjunction with knitr/Sweave: The definition of the table can be "plain" LaTeX code, and the contents can be generated by an R chunk

Cons

• Requires R, steep learning curve if you are not familiar with R

• No support for multicolumn and multirow cells

• Any special effects (such as row and column headers for a contingency table require programming)

See also the following question for details on using xtable:

How can I use a table generated by R in LaTeX?

The Hmisc package can also generate tabular output from R.

Answer 8

Emacs align-current and rectangles

OK, this isn't really much of an answer, but if you already have a table in LaTeX and you just want to edit it a bit, it can get a bit messy. If you use emacs then the following tools are super helpful.

First, align-current tries to line up your &s so that your data is more or less in columns. You can then use emacs' C-x r k to cut rectangles out, and C-x r y to paste rectangles back into your table.

Here are some links:

• Blog post about the above trick
• Another post about rectangles
• Emacs manual on rectangles

Answer 9

Calc2LaTeX

For the sake of completeness: You know, there is the spreadsheet programm of the OpenOffice / LibreOffice suite, simply called »calc«. It runs on Linux, Windows and probably on Mac, and it imports Excel spreadsheets quite nicely, if you haven't done more than using tables.

From calc to LaTeX there is an add to calc: calc2Latex

Works nicely, I've been using it for years.

Answer 10

LaTable

A visual editor for LaTeX tables for Windows and Macintosh. It can be downloaded from CTAN.

The application provides a spreadsheet-like interface with the ability to insert and delete rows and columns, to edit the cells and to set the borders. Tables can be im- and exported as plain text or CSV files or saved in LaTable's own file format .latbl.

A (rather horribly-looking) example:

The code generated for this example table:

\begin{tabular}{l|ll|l}
\cline{3-3}
first column & \multicolumn{1}{l|}{second column} & third column & fourth column \\ 
\hline
\multicolumn{1}{c|}{1} & \multicolumn{1}{l|}{2} & 3 & 4 \\ 
\cline{3-3}
5 & 6 & \multicolumn{1}{r}{7} & 8 \\ 
\cline{1-2}\cline{4-4}
9 & \multicolumn{1}{c}{10} & 11 & \multicolumn{1}{l|}{12} \\ 
\cline{4-4}
\end{tabular}

And this is the compiled LaTeX result for comparison:

Answer 11

csv2latex

For Mac users there is the script csv2latex which allows you to cut and paste spreadsheet cells from Excel, Number or Calc and paste them into your LaTeX source in a variety of popular table formats.

If you use TeXShop as your editor, this functionality is built into the program: there is a Paste Spreadsheet Cells macro in the Macros menu. For other Applescript-aware Mac editors, you can install the script manually.

Disclaimer: I am the author.

Answer 12

Direct spreadsheet editing

I've been handling data tables from Excel into LaTeX for lab reports for some while and I have tried several tools. I would like to make the case that unless you consistently require formatting of the same style, then quite often the simplest answer is to direct copy-paste from your spreadsheet into LaTeX with inserted columns including whatever separators you want.

This is particularly useful if you need extra mark-up between columns, such as $ ... $ signs or extra mathematical stuff such as units and the like.

This is arguably best for producing tableaux rather than formal scientific tables, and it does have the disadvantage that it inextricably links up data and formatting. On the other hand, that gives you a lot of freedom for data-dependent formatting. My most recent use of this was the following table, for my dissertation:

I can really not think of other ways of doing this - and particularly of ways that would later on enable me to easily change one of the functions displayed. This is of course not a scientific table, but this tableau is I think the clearest such presentation of these functions. (Spreadsheet and source code available on request.)

Answer 13

Numbers2LaTeX

A quick hack from long time ago that converts a table in numbers (for Mac OS X) to a LaTeX table: https://gist.github.com/386384

Answer 14

Kile

http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/extragear-office/kile/wizard_array.html

http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/extragear-office/kile/wizard_array.html

Arrays and tabulars

One of the most boring jobs one can do in LATEX is to write a matrix or a tabular environment. One has to keep track of all the elements, ensure that the environment is well formed, and that all things are where they are supposed to be. Good indentation helps, but there is a simpler way: using Kile's Wizard → Array or Wizard → Tabular menu entries. You will then have a matrix-formed input form that you can easily fill in with your entries. This dialog also offers some options to typeset the tabular material.

Answer 15

Warning: what's below is more of a tongue-in-cheek answer, but not without a shred of truth in it!

\halign & \valign

Pro

• It's what you'd eventually get with the other packages (most likely) anyways
• format agnostic – it's a TeX primitive
• Once you grok it, you'll be able to produce typographically beautiful tables more easily, and, on the other hand,
• creating typographically ugly tables is difficult

Contra

• there's a learning curve
• creating typographically ugly tables is difficult ;-)

---

To expand a little, to think about what one is doing when inputting tabular data is that, if, for example, one is working on a spreadsheet program, what you are mentally doing is that every time you want to express that you want to move on to the next horizontal cell you press tab, and every time you want to move to the next row you press enter.

Now, if you just input & instead of tab, and \cr instead of enter, you can skip all the intermediary steps. That is, converting the spreadsheet program generated chunk into tabular (or whatever), and then expanding that out to a \halign.

Similarly, by the time that you've navigated with your mouse through the various menus in the spreadsheet program to express that you want a particular cell to span, say, three columns (this would almost always mean that you are working on a “header” cell), you would have already written \multispan3.

I can already see that I'm writing myself into a corner here, what with the various arguments for cell background colors, cells spanning multiple rows, cells containing vertical mode material, and what have you. So I'm just going to say a sweeping statement about all those things being “bad typography”. ;-).

Hold on, there's a lynch mob knocking on my door…

What I mean is that if you find yourself doing any of the above, more often than not, chances are that you are complicating the information you want to communicate with your table. And that's basically what the word “bad typography” means.

So one strong argument still remains: to visually see the structure of the table, be it in raw text (like in the orgmode answer, vims equivalent, or in the various Markdown extensions), or in graphical programs (like in spreadsheet programs).

This could again be just a s/<colsepchar>/\&/g and s/<rowsepchar>/\\cr/, in whatever chunk you get out from the program of your choice. Like, not a big deal at all. Or alternatively on the TeX side of things, some \catcode madness could take place. Given that the table is simple enough, i.e., not complicating the information you want to communicate with it.

So, given this context and background, I hope my initial joke's not lost on anyone and this answer could happily live in this question! ;-)

Answer 16

Orgtbl-minor-mode (for emacs)

This is along the lines of this answer about org-mode. org-mode also provides a minor mode designed specifically to typeset tables with the org syntax, but in a non-org buffer.

Latex is supported out of the box, and there is a tutorial in the org manual.

Pros

• all those in the answer about org-mode
• no need to use a separate buffer or mode, all is done in the latex buffer
• the exporter can be set up on a per-table basis, simply passing parameters to the #+ORGTBL line

Cons

• the emacs learning curve, mentioned in the answer about org-mode
• you do not get a full-featured org buffer, which means some keybindings will not be available if they clash with the latex keymap
• you will also miss on some features of the org swiss-army-knife, for example, the ability to generate the table values from the org buffer, with embedded scripts or code snippets.

For the impatient, though already familiar with org-mode people:

• turn the minor mode on: M-x orgtbl-mode RET
• create the template: M-x orgtbl-insert-radio-table RET

• fill the table

• export the table: C-c C-c

The two approaches (org and orgtbl) are different in purpose, in my view. org-mode is fine if you don't need to change your data a lot, or if you can afford to do the manual tweaking after every export.

On the other hand, with orgtbl, you can change your table, reexport and recompile in a few keystrokes. It also provides some ways to "automate" the tweaking, but they are still more or less dirty hacks: it goes from overwriting parameters in the export function (which is fine, I guess) to injecting latex code in the cells (for example additional line space can be added in the first cell of the next line).

Answer 17

Inlage

Insert → Insert Table (Ctrl + Shift + T ) will open the following window (where I have filled some data):

Upon pressing insert, the code is inserted in the editor where the cursor is:

---

Importing from Excel

Let us say we have an excel table with formulae:

Select the values and copy:

Now paste in the inlage editor (directly). The Insert Table window will appear as shown below:

Press the Insert button after editing if any. Values will be converted in to LaTeX code as shown below:

Answer 18

Cals

The CALS table model is the historic precursor of the HTML table model. It is easier in use and offers more capabilities than tabularx.

By employing the cals package, tables in LaTeX can be directly defined in CALS syntax.

Here is the documentation:

• http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/cals (demo & doc)
• http://tug.org/TUGboat/tb32-2/tb101parashchenko.pdf (user's manual)

and an example:

\documentclass{article}

%text symbols
\usepackage{textcomp}

%table
\usepackage{cals}

\begin{document}
\makeatletter
\begin{calstable}
\colwidths{{12mm}{18mm}{18mm}{12mm}{15mm}}
\def\cals@cs@width{0pt} %no vertical lines
\setlength{\cals@paddingT}{3pt}
\setlength{\cals@paddingB}{2pt}
\alignC
\thead{\brow \cell{sectie} \cell{$D_{out}$\,(m)} \cell{$D_{in}$\,(m)} \cell{$\ell$\,(m)} \cell{$A$\,(m\texttwosuperior)} \erow}
\brow \cell{1} \cell{0,060} \cell{0,056} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,66} \erow
\brow \cell{2} \cell{0,055} \cell{0,051} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,60} \erow
\brow \cell{3} \cell{0,050} \cell{0,046} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,54} \erow
\brow \cell{4} \cell{0,045} \cell{0,041} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,49} \erow
\brow \cell{5} \cell{0,040} \cell{0,036} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,43} \erow
\brow \cell{6} \cell{0,035} \cell{0,031} \cell{1,80} \cell{0,37} \erow
\tfoot{\brow \alignR \nullcell{ltb} \nullcell{tb} \nullcell{tb} \nullcell{tbr} \spancontent{Totaal:} \alignC \cell{3,09} \erow}
\end{calstable}
\makeatother
De totale oppervlakte bedraagt 3,09\,m\texttwosuperior.
\end{document}

Answer 19

LaTeX-tables

With this new interface it is possible to create quickly a table: there are many options as from this image:

It is very easy and there are the options: Import from LaTeX and Load from Excel.

Answer 20

AppleScript Excel2Latex

I wrote this AppleScript to help me convert my selection in Microsoft Excel 2011 Mac to LateX code. I have it configured to export into a longtabutable, but it can easily be configured to accommodate other needs.

Limitations: Script ignores bold or italicized words

(*
Must have \usepackage{longtable} and \usepackage{tabu} in preamble.
Export is saved to Desktop as "Excel Table Export.tex"
written in 2013 by Jonathan Komar
*)

set target_file to (((path to desktop folder) as text) & "Excel Table Export.tex")
my write_to_file("", target_file, false)

tell application "Microsoft Excel"
    set mySel to selection
    tell selection to set {rowCount, columnCount} to {count rows, count columns}

    set columnsList to {}
    repeat columnCount times
        set end of columnsList to "X[m] "
    end repeat

    set myList to {}

    set writeThis to "\\begin{longtabu}{ " & (columnsList as string) & "}\n\\tabucline[.4mm,black]1\n"
    my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
    repeat with rowStep from 1 to (rowCount)
        repeat with columnStep from 1 to (columnCount)
            set currentValue to value of cell columnStep of row rowStep of mySel
            if columnStep is equal to columnCount and rowStep is 1 then
                set writeThis to currentValue & "\\\\\n\\tabucline[.05mm,black]1\n"
                my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
            else
                if columnStep is not equal to columnCount then
                    set writeThis to currentValue & " & "
                    my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                else
                    set writeThis to currentValue & "\\\\\n"
                    my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                end if
            end if
            if rowStep is equal to rowCount and columnStep is columnCount then
                set writeThis to "\\tabucline[.4mm,black]1\n\\end{longtabu}"
                my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
            end if
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

return myList as string



on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data) -- (string, file path as string, boolean)
    try
        set the target_file to the target_file as text
        set the open_target_file to ¬
            open for access file target_file with write permission
        if append_data is false then ¬
            set eof of the open_target_file to 0
        write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof as «class utf8»
        close access the open_target_file
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file target_file
        end try
        return false
    end try
end write_to_file

AppleScript Numbers2LateX

This is a template script for iWork Numbers. It has issues: You need to set the rows and columns in the script manually or by adjusting the table to fit your content. I am not sure how to get a row and column count of a selection in Numbers. Warning: This script does not seem to work as well as the excel script. It must be improved!

(*
Must have \usepackage{longtable} in preamble.
Export is saved to Desktop as "Numbers Table Export.tex"
written in 2013 by Jonathan Komar
*)

set target_file to (((path to desktop folder) as text) & "Numbers Table Export.tex")
my write_to_file("", target_file, false)

tell application "Numbers"
    set rowCount to (get row count of table 1 of sheet 1 of document 1)
    set columnCount to (get row count of table 1 of sheet 1 of document 1)

    tell front document
        tell table 1 of sheet 1
            set columnsList to {}
            repeat columnCount times
                set end of columnsList to "X[m] "
            end repeat

            set myList to {}
            set writeThis to "\\begin{longtabu}{ " & (columnsList as string) & "}\n\\tabucline[.4mm,black]1\n"
            my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
            repeat with rowStep from 1 to rowCount
                repeat with columnStep from 1 to (columnCount - 1)
                    set currentValue to value of cell rowStep of column columnStep
                    if columnStep is equal to columnCount and rowStep is 1 then
                        set writeThis to currentValue & "\\\\\n\\tabucline[.05mm,black]1\n"
                        my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                    else
                        if columnStep is not equal to columnCount then
                            set writeThis to currentValue & " & "
                            my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                        else
                            set writeThis to currentValue & "\\\\\n"
                            my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                        end if
                    end if
                    if rowStep is equal to rowCount and columnStep is columnCount then
                        set writeThis to "\\tabucline[.4mm,black]1\n\\end{longtabu}"
                        my write_to_file(writeThis, target_file, true)
                    end if
                end repeat
            end repeat
            get value of cell 1 of column 2

        end tell
    end tell
end tell



on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data) -- (string, file path as string, boolean)
    try
        set the target_file to the target_file as text
        set the open_target_file to ¬
            open for access file target_file with write permission
        if append_data is false then ¬
            set eof of the open_target_file to 0
        write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof as «class utf8»
        close access the open_target_file
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file target_file
        end try
        return false
    end try
end write_to_file

Answer 21

Creating LaTeX Table from Excel Worksheet

Save the contents of the excel sheet as csv file and use it in the LaTeX code. Here is an example:

The above is an excel sheet. Saving it in csv format as contents.csv.

natural,two,three
1,2,3
2,4,6
3,6,9
4,8,12
5,10,15
6,12,18
7,14,21
8,16,24
9,18,27
10,20,30

Now, the following code illustrates an example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\begin{document}
\pgfplotstabletypeset[
    col sep=comma,
    string type,
    columns/natural/.style={column name=natural, column type={|l}},
    columns/two/.style={column name=two, column type={|l}},
    columns/three/.style={column name=three, column type={|c|}},
    every head row/.style={before row=\hline,after row=\hline},
    every last row/.style={after row=\hline},
    ]{contents.csv}
\end{document} 

Answer 22

As you know you can also get a snapshot of your table and add the image file to your file. OK, OK! you are right this is not a good solution for all cases but use it as last resort. In such situation http://getgreenshot.org/ is your assistant.

Answer 23

excel2latex.js

An online tool that converts .xlsx files (but no .xls files) to LaTeX tables. JavaScript based. The code is on GitHub. Haven't tested it yet, just found this answer.

Answer 24

CSV + R editor (RStudio or TexStudio) + sweave + knitr

Even better if you write your Latex document directly as a Rnw document and sweave it with TexStudio or RStudio.

The steps would be :

1. Create CSV containing data
2. Import the csv as a data frame in an R chunck
3. Create table with kable or xtable (highly customizable)
4. Knit the Rnw document with the option to keep the tex file (so you can eventually fine tune the result)
5. Enjoy a dynamic document with the power of Latex and R

Answer 25

I use a simple VBA for Excel function called ConcateMe to generate the rows of a table in a text cell in your excel file.

You will have to set up the main environment of the table yourself, but the script below is very handy in that it creates the table rows in a cell.

Use the function for each table row separately. Then copy the contents of the cell and paste into LaTex. Presto.

Nothing fancy, but very fast, and because it is a function, it is always up to date.

Function ConcatMe(Rng As Range) As String
Dim cl As Range
   ConcatMe = ""
   countr = 0
   For Each cl In Rng
   countr = countr + 1
      pasty = cl.Text
      If pasty = vbNullString Then pasty = " "
      If countr = 1 Then ConcatMe = ConcatMe & pasty Else ConcatMe = ConcatMe & " & " & Trim(pasty)
   Next cl
   ConcatMe = ConcatMe & " \\"
End Function

Answer 26

Python Macro LibreCalc2Latex

I've found this macro calc2booktab and tested it on LibreCalc 6.3. It works really nice. It has a couple of options. So far I've tried it out also on Overleaf and it also works as intendend.