Vertical align / vertical centering for custom defined \newcolumntype column

Question

With the following code, I produce a table containing cells with one and two lines:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

\usepackage{float} 
\usepackage{lscape} 
\usepackage{booktabs} 
\usepackage{tabularx} 
\usepackage{array}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[H]
    \begin{tabular}{|P{2cm}||P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}|P{0.8cm}||}
        \hline
        \textbf{position} & \multicolumn{2}{P{2cm}|}{text no. one} & \multicolumn{4}{c|}{text}                         & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{text no. two} \\ \hline
        \textbf{other} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{-} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{towards no. one} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{away from no. one} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{-} \\ \hline
        \textbf{two line text} & low          & high          & low          & high           & low          & high          & low          & high           \\ \hline
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

This produces the following output:

I would like to define the columntype P in a way that it automatically also vertically centers text automatically if the cell spans two lines but contains only one line of text (here, the cells containing position, text, text no. two and all low and high entries).

I'm sure there is a straightforward solution but I couldn't find it either here or in the documentation of the array package.

Many thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Something like this?

(red lines indicate page layout)

• your table is to wide for standard page layout, consequently I suggest to take two measures:

  • increase \textwidth (by use of the geometry package)
  • reduce font size to \small
• for table environment use tabularx
• define new column type C derived from X column type
• define new command for shorter writing of multi column cells

Complete MWE is:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[a4paper, margin=25mm]{geometry} % set suitable page parameters
\usepackage{tabularx}
\newcolumntype{C}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}X}
\usepackage{xparse}
\NewExpandableDocumentCommand\mcx{O{2}m}
    {\multicolumn{#1}
                 {>{\hsize=\dimexpr#1\hsize+#1\tabcolsep+#1\arrayrulewidth/2\relax}C|}
                 {#2}}

%---------------- show page layout. don't use in a real document!
\usepackage{showframe}
\renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.15pt}
\renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}
%---------------------------------------------------------------%

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[ht]
    \small
    \setlength\tabcolsep{3pt}
    \renewcommand\tabularxcolumn[1]{m{#1}}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{|>{\bfseries\centering}m{17mm}|| *{8}{C|}}
        \hline
position    
    &   \mcx{text no. one}   
                    &   \mcx[4]{text}                   &   \mcx{text no. two}  \\ \hline
{other}    
    &   \mcx{--}         
                    &   \mcx{towards no. one} 
                            & \mcx{away from no. one}   & \mcx{--}              \\ \hline
two line text
    & low   & high  & low   & high  & low   & high      & low   & high          \\ \hline
\end{tabularx}
    \end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Please see if this meets the requirements

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[a4paper]{geometry} % set suitable page parameters
\usepackage[portuguese]{babel}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{caption} % optional 
\usepackage{siunitx}
    \usepackage{tabulary}
    \usepackage{array}
    \usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor} %Used to color the last column
\usepackage{tabularx,ragged2e,booktabs,lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{subcaption}
\usepackage[export]{adjustbox}
\begin{document}
\noindent
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|XXXXXXXXX|}
\hline 
\small\centering{position} &     
\multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+2\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{text no. one} &     
\multicolumn{4}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr4\hsize+6\tabcolsep+3\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{text}                         &     
\multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+2\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{text no. two} \\ \hline
        \small\centering{other} & 
        \multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+1\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{-} & 
        \multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+1\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{towards no. one} & 
        \multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+1\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{away from no. one} & 
        \multicolumn{2}{|>{\hsize=\dimexpr2\hsize+2\tabcolsep+1\arrayrulewidth\small\centering\relax}X|}{-} \\ \hline
        \footnotesize\centering{two line text} & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}          & \footnotesize\centering{two line text}\\%    
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}