# How can a line skip a column in an aligned environment?

I'm trying to align an equation block with eight terms in the following layout:

A....... B..............
C.....   D....    E......
F......  G......  H...


I've tried just leaving out the third column in the first line, but that pushes the third column far right:

\begin{gather}
\begin{aligned}
&\text{A.......} &&\text{B..............} \\
&\text{C.....}   &&\text{D....}    &&\text{E......} \\
&\text{F......}  &&\text{G......}  &&\text{H...}
\end{aligned}
\end{gather}


If this were a table, I would merge the second and third cells of the first row using \multicolumn.

How can I position E and H before the end of B?

Depending on the width of B..., you can set it inside a \mathrlap:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{mathtools}

\begin{document}

\begin{gather}
\begin{aligned}
&\text{A.......} && \mathrlap{\text{B..............}} \\
&\text{C.....}   && \text{D....}    && \text{E......} \\
&\text{F......}  && \text{G......}  && \text{H...}
\end{aligned}
\end{gather}

\end{document}

• Cool, thanks! This works because B is always longer than either D or G in my case. – danijar Jan 6 at 2:46

Why not use aray? With it is siple (as you noted in question):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{makecell}

\begin{document}

\setcellgapes{3pt}
\makegapedcells\bigotimes
\begin{array}{lll}
\gamma^2 = \alpha^2 + \beta^2
&\multicolumn{2}{l}{\displaystyle
\sin{x}= \sum_{i=0}^{\infty}\frac{(-1)^i}{(2i+1)!}x^{2i+1}
}                       \\
\text{C.....}   &\text{D....}    &\text{E......}            \\
\text{F......}  &\text{G......}  &\text{H...}
\end{array}

\end{document}


• Is this recommended for equations? Would the spacing be correct? I should have said that the words in my question are just placeholders for terms of mathematical equations. – danijar Jan 6 at 2:43
• @danijar, as you see, in the all rows are math term (\alpha, \beta, \text{C ...} etc), so, you can put there any equation instead them. To convince you, I wrote two equation in the first row i of the arrax. Note, math term inside them are in-line math expresions. See edited example!. – Zarko Jan 6 at 3:13
• Good to know, thanks. Would you recommend this over the solution using \mathrlap? It seems like tables come in handy for more complex situations but for now \mathrlap is a simpler solution. – danijar Jan 6 at 3:58
• Why you would use \mathrlap? In showed example I don't see anything for fine tuning of math expression (for example sum) with it. – Zarko Jan 6 at 7:54
• @danijar, now I see, where you like to use mathrlap (instead of the /standard/ multicolumn) This use is (according to my opinion) against to standard syntax for table settings. I do not recommend it. I suggest you to ask new question: What is correct: use mathrlap or multicolumn for multi column long equations. With some luck you will get competent answers from LaTeX gurus :-) – Zarko Jan 6 at 14:02