# Vertical Alignment of Tabular Within Tabular

I am attempting to put a tabular with another tabular to put cell entries on multiple lines. However, when doing so, it appears that the two images in adjacent cells are aligned at their baselines, as opposed to the entire contents of each cell being centered vertically. MWE below:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\graphicspath{{images/}}
\pdfminorversion=6
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.13}
\pgfplotsset{colormap={grays}{gray(0cm)=(0.5);gray(1cm)=(0)}}
\pgfplotsset{samples=3}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
\caption{Table Caption}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline
$p=15$ kN/m \\ $a=5$ m \\ $b=15$ m \\ $c=0$ m \\ $z=$ 2 m \end{tabular} &
\begin{tikzpicture}[framed]
\begin{axis}[%
view={30}{30},
width=0.6\linewidth,
height=3in,
xlabel={Lateral Distance $x$ [m]},
xlabel style={align=center, rotate=-7},
ylabel={Lateral Distance $y$ [m]},
ylabel style={rotate=27},
zlabel={Vertical Stress $q_v$ [kPa]}
]
patch,
fill=white,
opacity=0.8,
domain=0:20,
y domain=-5:5
]
{15*2^3/(2*3.1415*(y^2+2^2))*(%
((15-x)*(2*(15-x)^2+3*(y^2+2^2))/((15-x)^2+y^2+2^2)^1.5)-%
%
((5-x)*(2*(5-x)^2+3*(y^2+2^2)))/((5-x)^2+y^2+2^2)^1.5))};
\addlegendentry{$q_v$}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture} \\ \hline
%
\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{\vbox{%
\begin{equation*}
E=mc^2
\end{equation*}}} \\
%
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\end{document}


This results in the following look. I am attempting to get the left and right cells aligned vertically in the center of the cell. This question dealt with a similar issue, but did not address centering vertically.

With the help of baseline=(current bounding box.center), added to the options of the tikzpicture you can get the desired vertically centered alignment:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}
\graphicspath{{images/}}
\pdfminorversion=6
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.13}
\pgfplotsset{colormap={grays}{gray(0cm)=(0.5);gray(1cm)=(0)}}
\pgfplotsset{samples=3}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
\caption{Table Caption}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline
\begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}\includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{example-image} \\
$p=15$ kN/m \\ $a=5$ m \\ $b=15$ m \\ $c=0$ m \\ $z=$ 2 m \end{tabular} &
\begin{tikzpicture}[baseline=(current bounding box.center),framed]
\begin{axis}[%
view={30}{30},
width=0.6\linewidth,
height=3in,
xlabel={Lateral Distance $x$ [m]},
xlabel style={align=center, rotate=-7},
ylabel={Lateral Distance $y$ [m]},
ylabel style={rotate=27},
zlabel={Vertical Stress $q_v$ [kPa]}
]
patch,
fill=white,
opacity=0.8,
domain=0:20,
y domain=-5:5
]
{15*2^3/(2*3.1415*(y^2+2^2))*(%
((15-x)*(2*(15-x)^2+3*(y^2+2^2))/((15-x)^2+y^2+2^2)^1.5)-%
%
((5-x)*(2*(5-x)^2+3*(y^2+2^2)))/((5-x)^2+y^2+2^2)^1.5))};
\addlegendentry{$q_v$}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture} \\ \hline
%
\multicolumn{2}{|c|}{\vbox{%
\begin{equation*}
E=mc^2
\end{equation*}}} \\
%
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\end{document}

• This certainly works, but it doesn't appear to exactly center the content in the left cell. Am I missing a spurious line below the left cell's contents, or is there something else going on here? Feb 26 '20 at 22:09
• Very very good code...my compliments. Feb 26 '20 at 22:54
• Wait, I figured out my problem. I had inserted a [t] to top align my second tabular environment without noticing. This is working as intended, now. Thanks very much for your help! Feb 27 '20 at 19:51