How to make TeX fit rotated text into table cell?

Question

This is what I have in HTML:

<style type="text/css">
table, th, td
{
border: 1px solid black;
border-collapse: collapse;
padding: 2px;
margin: 2px;
}    
th {        background-color: #dddddd;    }
.right { text-align: right; }
.center { text-align: center; }
.left { text-align: left; }
</style>


        <table>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="7">Mérővonalak</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th class="center" rowspan="2">Sorszám</th>
                <th class="center" colspan="2">Pozíció 1</th>
                <th class="center" colspan="2">Pozíció 2</th>
                <th class="right"  rowspan="2">Dőlés°</th>
                <th class="right"  rowspan="2">Metszéspontok<br>száma</th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td class="center">1</td>
                <td class="center"><small>17.90 mm</small></td>
                <td class="center"><small>27.19 mm</small></td>
                <td class="center"><small>-192.10 mm</small></td>
                <td class="center"><small>69.53 mm</small></td>
                <td class="right">-90.0°</td>
                <td class="right">29</td>
            </tr>               
        </table>

I have tried to do the same in XeLaTeX. I had to rotate the last column because there was not enough horizontal space for the table.

\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|}
\hline
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{Mérővonalak} \\
\hline
        \multirow{2}{*}{Sorszám}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 1}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 2}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{Dőlés}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{\rotatebox{90}{~\parbox{1.5cm}{Metszéspontok Száma}~}} \\
\cline{2-5}
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

The vertical text goes out of the table. It even overwrites other text under the table. Shouldn't the tabular environment automatically calculate the vertical size of the row that is needed to fit the content? What am I doing wrong?

Desired:

Actual:

By using Herbert's rules, it is almost perfect:

I can make this work by changing the \rule height parameter to 3cm. But this is not a solution, because cell data comes from a database. It can be a short word, or a very long word. I need a flexible solution.

Answer 1

If you don't know the width/height of the object that will be used, you should store it in a box so LaTeX can calculate it. Here's a slight variation from Herbert's answer that stores the contents of the unknown cell in \box0. You can make your own box if your document is much larger, but it suffices in this MWE:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}% http://ctan.org/pkg/fontspec
\usepackage{graphicx,multirow}% http://ctan.org/pkg/{graphicx,multirow}

\begin{document}

\setbox0\hbox{\tabular{@{}l}Metszéspontok\\ Száma\endtabular}
\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|}\hline
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{Mérővonalak} \\\hline
        \multirow{2}{*}{Sorszám}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 1}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 2}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{Dőlés}
    &   \rule{0pt}{\dimexpr\wd0-\normalbaselineskip}\\\cline{2-5} % save space for the rotatebox
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & 
    & \rotatebox{90}{\rlap{\usebox0}}\\\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{document}​

With each row being displaced \normalbaselineskip apart, \dimexpr\wd0-\normalbaselineskip inserts the appropriate rule height for proper display.

Answer 2

I wouldn't use a multirow cell here. rotate the box of height 0 and use \rule for the vertical space (delete fontspec, if you use pdflatex):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{graphicx,multirow}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|}\hline
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{Mérővonalak} \\\hline
        \multirow{2}{*}{Sorszám}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 1}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 2}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{Dőlés}
    &   \rule{0pt}{2cm}\\\cline{2-5} % save space for the rotatebox
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & 
    & \rotatebox{90}{\rlap{\tabular{@{}l}Metszéspontok\\ Száma\endtabular}}\\\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

If you want allow hyphenation of Metszéspontok then use:

\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|}\hline
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{Mérővonalak} \\\hline
        \multirow{2}{*}{Sorszám}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 1}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 2}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{Dőlés}
    &   \rule{0pt}{1.75cm}\\\cline{2-5} % save space for the rotatebox
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & 
    & \rotatebox{90}{\rlap{\parbox{2cm}{\hspace{0pt}Metszéspontok  Száma}}}\\\hline
\end{tabular}

and without knowing the width/height of the text:

\begin{tabular}{|c|r|r|r|r|r|r|}\hline
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{Mérővonalak} \\\hline
        \multirow{2}{*}{Sorszám}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 1}
    &   \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Pozíció 2}
    &   \multirow{2}{*}{Dőlés}
    &   \rotatebox{90}{\tabular{@{}l}Metszéspontok\\  Száma\endtabular}
     \\\cline{2-5} 
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & Vízszintes
    & Függőleges
    & 
    &  \\\hline
\end{tabular}

By the way: tabulars without vertical rules are better to read ...