Table with two columns aligned, one not aligned

Question

I'm trying to make a table with three columns, the first two being aligned on a row-by-row basis (the usual way) but with the third column only aligning with the first two at the top. Here's what I've tried:

\documentclass[landscape,letterpaper,11pt]{article}

\usepackage[left=0.5in,top=0.5in,right=0.5in,bottom=0.5in,nohead]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]
\begin{tabular}{p{0.6\textwidth}p{0.3\textwidth}}
\begin{tabular}{p{0.3\textwidth}p{0.3\textwidth}}
This is aligned with the first equation & $\displaystyle x^2 + y^2 = z^2 $ \\
This is aligned with the second equation & $\displaystyle e^{i\theta} = \cos(\theta) + i\sin(\theta)$
\end{tabular}
&
\begin{itemize}
\item Bullets.
\item Go with the table in general.
\item The top of the first bullet should be aligned with the tops of the rest of the table.
\end{itemize}
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

The problem is that the tops of the three columns aren't aligned when I do this. Where am I going wrong?

Answer 1

First of all, the inner tabular should be declared [t] (top aligned). In order to remove the space before itemized lists in p cells, there are various ways.

If you always have a single itemized list in those cells, the following slight modification of this answer by Danie Els might do:

\documentclass[landscape,letterpaper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{calc,array}
\usepackage[left=0.5in,top=0.5in,right=0.5in,bottom=0.5in,nohead]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}

\makeatletter
\newcolumntype{i}[1]{%
    >{\minipage[t]{\linewidth}\arraybackslash\itemize}
    p{#1}%
    <{\@finalstrut\@arstrutbox\enditemize\endminipage}}

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{@{}p{0.6\textwidth}i{0.4\textwidth-2\tabcolsep}@{}}
\hline
\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}p{0.3\textwidth-\tabcolsep}p{0.3\textwidth-\tabcolsep}@{}}
This is aligned with the first equation & $\displaystyle x^2 + y^2 = z^2 $ \\
This is aligned with the second equation & $\displaystyle e^{i\theta} = \cos(\theta) + i\sin(\theta)$
\end{tabular}
&
\item Bullets.
\item Go with the table in general.
\item The top of the first bullet should be aligned with the tops of the rest of the table.
\\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

(The rules are just to show the spacings and the alignments.)

Notice how I computed the width of the table columns so that they completely fill the line (the calc package is needed for this).

If your last column cells don't always have only an itemized list, then including the lists in \begin{minipage}[t]{\linewidth}...\end{minipage} will do in (almost) the same way. The column should, of course, be declared as p{...}.

Answer 2

egreg's solution was more than I needed, so I ended up going with this slightly simpler version based on his comments:

\documentclass[landscape,letterpaper,11pt]{article}

\usepackage[left=0.5in,top=0.5in,right=0.5in,bottom=0.5in,nohead]{geometry}
\pagestyle{empty}

% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/6445/preventing-itemize-environment-to-insert-initial-vertical-space
\makeatletter
\newcommand*{\compress}{\@minipagetrue}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[h]
\begin{tabular}{p{0.6\textwidth}p{0.3\textwidth}}
\begin{tabular}[t]{p{0.3\textwidth}p{0.3\textwidth}}
This is aligned with the first equation & $\displaystyle x^2 + y^2 = z^2 $ \\
This is aligned with the second equation & $\displaystyle e^{i\theta} = \cos(\theta) + i\sin(\theta)$
\end{tabular}
&
{\compress}
\begin{itemize}
\item Bullets.
\item Go with the table in general.
\item The top of the first bullet should be aligned with the tops of the rest of the table.
\end{itemize}
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}