When should the tabularx environment be used or not?












13














I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
Werner didn't use it either.
In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.



I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.




  1. Is the tabularx environment useful?

  2. When should we use the tabularx environment?

  3. Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?










share|improve this question



























    13














    I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
    Werner didn't use it either.
    In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.



    I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.




    1. Is the tabularx environment useful?

    2. When should we use the tabularx environment?

    3. Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?










    share|improve this question

























      13












      13








      13


      1





      I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
      Werner didn't use it either.
      In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.



      I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.




      1. Is the tabularx environment useful?

      2. When should we use the tabularx environment?

      3. Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?










      share|improve this question













      I asked a question here and egreg replied that the tabularx environment was not the right tool. He solved the problem with the tabular environment.
      Werner didn't use it either.
      In this question Mico also says that the tabularx environment is not suitable.



      I thought the tabularx environment was adapted to get columns of the same width, but this can be done in the tabular environment as egreg did.




      1. Is the tabularx environment useful?

      2. When should we use the tabularx environment?

      3. Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?







      tabularx






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked 2 days ago









      AndréC

      8,03511443




      8,03511443






















          3 Answers
          3






          active

          oldest

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          16















          Is the tabularx environment useful?




          Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).




          When should we use the tabularx environment?




          You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.




          Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?





          • When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.

          • When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.

          • When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.






          share|improve this answer





























            12














            TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.



            Never use tabularx without an X column!



            Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!



            documentclass{article} 
            usepackage{caption}
            usepackage{array}
            usepackage{booktabs}
            usepackage{tabularx}

            begin{document}
            begin{table}centering
            caption{Here it is useful}
            begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
            toprule
            Column A & Column B & Column C \
            midrule
            texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
            bottomrule
            end{tabularx}
            end{table}
            begin{table}centering
            caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
            begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
            toprule
            Column A & Column B & Column C \
            midrule
            marmots & lions & ducks \
            bottomrule
            end{tabularx}
            end{table}
            begin{table}centering
            caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
            begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
            toprule
            Column A & Column B & Column C \
            midrule
            marmots & lions & ducks \
            bottomrule
            end{tabularx}
            end{table}
            begin{table}centering
            caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
            begin{tabular}{ccc}
            toprule
            Column A & Column B & Column C \
            midrule
            marmots & lions & ducks \
            bottomrule
            end{tabular}
            end{table}
            end{document}


            enter image description here






            share|improve this answer























            • Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
              – TeXnician
              yesterday






            • 3




              @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
              – CarLaTeX
              yesterday






            • 1




              I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
              – samcarter
              yesterday








            • 1




              @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
              – CarLaTeX
              yesterday



















            11














            The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.



            An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.






            share|improve this answer





















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              3 Answers
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              3 Answers
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              16















              Is the tabularx environment useful?




              Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).




              When should we use the tabularx environment?




              You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.




              Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?





              • When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.

              • When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.

              • When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.






              share|improve this answer


























                16















                Is the tabularx environment useful?




                Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).




                When should we use the tabularx environment?




                You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.




                Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?





                • When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.

                • When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.

                • When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.






                share|improve this answer
























                  16












                  16








                  16







                  Is the tabularx environment useful?




                  Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).




                  When should we use the tabularx environment?




                  You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.




                  Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?





                  • When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.

                  • When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.

                  • When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.






                  share|improve this answer













                  Is the tabularx environment useful?




                  Yes. But it's no environment intended to replace tabular with (i.e. it makes no sense to make every tabular a tabularx).




                  When should we use the tabularx environment?




                  You should use it when you need to calculate the width of a column with respect to a total width. Please note that if your columns are short and do not contain line breaks you do not gain anything from using tabularx. You can get fixed-width columns with regular p or wl specifiers.




                  Do you have any examples where this environment is useful?





                  • When you need to reproduce word processor tables it's quite useful as they are often using equally-sized columns.

                  • When you are going to have several columns which should be of equal-size and which will have line breaks.

                  • When you are in a hurry and do not want to do calculations.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 2 days ago









                  TeXnician

                  24.6k63087




                  24.6k63087























                      12














                      TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.



                      Never use tabularx without an X column!



                      Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!



                      documentclass{article} 
                      usepackage{caption}
                      usepackage{array}
                      usepackage{booktabs}
                      usepackage{tabularx}

                      begin{document}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Here it is useful}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
                      begin{tabular}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabular}
                      end{table}
                      end{document}


                      enter image description here






                      share|improve this answer























                      • Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                        – TeXnician
                        yesterday






                      • 3




                        @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                        – samcarter
                        yesterday








                      • 1




                        @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday
















                      12














                      TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.



                      Never use tabularx without an X column!



                      Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!



                      documentclass{article} 
                      usepackage{caption}
                      usepackage{array}
                      usepackage{booktabs}
                      usepackage{tabularx}

                      begin{document}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Here it is useful}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
                      begin{tabular}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabular}
                      end{table}
                      end{document}


                      enter image description here






                      share|improve this answer























                      • Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                        – TeXnician
                        yesterday






                      • 3




                        @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                        – samcarter
                        yesterday








                      • 1




                        @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday














                      12












                      12








                      12






                      TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.



                      Never use tabularx without an X column!



                      Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!



                      documentclass{article} 
                      usepackage{caption}
                      usepackage{array}
                      usepackage{booktabs}
                      usepackage{tabularx}

                      begin{document}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Here it is useful}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
                      begin{tabular}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabular}
                      end{table}
                      end{document}


                      enter image description here






                      share|improve this answer














                      TeXnician already said when it's useful, I would like to add when it is detrimental.



                      Never use tabularx without an X column!



                      Sometimes I saw questions with this wrong usage here, never do that!



                      documentclass{article} 
                      usepackage{caption}
                      usepackage{array}
                      usepackage{booktabs}
                      usepackage{tabularx}

                      begin{document}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Here it is useful}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{Xcc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      texttt{tabularx} is useful when there is one (or more) columns with long text which goes on more than one row & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:awful}Here it is useless and a bit awful (you only have short text in columns, there is too much blank space left)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{*3{>{centeringarraybackslash}X}}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{label{tab:wrong}Here it is detrimental and horrible (never use texttt{tabularx} without an X column)}
                      begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabularx}
                      end{table}
                      begin{table}centering
                      caption{Instead of Table ref{tab:awful} or Table ref{tab:wrong}, this one is much better}
                      begin{tabular}{ccc}
                      toprule
                      Column A & Column B & Column C \
                      midrule
                      marmots & lions & ducks \
                      bottomrule
                      end{tabular}
                      end{table}
                      end{document}


                      enter image description here







                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited yesterday

























                      answered yesterday









                      CarLaTeX

                      29.9k447127




                      29.9k447127












                      • Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                        – TeXnician
                        yesterday






                      • 3




                        @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                        – samcarter
                        yesterday








                      • 1




                        @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday


















                      • Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                        – TeXnician
                        yesterday






                      • 3




                        @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday






                      • 1




                        I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                        – samcarter
                        yesterday








                      • 1




                        @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                        – CarLaTeX
                        yesterday
















                      Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                      – TeXnician
                      yesterday




                      Lions and ducks? Is that a good idea? After all, lions are cats and ducks are birds ;)
                      – TeXnician
                      yesterday




                      3




                      3




                      @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                      – CarLaTeX
                      yesterday




                      @TeXnician But I put them in separate columns :)
                      – CarLaTeX
                      yesterday




                      1




                      1




                      I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                      – samcarter
                      yesterday






                      I'm normally against vertical lines in columns, in this specific case they might be useful to keep the ducks and marmots safe -- we don't want the lions to eat them, do we? :)
                      – samcarter
                      yesterday






                      1




                      1




                      @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                      – CarLaTeX
                      yesterday




                      @samcarter We have found a proper use of vertical rules, lol!
                      – CarLaTeX
                      yesterday











                      11














                      The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.



                      An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.






                      share|improve this answer


























                        11














                        The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.



                        An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.






                        share|improve this answer
























                          11












                          11








                          11






                          The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.



                          An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.






                          share|improve this answer












                          The important thing to note about tabularx that it is all about automatically setting the target length for line breaking within a column. However the vast majority of data tables in scientific documents are (apart from the headings) tables of numerical data where there is no line breaking within the column, so I would say that tabularx is not suitable for those cases.



                          An X column is a p column of an automatically determined width, but like any p column it is a parbox designed for paragraphs of text wrapped to the specified width.







                          share|improve this answer












                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer










                          answered yesterday









                          David Carlisle

                          483k4011151856




                          483k4011151856






























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