long tables and multicol

Akim Demaille

unread,

Mar 17, 2010, 10:18:13 AM3/17/10

to

Hi!

I have a long and narrow table I want to put in my document. Since
it's narrow, I want it to be inside a {multicols}{2} environment.
Since it's long, I want to use supertabular or xtab.

Reading the code of xtab (I'm no TeXpert), it is clear that it
supports the twocolumn mode for traditional document classes. I see
nothing in it to support multicol. I meant to see if I could do that
myself, but apparently it needs to know when you are in the last
column, to change page instead of just changing column, but I see no
means to compute this in multicol.

What's the best way to do this? Of course I can make a twice as large
xtab and simulate the multicol by myself, using & instead of \\ one
row out of two. But that's ugly.

Are there any page similar to xtab that would be compatible with
multicol?

Thanks a lot!

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xtab}
\usepackage{multicol}

\begin{document}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\tablehead{%
\hline
Left & Right \\
\hline
}
\tabletail{\hline}
\tablelasttail{\hline}
\begin{xtabular}{|c|c|}
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
1111111111111111 & 22222222222222\\
\end{xtabular}
\end{multicols}

\end{document}

%%% Local Variables:
%%% mode: latex
%%% TeX-master: t
%%% End:

Akim Demaille

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Mar 17, 2010, 11:53:21 AM3/17/10

to

Some more search shows that the question has been asked several times
here, and basically the answer is "does not work, use a tabbing
environment".

Too bad. It's a pity that support for twocolumn is coded in
supertabular and xtab, but neither work with multicol, which is a
faire standard package.

Robin Fairbairns

unread,

Mar 18, 2010, 11:17:40 AM3/18/10

to

it may be a standard package (indeed, it's part of the latex tools
distribution).

however, it also plays fast and loose with the output routine; certainly
longtable plugs into the output routine, so it would require significant
modification to fit with multicol. i'm not so sure about how
supertabular and its friend xtab work, but it seems likely that if they
fail with multicol, it's because their connection to the output routine
has been severed.

hooks in the output routine might help here, but they don't currently
exist and getting them in place could be tricky.