Vertical alignment in tabularx

[Richard Smith]

I'm sure this ought to be very simple, but I cannot get it to work. I
would like to vertically bottom-align and horizontally right-align one
column in a tabularx environment, but I cannot get the array package's
b column to work. Here's a complete working example:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,oneside]{book}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\newcolumntype{e}{>{\hfill}b{5em}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{Xe}
\lipsum[1] & 21~s \\
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Richard

[Alain Ketterlin]

Richard Smith <ric...@ex-parrot.com> writes:

> I'm sure this ought to be very simple, but I cannot get it to work. I
> would like to vertically bottom-align and horizontally right-align one
> column in a tabularx environment, but I cannot get the array package's
> b column to work.

To right-align, use >{\raggedleft}b{5em}

b sets the reference point to the bottom of the cell, so that bottom
line will lign with the reference point of the first (left-hand) cell
(which by default is on its top line). Your example, with changes
applied, becomes:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt,oneside]{book}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\newcolumntype{e}{>{\raggedleft}b{5em}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{Xe}

\lipsum[1] & 21~s blah blah ... \tabularnewline
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

will lead to something like

yyyyy
xxxxxxxx yyyyy
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx

If by bottom-align you mean:

xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxx yyyyy
xxxxxxxx yyyyy

then use b for both columns (via \tabularxcolumn).

-- Alain.

[Richard Smith]

On Sep 23, 7:59 am, Alain Ketterlin <al...@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr>
wrote:

> Richard Smith <rich...@ex-parrot.com> writes:
> > I'm sure this ought to be very simple, but I cannot get it to work.  I
> > would like to vertically bottom-align and horizontally right-align one
> > column in a tabularx environment, but I cannot get the array package's
> > b column to work.
>
> To right-align, use >{\raggedleft}b{5em}

[...]

> If by bottom-align you mean:
>
> xxxxxxxx
> xxxxxxxx yyyyy
> xxxxxxxx yyyyy
>
> then use b for both columns (via \tabularxcolumn).

Thanks. That's done exactly what I wanted. As I don't want to change
\tabularxcolumn globally, and as there are likely to be a few other
bits of special formatting (eg. \arraystretch) that I want applying to
this style table but not elsewhere, I've wrapped it up in a new
environment:

\newenvironment{actable}[0]{%
\renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{b{##1}}%
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}%
\tabularx{\linewidth}%
{@{}X<{~\hrulefill}@{}>{\raggedleft\hrulefill~}b{3.5em}@{}}%
}{\endtabularx}

However if I do this, I find that I have to use \cr instead of \\ as
my line separators. I'm sure I've encountered this before and there's
a simple command called something like \escapelinebreaks that sorts
this out, but I can't seem to find the right thing to put into a
Google search to give me the answer. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Richard

[Dan Luecking]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:49:47 -0700 (PDT), Richard Smith
<ric...@ex-parrot.com> wrote:

>On Sep 23, 7:59 am, Alain Ketterlin <al...@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr>
>wrote:
>> Richard Smith <rich...@ex-parrot.com> writes:
>
>\newenvironment{actable}[0]{%
> \renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{b{##1}}%
> \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}%
> \tabularx{\linewidth}%
> {@{}X<{~\hrulefill}@{}>{\raggedleft\hrulefill~}b{3.5em}@{}}%
>}{\endtabularx}
>

>However, if I do this, I find that I have to use \cr instead of \\ as

Put \arraybackslash right after \raggedleft:

{@{}X<{~\hrulefill}@{}>{\raggedleft\arraybackslash\hrulefill~}b{3.5em}@{}}


Dan
To reply by email, change LookInSig to luecking

[Richard Smith]

On Sep 25, 4:09 pm, Dan Luecking <LookIn...@uark.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, 24 Sep 2012 08:49:47 -0700 (PDT), Richard Smith
>

> <rich...@ex-parrot.com> wrote:
> >On Sep 23, 7:59 am, Alain Ketterlin <al...@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr>
> >wrote:
> >> Richard Smith <rich...@ex-parrot.com> writes:
>
> >\newenvironment{actable}[0]{%
> >  \renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{b{##1}}%
> >  \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}%
> >  \tabularx{\linewidth}%
> >    {@{}X<{~\hrulefill}@{}>{\raggedleft\hrulefill~}b{3.5em}@{}}%
> >}{\endtabularx}
>
> >However, if I do this, I find that I have to use \cr instead of \\ as
>
> Put \arraybackslash right after \raggedleft:

Perfect. Thanks.

Richard