Create table in LaTeX - how it works

With LaTex you can create tables in your documents. In this practical tip you will learn how to do this, how to align the text contained, design, position and reference the table.

Create tables with LaTex

Simple tables can be created quickly and easily in LaTex. The source code shown here and the following explanation will help you. You can get more tips on design, alignment, table index and signature in our picture gallery.

1. With "\ begin {table}" you start the table environment in LaTex. This is a floating environment that LaTex positions at its own discretion.
2. Afterwards you can indicate the preferred positioning of the table in square brackets. "[h]" stands for "here" and, if possible, places the table where it is specified in the source text. Place "[t]" ("top") and [b] ("bottom") at the beginning or end of the page. "[p]" places the table on a separate page especially for float objects.
3. Now start the actual table with "\ begin {tabular}".
4. Afterwards, you can define the vertical alignment of the contained text in square brackets: "[t]", "[b]" and "[c]" for "center".
5. Next, in braces, specify as many horizontal orientations as you want columns. In addition to "c", possible alignments are "l" and "r" for left and right.
6. Now you can write the actual table content. To get to the next column use "&". You get to the next line with "\\".
7. Now you can end the table with "\ end {tabular}" and the float environment with "\ end {table}" and then continue with body text.

Further practical tips will tell you how to create tables in Word and Wordpad.

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To center your table, you can write "\ centering" before the tabular command. If you want to separate columns with one or more vertical lines, write vertical lines "|" next to the respective orientation. You create horizontal lines with "\ hline". With the "\ caption [] {}" command you create a kind of caption and a name for the table in the table directory. If you give your table a "\ labe {}", you can reference it using "\ ref {}".

Where you write the command "\ listoftables" in your editor, a table directory is created. The result of the source code looks like this.

By the way, some Tex editors like the [[//www.texniccenter.org/download/|TeXnicCenter]] also offer a menu item for easy table creation. However, these do not have the same functional scope as the separation of columns or text for the table directory.