[texhax] Difference between \centering and \begin{centering}...

[Axel E. Retif]

On  9 Sep, 2010, at 16:57, Daniel Freedman wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to understand the difference between the use of:
> 
>  \centering
> 
> and the use of 
> 
>  \begin{centering}
>  ...
>  \end{centering}
> 
> I'm well aware of the difference between either of these and the use
> of the 'center' environment (this establishing a separate environment,
> which adds some more vertical 'glue' space, as I understand it).
> 
> However, I thought the first two above should be identical.  Indeed,
> when I use them to center figures, they seem to work identically.
> However, it's interesting that the latter does NOT seem to work to
> center 'tabular' enrivonments, while the former does...

I don't know why they work the same to center figures, but you can use \begin{centering} ... \end{centering} to center a tabular environment if you use \par after \end{tabular} or leave a blank line between \end{tabular} and \end{centering}:

\begin{centering}
\begin{tabular}{| c | c | c |}
\hline
a & b & c \\ \hline
d & e & f \\ \hline
\end{tabular}\par
\end{centering}


Best

Axel