# [Tugindia] Tabular environment in Latex

Wed Aug 27 14:57:17 CEST 2003

>>>>> "JAYESH" == JAYESH KUMAR <jayesh at igidr.ac.in> writes:

JAYESH> Dear All, I am trying to make a table, in which I want the
JAYESH> {\linesize} to determine the width of columns
JAYESH> automatically depending on the number of columns in the
JAYESH> table.

JAYESH> For example:

JAYESH> I want to make a table of 5 columns, where paper size is
JAYESH> A4. I want the 1st and 3rd column to be of p{3cm} each,
JAYESH> and the rest 3columns should be equally distributed in
JAYESH> width size.

JAYESH> So that I don't need to put column width for all the
JAYESH> columns and I should have flexibility to change one if I
JAYESH> need to.

JAYESH> I am sure Latex must have some way or the other to do the
JAYESH> task. But I am not able to figure it out. Can someone help
JAYESH> me???

Here is a quick and dirty trick:

\newdimen\bl
\def\recomputelength#1#2{%
\setlength\bl\textwidth
}

\recomputelength{6cm}{6} % 6cm = total width of columns to
%       width is explicitly
%       provided
% 6   = total number of columns
\parindent 0pt

\hrule % to compare the tabular with textwidth

\bigskip

\begin{tabular}{|p{3cm}%      first col - width provided
|p{.25\bl}%   second col 25% of balance length
|p{3cm}%      third col - width provided
|p{.25\bl}%   fourth col 25% of balance length
|p{.25\bl}%   fifth -do
|p{.25\bl}|}% sixth -do-
\hline
\hrulefill &
\hrulefill &
\hrulefill &
\hrulefill &
\hrulefill &
\hrulefill \\
\hline
\end{tabular}