The package easytable

Enrico Bertolazzi

Department of Mechanics and Structures Engineering University of Trento via Mesiano 77, I – 38050 Trento, Italy

enrico.bertolazzi@ing.unitn.it

19th March 2002

Abstract

The easytable package is a macro package for writing tables, with equal column widths or equal rows heights or both, with various kinds of rules (lines) between rows and columns. It uses an array/tabular-like syntax.

1 How to use it

The package is loaded by means of the usual way:

\documentclass{article}
.
.
\usepackage[thinlines,thicklines]{easytab}
.
.

The options thinlines, and thicklines are self explanatory.

The package easytab provides the TAB environment which is a simple (re)- implementation of the array—tabular environment, with some limitations and some additional features. The syntax can be either

\begin{TAB}`(eq)'`[ex]'`{cc...c}'`{cc...c}'
   a & b & ... & n \\
   ...
\end{TAB}

or

\begin{TAB}`(eq,mx,my)'`[ex,MX,MY]'`{cc...c}'`{cc...c}'
 a & b & ... & n \\
 ...
\end{TAB}

• (eq) or (eq,mx,my) . By eq you can balance the rows or the column or both, as shown in this table:

Table 1.

value of eq effect
@  no balancing
r  equal rows heights
c  equal column widths
b  equal rows heights and equal column widths
e  equal rows heights and column widths

By mx and my you can modify the minimum size of the box in the TAB environment. This must be a valid measure e.g. 2pt . This is useful in writing matrices an vectors.

• [ex] or [ex,MX,MY] . By ex you can specify the amount of extra space around the item in the TAB environment. The default is 2pt . By MX and MY you can modify the minimum size of the whole table in the TAB environment. This must be a valid measure e.g. 10cm .

• The first {cc...c} is the definition of the columns and their alignment. The possible alignment for the columns are:

Table 2.

c centering
l flush left
r flush right

• The second {cc...c} is the definition of the rows their alignment. The possible alignment for the rows are:

Table 3.

c centering
t flush top
b flush bottom

IMPORTANT: The package can manage matrices with a maximum of 30 rows by 30 columns. IMPORTANT: The functionality of the environment “TAB” is the same of the environment BMAT the only difference is that its entries are in “text” mode not in “mathematic” mode. Please read the documentation of the package easybmat to understand how to use “TAB”.