\begin{tabular}{|l|l|l|}
\hline
Column A & Column B \\
\begin{math}
x & y \\
\end{math}
\end{tabular}
This won't let me compile and gives a lot of errors, how do I enable math mode in a table without using $ on everything?
3 Answers
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amstext} % for \text macro
\usepackage{array} % for \newcolumntype macro
\newcolumntype{L}{>{$}l<{$}} % math-mode version of "l" column type
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{| L | L |}
\hline
\text{Column A} & \text{Column B} \\
x & y \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
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3Thanks, what do the less than and greater than symbols actually do?Levi H– Levi H2013-05-05 13:08:55 +00:00Commented May 5, 2013 at 13:08
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1They simply act as some kind of escape character there. They tell
tabularthat a special column specification follows.jub0bs– jub0bs2013-05-05 13:10:24 +00:00Commented May 5, 2013 at 13:10 -
5@STRAIGHTOUTTACOMPTON The Wikibooks page is basically indispensible for keeping track of how to use tables, at least for me.Ryan Reich– Ryan Reich2013-05-05 14:37:26 +00:00Commented May 5, 2013 at 14:37
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You don't have to use
\text, you can use\multicolumn, too.Skillmon– Skillmon2019-02-20 18:04:47 +00:00Commented Feb 20, 2019 at 18:04 -
1Is there a way to make ``x'' in the middle of its box?Lao-tzu– Lao-tzu2025-03-08 12:53:03 +00:00Commented Mar 8 at 12:53
If most of the table consists of math-mode material, it's preferable to use an array environment instead of a tabular environment. Any text-mode material in the table can be handled by encasing it in \text directives (requires the amsmath or the amstext package):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath} % for "\text" macro
\begin{document}
$\begin{array}{|c|c|}
\hline
\text{Column A} & \text{Column B} \\
x+y & x-y \\
\hline
\end{array}$
\end{document}
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1What if my table is all math, but I want to be able to caption and label it?sarah jamal– sarah jamal2018-02-10 10:44:52 +00:00Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 10:44
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@sarahjamal - Do note the use of
\textdirectives to typeset the column headers. As you can probably guess, the argument of\textis typeset in text mode, not math mode. The material in the argument of\captionis typeset in text mode by default.Mico– Mico2018-02-10 10:54:18 +00:00Commented Feb 10, 2018 at 10:54
If you use tabu, it automatically detects whether the table is in math mode, thus imitating this feature of array.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,tabu}
\begin{document}
$\begin{tabu}{|l|l|}\hline
\text{Column A} & \text{Column B} \\
x & y
\end{tabu}$
\end{document}
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3One really nice feature of this approach (beyond not having to type the complicated array syntax above) is that it preserves syntax highlighting in my editor.Reid– Reid2014-01-23 00:08:10 +00:00Commented Jan 23, 2014 at 0:08
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This approach was very helpful to me, thanks.Erel Segal-Halevi– Erel Segal-Halevi2015-12-12 19:07:47 +00:00Commented Dec 12, 2015 at 19:07
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2Note that tabu is not maintained anymore and likely to break at any point, cf. github.com/tabu-issues-for-future-maintainer/tabuClément– Clément2021-09-21 04:29:27 +00:00Commented Sep 21, 2021 at 4:29
arrayenvironment (while in math-mode, obviously) instead of thetabularenvironment. If it's just the occasional column that's supposed to be in math mode, you could change its column type specifier from, say,cto>{$}c<{$}.\text{Column A}to switch to text mode in the column headings.$ ... $is a short form for\begin{math} ... \end{math}, so using the latter is unnecessary verbose.arraypackage to be able to use the advanced column specification thingy (e.g.>{$}c<{$}).