LaTeX tables allow you to present data in a structured way. This guide covers the tabular environment, borders, cell merging, and packages for more elaborate tables.
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Basic table with tabular
The tabular environment is the foundation of tables in LaTeX:
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{l c r}
Left & Center & Right \\
A & B & C \\
1 & 2 & 3 \\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}Column specifiers
| Specifier | Alignment |
|---|---|
l |
Left-aligned |
c |
Centered |
r |
Right-aligned |
p{width} |
Fixed-width paragraph (automatic line wrapping) |
| |
Vertical line |
Adding borders
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|r|}
\hline
Name & Age & City \\
\hline
Alice & 25 & London \\
Bob & 30 & Manchester \\
Claire & 28 & Bristol \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}|in column definition: vertical lines\hline: full horizontal line\cline{i-j}: partial horizontal line (columns i to j)
Professional tables with booktabs
The booktabs package creates more elegant tables, without vertical borders:
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\toprule
Product & Price & Quantity \\
\midrule
Apples & 2.50 & 100 \\
Oranges & 3.00 & 80 \\
Bananas & 1.80 & 150 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
Best practice
Typographic style guides recommend using
booktabs and avoiding vertical borders for more readable tables. Merging cells
Horizontal merging (multicolumn)
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
\multicolumn{3}{|c|}{Title across 3 columns} \\
\hline
Name & Grade 1 & Grade 2 \\
\hline
Alice & 15 & 17 \\
Bob & 12 & 14 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}Syntax: \multicolumn{count}{alignment}{content}
Vertical merging (multirow)
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{multirow}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Category} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Results} \\
\cline{2-3}
& 2023 & 2024 \\
\hline
Sales & 100 & 120 \\
Profits & 20 & 25 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}Syntax: \multirow{count}{width}{content} (use * for automatic width)
The table environment
As with figures, use table to add a caption and a number:
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\centering
\caption{Experiment results}
\label{tab:resultats}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\toprule
Variable & Group A & Group B \\
\midrule
Mean & 42.3 & 38.7 \\
Std. dev. & 5.2 & 4.8 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table~\ref{tab:resultats} shows the results.
\end{document}Controlling width
Fixed-width columns
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\begin{document}
% Column with automatic line wrap\begin{tabular}{|l|p{5cm}|}
\hline
Title & Long description that will automatically wrap to the next line \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}Full-width table
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
% X = column that expands to fill available space\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{|l|X|c|}
\hline
Name & Description & Price \\
\hline
Product A & Detailed description that adapts automatically & 10 \\
\hline
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}Colors in tables
LaTeX
\usepackage[table]{xcolor} % In the preamble
% Colored row
\rowcolor{gray!20}
% Colored cell
\cellcolor{blue!10}
% Automatically alternating rows
\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white}
\begin{tabular}{lcc}
\toprule
A & B & C \\
\midrule
1 & 2 & 3 \\
4 & 5 & 6 \\
7 & 8 & 9 \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}Complete example
LaTeX
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage[table]{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\section{Sales report}
\begin{table}[htbp]
\centering
\caption{Sales by region and quarter (in thousands)}
\label{tab:ventes}
\rowcolors{2}{gray!10}{white}
\begin{tabular}{lrrrr}
\toprule
\textbf{Region} & \textbf{Q1} & \textbf{Q2} & \textbf{Q3} & \textbf{Q4} \\
\midrule
North & 150 & 180 & 165 & 200 \\
South & 120 & 140 & 135 & 155 \\
East & 90 & 110 & 105 & 125 \\
West & 130 & 145 & 140 & 170 \\
\midrule
\textbf{Total} & \textbf{490} & \textbf{575} & \textbf{545} & \textbf{650} \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table~\ref{tab:ventes} shows consistent growth in the fourth quarter.
\end{document}Sign and variation tables (tkz-tab)
The tkz-tab package makes it easy to create sign and variation tables, commonly used in mathematics.
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Build your sign and variation tables in just a few clicks — the LaTeX code is generated automatically. No need to write tkz-tab syntax by hand.
Basic sign table
LaTeX
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tkz-tab}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzTabInit{$x$ / 1, $f'(x)$ / 1}
{$-\infty$, $2$, $+\infty$}
\tkzTabLine{,+,z,-,}
\end{tikzpicture}\tkzTabInit defines rows (name / height) and columns (x values). \tkzTabLine specifies signs: +, -, z (zero), t (single bar), d (double bar).
Variation table
LaTeX
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzTabInit{$x$ / 1, $f'(x)$ / 1, $f(x)$ / 1.5}
{$-\infty$, $1$, $+\infty$}
\tkzTabLine{,-,z,+,}
\tkzTabVar{+/{$3$},-/{$-1$},+/{$+\infty$}}
\end{tikzpicture}\tkzTabVar describes the variations: +/ (maximum), -/ (minimum). Arrow direction is determined automatically from the positions.
Double bars (asymptotes)
For forbidden values (poles, values outside the domain), double bars are used:
LaTeX
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzTabInit{$x$ / 1, $f'(x)$ / 1, $f(x)$ / 1.5}
{$0$, $1$, $+\infty$}
\tkzTabLine{d,-,d,-,}
\tkzTabVar{D+/ /{$+\infty$},-D+/{$-\infty$}/{$+\infty$},-/{$0$}}
\end{tikzpicture}The D notation indicates where to place the value relative to the double bar:
D-/ /{value}: at the left boundary — value to the right of the double bar (low)-D/{value}/: at the right boundary — value to the left of the double bar (low)-D+/{left}/{right}: interior — values on both sides
Visual editor
Create your tables visually with our table editor that automatically generates the correct tkz-tab code.
Create your tables visually with our table editor that automatically generates the correct tkz-tab code.
Complete example with sign and variation table
LaTeX
\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tkz-tab}
\begin{document}
% Variation table of f(x) = x·ln(x) on (0, +∞)
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzTabInit[espcl=5]
{$x$ / 1, $\ln(x) + 1$ / 1, $x \ln(x)$ / 2}
{$0$, $\dfrac{1}{\mathrm{e}}$, $+\infty$}
\tkzTabLine{d,-,z,+,}
\tkzTabVar{D+/ /{$0$},-/{$-\dfrac{1}{\mathrm{e}}$},+/{$+\infty$}}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}