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Tables

Objective: Learn the basic commands to create and edit tables.

Basic tables can be created with a combination of the commands below and the use package: tabularx

Basic CommandsDescription
l, r, ccolumn alignment
&ampersand separates columns
\\double backslash begins new row
\hlinehorizontal line
|vertical line

Example: Creating a basic two column table

Basic

Example: Adding vertical and horizontal lines

Lines

Example: Centering and adding a caption

Note the addition the \caption and \centering commands.

Caption

Exercise 1: Basic Table

Use the tabularx package to create a simple table of the US Women’s Soccer Team’s 2019 World Cup Starting Roster.

Begin with a header row and two columns.

  • Your two column headers will be: Position and Last Name – Left align the text of the left column

  • Center the text of the right column

  • Add vertical and horizontal lines

Add a caption “2019 Team Roster” and center the table.
Note: Using the \caption{} command will add the phrase “Table 1” in front of caption.

Use package needed: tabularx

Commands needed:
& = column separator
\\ = begin new row
l, r, c = column alignment

Multiple Columns

Exercise 2: Multirow, Multicolumn Tables

Create a table like the one below with columns spanning multiple rows or rows spanning multiple columns.

Multiple Columns

Packages needed:

  • \usepackage{booktabs}

  • \usepackage{multirow}

  • \usepackage{tablenotes}

This is the style that many journals require. It will give you the basic stepping stones to create charts like:

Table from Acton 2021

from: Acton, Riley K. “Community college program choices in the wake of local job losses.” Journal of Labor Economics 39.4 (2021): 1129-1154. Acton (2021)

Questions?
Consult the answer key in the Overleaf Project to troubleshoot: https://www.overleaf.com/read/zhytgdvnpsqx

Exercise 3: Challenge - Incorporating Bar Charts

Let’s try to recreate this figure showing attendance at football events in 2013 from the Economist.

Table from Acton 2021

There are a number of ways to get started, but these are some of the steps you will need to take:

  • Make a table: Create a tabular enviroment

  • Columns: Add the appropriate number of columns

  • Data: Start adding data to your rows

  • Fonts: Can you change the default font to sanserif, can you make the header row bold?

  • Color: Can you introduce alternating row colors?

  • Spacing: Can you adjust column width and row height?

  • Extra: How can you include a bar for scale next to a numeric value?

Attempt at remaking a bar chart table

Remember there are many ways to accomplish the same thing in LaTeX. Getting the results you want may take some trial and error.

Exercise 4: Converting a pandas table into LaTeX

There are many ways to convert a table into LaTeX. One common scenario involves converting and exporting a Pandas Dataframe into a LaTeX formatted table.

This can be accomplished using the command:

print(df.to_latex())

First create your dataframe, then print using the above command. See below:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame(dict(state=['California', 'Colorado'],
                  mountain=['Whitney', 'Elbert'],
                  flower=['poppy', 'columbine']))
print(df)
UsageError: Line magic function `%Create` not found.

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame(dict(state=['California', 'Colorado'],
                  mountain=['Whitney', 'Elbert'],
                  flower=['poppy', 'columbine']))
print(df.to_latex())
\begin{tabular}{llll}
\toprule
{} &       state & mountain &     flower \\
\midrule
0 &  California &  Whitney &      poppy \\
1 &    Colorado &   Elbert &  columbine \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular}
References
  1. Acton, R. K. (2021). Community College Program Choices in the Wake of Local Job Losses. Journal of Labor Economics, 39(4), 1129–1154. 10.1086/712555
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