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I use the following table:

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt, bibliography=totoc, index=totoc, abstracton, headsepline, ]{scrreprt} \usepackage{booktabs} \begin{document} \begin{table}[H]\hspace*{-1cm} \centering \begin{tabular}{lcclll} \toprule Company& \multicolumn{2}{c}{exceedances (empirical)}&exeedances (expected)&no. of obs.\\ \cmidrule(r){2-3}\\ &standard normal&standardized Student's-t&&\\ \midrule Company1&1&5&9&13\\ Company2&2&6&10&14\\ Company3&3&11&15\\ Company4&4&8&12&16\\ \bottomrule \multicolumn{4}{l}{\begin{footnotesize}an additional hint about a detail\end{footnotesize}} \end{tabular} \caption{Here is the caption.} \label{labelhere} \end{table} \end{document}

Which gives

tableexample

I have two problems:

  1. The space after the \cmidrule(r){2-3} is too big, how can I change this?
  2. The table looks not that good, how can I improve it in general?
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2 Answers 2

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6

Here are some specific suggestions:

  • group the table headers a bit more to emphasize the logical structure;
  • break up the headers for columns 2 and 3 across two lines to make them less wide;
  • don't use vertical whitespace to the left of the first column and to the right of the last column;
  • use \midrule[\heavyruleweight] instead of \bottomrule to provide a bit more "breathing room for the next line.

Of course, these suggestions are personal and lay no claim to representing some greater truth...

enter image description here

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{scrreprt} \usepackage{booktabs} \begin{document} \begin{table} \centering \begin{tabular}{@{} lcccc @{}} % suppress vertical whitespace at start and end \toprule Company& \multicolumn{3}{c}{Exceedances} & No.\ of Obs.\\ \cmidrule(lr){2-4} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Empirical} & Expected\\ \cmidrule(lr){2-3} \cmidrule(lr){4-4} &standard & standardized\\ % make columns 2 and 3 narrower &normal & Student's-$t$\\ \midrule Company 1&1&5&9&13\\ Company 2&2&6&10&14\\ Company 3&3&11&15\\ Company 4&4&8&12&16\\ \midrule[\heavyrulewidth] % use "thick" \midrule instead of \bottomrule \multicolumn{4}{@{}l}{\footnotesize An additional hint about a detail} \end{tabular} \caption{Here is the caption.} \label{labelhere} \end{table} \end{document}
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  • 2
    +1, but I’d replace \midrule[\heavyrulewidth] with \bottomrule\addlinespace[\belowrulesep] (both booktabs macros), which yields the same output, but is nicer semantically. I’m not sure if I like the @{}, but that’s a matter of taste. Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 19:09
3

You do not have to add a linebreak (\\) after \cmidrule. This fixes your first problem.

Improvements

  • align numbers. You could correctly align numbers (at the decimal point which is not there) using the siunitx-package and the S column type (see below).
  • columns. You have defined 6 columns but you only have five of them.

Table with siunitx

\documentclass[a4paper, 12pt, bibliography=totoc, index=totoc, abstracton, headsepline, ]{scrreprt} \usepackage{siunitx} \usepackage{booktabs} \begin{document} \begin{table}[H]\hspace*{-1cm} \centering \begin{tabular}{lSSSS} \toprule Company& \multicolumn{2}{c}{exceedances (empirical)}&{exeedances (expected)}&{no. of obs.}\\ \cmidrule(r){2-3} &{standard normal}&{standardized Student's-t}&\\ \midrule Company1&1&5&9&13\\ Company2&2&6&10&14\\ Company3&3&11&15\\ Company4&4&8&12&16\\ \bottomrule \multicolumn{4}{l}{\begin{footnotesize}an additional hint about a detail\end{footnotesize}} \end{tabular} \caption{Here is the caption.} \label{labelhere} \end{table} \end{document}

Screenshot

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  • thanks for your answer, but I did not understand your first point: "You could correctly align numbers (at the decimal point which is not there)" What do you mean? I am not using a decimal seperator? Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 18:30
  • 1
    You see the result in the screenshot. The 9 is aligned to the 0 of 10. Like this it is easier to compare the numbers. Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 18:32

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