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I'd like to have a shorthand to trigger a table like tabularx, with multipage option like longtable. Neither \newenvironment nor \newcommand I can coax to work

The weird @.. construction at the beginning of the setup of xltabular is for discarding the indentation that is otherwise added. Everything before the actual document takes place in a class file, if that makes a difference. Interpreter needs to be XeLaTex. There does not seem to be a command-version of begin/end xltabular, which is how the problem with environment is solved in tabularx-cases.

M(n)WE:

\documentclass[10pt]{article} \usepackage{xltabular} % mixture of tabularx and longtable %% Either like this (1) %\newenvironment{threetable} %{\begin{xltabular}{\linewidth}{@{} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{}}} {\end{xltabular}} %% Or like this (2) %\newcommand{\startthreetable}{\begin{xltabular}{\linewidth}{@{} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{}}} %\newcommand{\stopthreetable}{\end{xltabular}} \begin{document} \begin{xltabular}{\linewidth}{@{} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{}} Content & content & CONTENT \end{xltabular} %% (1) %\begin{threetable} %Content & content & CONTENT %\end{threetable} %% (2) %\startthreetable %Content & content & CONTENT %\stopthreetable \end{document}
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  • not sure what you see weird in @{..} that is unrelated to xltabular it is basic latex syntax to specify intercolumn material and applies to tabular in the core format and has been in latex since the start. Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 13:55

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As documented in the tabularx manual (xltabular is basically a wrapper around tabularx to incorporate longtable) you need to use the command form inside enviornment definitions

\documentclass[10pt]{article} \usepackage{xltabular} % mixture of tabularx and longtable \newenvironment{threetable} {\xltabular{\linewidth}{@{} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{}}} {\endxltabular} \begin{document} \begin{xltabular}{\linewidth}{@{} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{\hspace{20pt}} X @{}} Content & content & CONTENT \end{xltabular} \begin{threetable} Content & content & CONTENT \end{threetable} \end{document}

the @{...} construct here is not specific to any of these packages it is basic LaTeX syntax applying to tabular and all its extensions, it specifies inter-column material.

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  • this is acutally something i tried. probably lost a } somewhere and figured it was a dead end. The resulting error messages seemed to be critical about the @. Wow. Thanks. About the 'weirdness' of the @: in the eye of the beholder, i.e.tardigrada have been with us 'from the start' as well, and qualify for weird as well. Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 14:28
  • if you could add a sentence or two in opening of your answer about packages inherit their behavior, i'd like to accept this answer after the obligatory wait. Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 14:30
  • @bukwyrm There is no general inheritance mechanism, the whole thing is specific to the way tabularx is implemented so I'm not sure what I could say. (also just at the moment I'd rather have +10 from an upvote than +15 from an accept, to get a nice total score:-) I don't think I have ever looked at the xltabular documentation before but it doesn't say much other than that it works like tabularx. Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 14:42
  • @bukwyrm I added something. Commented Apr 24, 2020 at 14:45
  • @bukwyrm well no latex syntax is that "natural" but I'm interested why you find @{hello} to put hello between columns more weird than other similar syntax like p{1cm} for a 1cm wide column or >{\bfseries} for a bold column. Commented Apr 27, 2020 at 10:03

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