NAME
LaTeX::Table - Perl extension for the automatic generation of LaTeX tables.
VERSION
This document describes LaTeX::Table version 0.9.10
SYNOPSIS
use LaTeX::Table;
use Number::Format qw(:subs); # use mighty CPAN to format values
my $header = [
[ 'Item:2c', '' ],
[ '\cmidrule(r){1-2}' ],
[ 'Animal', 'Description', 'Price' ],
];
my $data = [
[ 'Gnat', 'per gram', '13.65' ],
[ '', 'each', '0.0173' ],
[ 'Gnu', 'stuffed', '92.59' ],
[ 'Emu', 'stuffed', '33.33' ],
[ 'Armadillo', 'frozen', '8.99' ],
];
my $table = LaTeX::Table->new(
{
filename => 'prices.tex',
maincaption => 'Price List',
caption => 'Try our special offer today!',
label => 'table:prices',
position => 'htb',
header => $header,
data => $data,
}
);
# write LaTeX code in prices.tex
$table->generate();
# callback functions help you to format values easily (as
# a great alternative to LaTeX packages like rccol)
#
# Here, the first colum and the header is printed in upper
# case and the third colum is formatted with format_price()
$table->set_callback(sub {
my ($row, $col, $value, $is_header ) = @_;
if ($col == 0 || $is_header) {
$value = uc $value;
}
elsif ($col == 2 && !$is_header) {
$value = format_price($value, 2, '');
}
return $value;
});
print $table->generate_string();
Now in your LaTeX document:
\documentclass{article}
% for multipage tables
\usepackage{xtab}
% for publication quality tables (Zurich theme, the default)
\usepackage{booktabs}
% for the NYC theme
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\input{prices}
\end{document}
DESCRIPTION
LaTeX makes professional typesetting easy. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true for tables and the standard LaTeX table macros have a rather limited functionality. This module supports many packages that are available on CTAN and hides the complexity of using them behind an easy and intuitive API.
FEATURES
This module supports multipage tables via the xtab
package. For publication quality tables it utilizes the booktabs
package. It also supports the tabularx
package for nicer fixed-width tables. Furthermore, it supports the colortbl
package for colored tables optimized for presentations. The powerful new ctable
package is supported and especially recommended when footnotes are needed. LaTeX::Table
ships with some predefined, good looking "THEMES".
INTERFACE
my $table = LaTeX::Table->new($arg_ref)
-
Constructs a
LaTeX::Table
object. The parameter is an hash reference with options (see below). $table->generate()
-
Generates the LaTeX table code. The generated LaTeX table can be included in a LaTeX document with the
\input
command:% include prices.tex, generated by LaTeX::Table \input{prices}
$table->generate_string()
-
Same as generate() but instead of creating a LaTeX file, this returns the LaTeX code as string.
my $latexcode = $table->generate_string();
$table->get_available_themes()
-
Returns an hash reference to all available (predefined and customs) themes. See "THEMES" for details.
for my $theme ( keys %{ $table->get_available_themes } ) { ... }
$table->search_path( add => "MyThemes" );
-
LaTeX::Table
will search under theLaTeX::Table::Themes::
namespace for themes. You can add here an additional search path. Inherited from Module::Pluggable.
OPTIONS
Options can be defined in the constructor hash reference or with the setter set_optionname
. Additionally, getters of the form get_optionname
are created.
BASIC OPTIONS
filename
-
The name of the LaTeX output file. Default is 'latextable.tex'.
type
-
Can be 'std' for standard LaTeX tables, 'ctable' for tables using the
ctable
package or 'xtab' for multipage tables (in appendices for example, requires thextab
LaTeX package). header
-
The header. It is a reference to an array (the rows) of array references (the columns).
$table->set_header([ [ 'Animal', 'Price' ] ]);
will produce following header:
+--------+-------+ | Animal | Price | +--------+-------+
Here an example for a multirow header:
$table->set_header([ [ 'Animal', 'Price' ], ['', '(roughly)' ] ]);
This code will produce this header:
+--------+-----------+ | Animal | Price | | | (roughly) | +--------+-----------+
Single column rows that start with a backslash are treated as LaTeX commands and are not further formatted. So,
my $header = [ [ 'Item:2c', '' ], ['\cmidrule{1-2}'], [ 'Animal', 'Description', 'Price' ] ];
will produce following LaTeX code in the default Zurich theme:
\multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{Item}} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{}}\\ \cmidrule{1-2} \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Animal}} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Description}} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Price}}\\
Note that there is no
\multicolumn
,\textbf
or\\
added to the second row. data
-
The data. Once again a reference to an array (rows) of array references (columns).
$table->set_data([ [ 'Gnu', '92.59' ], [ 'Emu', '33.33' ] ]);
And you will get a table like this:
+-------+---------+ | Gnu | 92.59 | | Emu | 33.33 | +-------+---------+
An empty column array will produce a horizontal line:
$table->set_data([ [ 'Gnu', '92.59' ], [], [ 'Emu', '33.33' ] ]);
Now you will get such a table:
+-------+---------+ | Gnu | 92.59 | +-------+---------+ | Emu | 33.33 | +-------+---------+
This works also in
header
.Single column rows starting with a backslash are again printed without any formatting. So,
$table->set_data([ [ 'Gnu', '92.59' ], ['\hline'], [ 'Emu', '33.33' ] ]);
is equivalent to the example above (except that there always the correct line command is used, i.e.
\midrule
vs.\hline
).
FLOATING TABLES
environment
-
If get_environment() returns a true value, then a floating environment will be generated. For std tables, the default environment is 'table'. A true value different from '1' will be used as environment name. Default is 1 (use a 'table' environment).
The non-floating xtab environment is mandatory (get_environment() must return a true value here) and supports all options in this section except for
position
.The ctable type automatically adds an environment when any of the following options are set.
\begin{table}[htb] \centering \begin{tabular}{lrr} ... \end{tabular} \caption{Price list} \label{table:prices} \end{table}
caption
-
The caption of the table. Only generated if get_caption() returns a true value. Default is 0. Requires
environment
. caption_top
-
If get_caption_top() returns a true value, then the caption is placed above the table. To use the standard caption command (
\caption
in std,\topcaption
in xtab) , use... caption_top => 1, ...
You can specify an alternative command here:
... caption_top => 'topcaption', # would require the topcapt package
Or even multiple commands:
caption_top => '\setlength{\abovecaptionskip}{0pt}\setlength{\belowcaptionskip}{10pt}\caption', ...
Default 0 (caption below the table) because the spacing in the standard LaTeX macros is optimized for bottom captions. At least for multipage tables, however, top captions are highly recommended. You can use the
caption
LaTeX package to fix the spacing:\usepackage[tableposition=top]{caption}
maincaption
-
If get_maincaption() returns a true value, then this value will be displayed in the table listing (
\listoftables
) and before thecaption
. Default 0. Requiresenvironment
. shortcaption
-
Same as
maincaption
, but does not appear in the caption, only in the table listing. Default 0. Requiresenvironment
. center
,right
,left
-
Defines how the table is aligned in the available textwidth. Default is centered. Requires
environment
. Only one of these options may return a true value.# don't generate any centering code $self->set_center(0);
label
-
The label of the table. Only generated if get_label() returns a true value. Default is 0. Requires
environment
. position
-
The position of the environment, e.g. 'htb'. Only generated if get_position() returns a true value. Requires
environment
and tables oftype
std. sideways
-
Rotates the environment by 90 degrees. Requires the
rotating
LaTeX package.This does not work with xtab tables - please tell me if you know how to implement this.
size
-
Font size. Valid values are 'tiny', 'scriptsize', 'footnotesize', 'small', 'normal', 'large', 'Large', 'LARGE', 'huge', 'Huge' and 0. Default is 0 (does not define a font size). Requires
environment
. star
-
Use the starred versions of the environments, which place the float over two columns when the
twocolumn
option or the\twocolumn
command is active.
TABULAR ENVIRONMENT
custom_tabular_environment
-
If get_custom_tabular_environment() returns a true value, then this specified environment is used instead of the standard environments 'tabular' (std) or 'xtabular' (xtab). For xtab tables, you can also use the 'mpxtabular' environment here if you need footnotes. See the documentation of the
xtab
package.See also the documentation of
width
below for cases when a width is specified. coldef
-
The table column definition, e.g. 'lrcr' which would result in:
\begin{tabular}{lrcr} ..
If unset,
LaTeX::Table
tries to guess a good definition. Columns containing only numbers are right-justified, others left-justified. Columns with cells longer than 30 characters are p (paragraph) columns of size '5cm' or X columns when thetabularx
package is selected. These rules can be changed with set_coldef_strategy(). Default is 0 (guess good definition). coldef_strategy
-
Controls the behaviour of the
coldef
calculation when get_coldef() does not return a true value. It is a reference to a hash that contains regular expressions that define the types of the columns. For example, the standard types NUMBER and LONG are defined as:{ NUMBER => qr{\A\s*([+-]?)(?=\d|\.\d)\d*(\.\d*)?([Ee]([+-]?\d+))?\s*\z}xms, NUMBER_MUST_MATCH_ALL => 1, NUMBER_COL => 'r', NUMBER_COL_X => 'r', LONG => qr{\A\s*(?=\w+\s+\w+).{29,}?\S}xms, LONG_MUST_MATCH_ALL => 0, LONG_COL => 'p{5cm}', LONG_COL_X => 'X', };
TYPE => $regex
-
New types are defined with the regular expression
$regex
. All cells that match this regular expression have type TYPE. A cell can have multiple types. The name of a type is not allowed to contain underscores (_
). TYPE_MUST_MATCH_ALL
-
This defines if whether a column has type TYPE when all cells are of type TYPE or at least one. Default is
1
($regex
must match all).Note that columns can have only one type. Types are applied alphabetically, so for example a LONG NUMBER column has as final type NUMBER.
TYPE_COL
-
The
coldef
attribute for TYPE columns. Required (no default value). TYPE_COL_X
-
Same as
TYPE_COL
but fortabularx
tables. If undefined, the attribute defined inTYPE_COL
is used fortabularx
tables as well. DEFAULT_COL
,DEFAULT_COL_X
-
The
coldef
attribute for columns that do not match any specified type. Default 'l' (left-justified).
Examples:
# change standard types $table->set_coldef_strategy({ NUMBER => qr{\A \s* \d+ \s* \z}xms, # integers only LONG_COL => '>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{7cm}', # non-justified }); # add new types (here: columns that contain only URLs) $table->set_coldef_strategy({ URL => qr{\A \s* http }xms, URL_COL => '>{\ttfamily}l', });
width
-
If get_width() returns a true value, then
LaTeX::Table
will append a*
to the tabular environment name (e.g.tabular*
orxtabular*
) and will add the specified width. It will also add@{\extracolsep{\fill}}
to the table column definition:# use 75% of textwidth $table->set_width('0.75\textwidth');
This will produce following LaTeX code:
\begin{tabular*}{0.75\textwidth}{l@{\extracolsep{\fill} ... }
For tables of
type
std, it is also possible to use thetabularx
LaTeX package (seewidth_environment
below). The tables of type ctable automatically use thetabularx
package. width_environment
-
If get_width() (see above) returns a true value and table is of
type
std, then this option provides the possibility to add a custom tabular environment that supports a table width:\begin{environment}{width}{def}
To use for example the one provided by the
tabularx
LaTeX package, write:# use the tabularx package (for a std table) $table->set_width('300pt'); $table->set_width_environment('tabularx');
Note this will not add
@{\extracolsep{\fill}}
and that this overwrites acustom_tabular_environment
. Default is 0 (seewidth
). maxwidth
-
Only supported by tables of type ctable.
callback
-
If get_callback() returns a true value and the return value is a code reference, then this callback function will be called for every column in
header
anddata
. The return value of this function is then printed instead of the column value.The passed arguments are
$row
,$col
(both starting with 0),$value
and$is_header
.use LaTeX::Encode; use Number::Format qw(:subs); ... # use LaTeX::Encode to encode LaTeX special characters, # format the third column with Format::Number (only the data) my $table = LaTeX::Table->new( { header => $header, data => $data, callback => sub { my ( $row, $col, $value, $is_header ) = @_; if ( $col == 2 && !$is_header ) { $value = format_price($value, 2, ''); } else { $value = latex_encode($value); } return $value; }, } );
foottable
-
Only supported by tables of type
ctable
. The footnote\tnote
commands. See the documentation of thectable
LaTeX package.$table->set_foottable('\tnote{footnotes are placed under the table}');
resizebox
-
If get_resizebox() returns a true value, then the resizebox command is used to resize the table. Takes as argument a reference to an array. The first element is the desired width. If a second element is not given, then the hight is set to a value so that the aspect ratio is still the same. Requires the
graphicx
LaTeX package. Default 0.$table->set_resizebox([ '0.6\textwidth' ]); $table->set_resizebox([ '300pt', '200pt' ]);
MULTIPAGE TABLES
tableheadmsg
-
When get_caption_top() and get_tableheadmsg() both return true values, then additional captions are printed on the continued pages. Default caption text is 'Continued from previous page'.
tabletailmsg
-
Message at the end of a multipage table. Default is 'Continued on next page'.
tabletail
-
Custom table tail. Default is multicolumn with the tabletailmsg (see above) right-justified.
xentrystretch
-
Option for xtab. Play with this option if the number of rows per page is not optimal. Requires a number as parameter. Default is 0 (does not use this option).
$table->set_xentrystretch(-0.1);
THEMES
theme
-
The name of the theme. Default is Zurich. See "THEMES".
predef_themes
-
All predefined themes. Getter only.
custom_themes
-
All custom themes. See LaTeX::Table::Themes::ThemeI.
columns_like_header
-
Takes as argument a reference to an array with column ids (again, starting with 0). These columns are formatted like header columns.
# a "transposed" table ... my $table = LaTeX::Table->new( { data => $data, columns_like_header => [ 0 ], } );
header_sideways
-
If get_header_sideways() returns a true value, then the header columns will be rotated by 90 degrees. Requires the
rotating
LaTeX package. Does not affect data columns specified in columns_like_header(). If you do not want to rotate all headers, use a callback function instead:... header_sideways => 0, callback => sub { my ( $row, $col, $value, $is_header ) = @_; if ( $col != 0 && $is_header ) { $value = '\begin{sideways}' . $value . '\end{sideways}'; } return $value; } ...
MULTICOLUMNS
Multicolumns are defined in LaTeX with \multicolumn{$cols}{$alignment}{$text}
. This module supports a simple shortcut of the format $text:$cols$alignment
. For example, Item:2c
is equivalent to \multicolumn{2}{c}{Item}
. Note that vertical lines (|
) are automatically added here according the LINES settings in the theme. See LaTeX::Table::Themes::ThemeI. LaTeX::Table
also uses this shortcut to determine the column ids. So in this example,
my $data = [ [' \multicolumn{2}{c}{A}', 'B' ], [ 'C:2c', 'D' ] ];
'B' would have an column id of 1 and 'D' 2 ('A' and 'C' both 0). This is important for callback functions and for the coldef calculation. See "TABULAR ENVIRONMENT".
THEMES
The theme can be selected with
$table->set_theme($themename)
Currently, following predefined main themes are available: Zurich, plain (no formatting), NYC (for presentations), Berlin and Paris. Variants of these themes are also available, see the theme modules below. The script generate_examples.pl in the examples directory of this distributions generates some examples for all available themes.
The default theme, Zurich, is highly recommended. It requires \usepackage{booktabs}
in your LaTeX document.
See LaTeX::Table::Themes::ThemeI how to define custom themes.
LaTeX::Table::Themes::Beamer, LaTeX::Table::Themes::Booktabs, LaTeX::Table::Themes::Classic, LaTeX::Table::Themes::Modern.
EXAMPLES
See examples/examples.pdf in this distribution for a short tutorial that covers the main features of this module. See also the example application csv2pdf for an example of the common task of converting a CSV (or Excel) file to LaTeX or even PDF.
DIAGNOSTICS
If you get a LaTeX error message, please check whether you have included all required packages. The packages we use are array
, booktabs
, colortbl
, ctable
, graphicx
, rotating
, tabularx
, xcolor
and xtab
.
LaTeX::Table
may throw one of these errors and warnings:
IO error: Can't ...
-
In method generate(), it was not possible to write the LaTeX code to
filename
. Invalid usage of option ...
-
See the examples in this document and in examples/examples.pdf for the correct usage of this option.
DEPRECATED. ...
-
There were some minor API changes in
LaTeX::Table
0.1.0, 0.8.0, 0.9.0 and 0.9.3. Just apply the changes to the script or contact its author.
CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT
LaTeX::Table
requires no configuration files or environment variables.
DEPENDENCIES
Carp, Module::Pluggable, Moose, English, Scalar::Util, Template, Text::Wrap
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
No bugs have been reported.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-latex-table@rt.cpan.org
, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org.
SEE ALSO
CREDITS
- David Carlisle for the
colortbl
and thetabularx
LaTeX packages. - Wybo Dekker for the
ctable
LaTeX package. - Simon Fear for the
booktabs
LaTeX package. The "SYNOPSIS" table is the example in his documentation. - Andrew Ford (ANDREWF) for many great suggestions. He also wrote LaTeX::Driver and LaTeX::Encode which are used by csv2pdf.
- Lapo Filippo Mori for the excellent tutorial Tables in LaTeX2e: Packages and Methods.
- Peter Wilson for the
xtab
LaTeX package.
AUTHOR
Markus Riester <mriester@gmx.de>
LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2006-2008, Markus Riester <mriester@gmx.de>
.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See perlartistic.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
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