Writing a paper

Tables

Build tables with tabular, make them look professional with booktabs, merge cells and fit wide tables.

A basic table

In tabular, the column spec says how each column is aligned (l, c, r); & separates cells and \\ ends a row. Put it in a table environment for a caption and a label. The Table button in the editor builds one for you.

\begin{table}[t]
  \centering
  \caption{Results on the test set.}
  \label{tab:results}
  \begin{tabular}{lcc}
    \toprule
    Method & Accuracy & Time (s) \\
    \midrule
    Baseline & 0.81 & 12 \\
    Ours     & \textbf{0.93} & 9 \\
    \bottomrule
  \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Professional rules with booktabs

Load booktabs and use \toprule, \midrule and \bottomrule instead of \hline. Avoid vertical lines — journals prefer the clean look.

Merged cells and wide tables

\multicolumn{2}{c}{…} spans columns; \multirow (package multirow) spans rows. A table wider than the column can be scaled with \resizebox{\linewidth}{!}{…}, or placed across both columns with table* in two-column layouts.

\begin{tabular}{lcc}
  \toprule
  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Noise level} \\
  \cmidrule(lr){2-3}
  Method & 5 dB & 10 dB \\
  \midrule
  Ours & 0.91 & 0.95 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabular}

Try it: the full example compiles as it is. Open as a project