How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

[Richard H Stanton]

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Here’s a table in my org document:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :options [htbp]
#+begin_table
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
|     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
|     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
| Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
#+end_table

I want all the columns to be right-aligned (as they are in the org document), but when exported to LaTeX/PDF, the “Total” column in the output table is left aligned instead. Here’s the relevant section of the .tex document generated during PDF export:

\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{rrlr}
\hline
Tier & Number & Total & \% of Total\\
\hline
1 & 4 & 8,700.00 & 57.39\\
2 & 19 & 5,398.00 & 35.61\\
3 & 24 & 1,061.40 & 7.00\\
\hline
Total & 47 & 15,159.40 & 100.00\\
\hline
\end{tabular}

\end{center}
\end{table}

What am I missing? If relevant, org-version returns

Org mode version 9.8-pre (release_9.7.18-223-g7ef659 @ /Users/stanton/.emacs.d/straight/build/org/)

Thanks for any suggestions.

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Re: How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

[Rens Oliemans]

Richard H Stanton <rhstanton@berkeley.edu> writes:

> Here’s a table in my org document:
>
> #+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :options [htbp]
> #+begin_table
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
> |     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
> |     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> | Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> #+end_table
>
> I want all the columns to be right-aligned (as they are in the org document), but when exported to LaTeX/PDF, the “Total” column in the output table is left aligned instead. Here’s the relevant section of the .tex document generated during PDF export:

Remove the #+begin_table and #+end_table parts: table isn't a valid block type.
'C-C C-,' (org-insert-structure-template) shows you what blocks are valid.

A table is simply defined via lines starting with '|'. This should work:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
|     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
|     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
| Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|

Also, I think your :options is a bit weird. Your exported LaTeX code seems fine,
but that's a side effect of you having the #+begin_table blocks, I _think_ Org
creates a special 'table' environment based on your block name ('table'), which
makes your :options work. See "(org) Special blocks in LaTeX export" in the
manual.

To make your desired placement work with a "correct" table, see "(org) Tables in
LaTeX export" and the documentation of ':placement':

    ‘:float’
    ‘:placement’
         The table environments by default are not floats in LaTeX.  To make
         them floating objects use ‘:float’ with one of the following
         options: ‘t’ (for a default ‘table’ environment), ‘sideways’ (for a
         ‘sidewaystable’ environment), ‘multicolumn’ (to span the table
         across multiple columns of a page in a ‘table*’ environment) and
         ‘nil’.  In addition to these three values, ‘:float’ can pass
         through any arbitrary value, for example a user-defined float type
         with the ‘float’ LaTeX package.

         LaTeX floats can also have additional layout ‘:placement’
         attributes.  These are the usual ‘[h t b p ! H]’ permissions
         specified in square brackets.  Note that for ‘:float sideways’
         tables, the LaTeX export backend ignores ‘:placement’ attributes.

I think that this org snippet is what you are looking for:

#+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :float t :placement [htbp]
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
|     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
|     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
| Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|

-- 
Best,
Rens

Re: How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

[Richard H Stanton]

On Jan 9, 2025, at 2:17 AM, Rens Oliemans <hallo@rensoliemans.nl> wrote:
> 
> Richard H Stanton <rhstanton@berkeley.edu> writes:
> 
>> Here’s a table in my org document:
>> 
>> #+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :options [htbp]
>> #+begin_table
>> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
>> |  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
>> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
>> |     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
>> |     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
>> |     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
>> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
>> | Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
>> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
>> #+end_table
>> 
>> I want all the columns to be right-aligned (as they are in the org document), but when exported to LaTeX/PDF, the “Total” column in the output table is left aligned instead. Here’s the relevant section of the .tex document generated during PDF export:
> 
> Remove the #+begin_table and #+end_table parts: table isn't a valid block type.
> 'C-C C-,' (org-insert-structure-template) shows you what blocks are valid.
> 
> A table is simply defined via lines starting with '|'. This should work:
> 
> #+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
> |     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
> |     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> | Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> 
> Also, I think your :options is a bit weird. Your exported LaTeX code seems fine,
> but that's a side effect of you having the #+begin_table blocks, I _think_ Org
> creates a special 'table' environment based on your block name ('table'), which
> makes your :options work. See "(org) Special blocks in LaTeX export" in the
> manual.
> 
> To make your desired placement work with a "correct" table, see "(org) Tables in
> LaTeX export" and the documentation of ':placement':
> 
>    ‘:float’
>    ‘:placement’
>         The table environments by default are not floats in LaTeX.  To make
>         them floating objects use ‘:float’ with one of the following
>         options: ‘t’ (for a default ‘table’ environment), ‘sideways’ (for a
>         ‘sidewaystable’ environment), ‘multicolumn’ (to span the table
>         across multiple columns of a page in a ‘table*’ environment) and
>         ‘nil’.  In addition to these three values, ‘:float’ can pass
>         through any arbitrary value, for example a user-defined float type
>         with the ‘float’ LaTeX package.
> 
>         LaTeX floats can also have additional layout ‘:placement’
>         attributes.  These are the usual ‘[h t b p ! H]’ permissions
>         specified in square brackets.  Note that for ‘:float sideways’
>         tables, the LaTeX export backend ignores ‘:placement’ attributes.
> 
> I think that this org snippet is what you are looking for:
> 
> #+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :float t :placement [htbp]
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |  Tier | Number |     Total | % of Total |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |     1 |      4 |  8,700.00 |      57.39 |
> |     2 |     19 |  5,398.00 |      35.61 |
> |     3 |     24 |  1,061.40 |       7.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> | Total |     47 | 15,159.40 |     100.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> 
> -- 
> Best,
> Rens

Thanks, Rens. That works and looks a lot neater than my version, which I arrived at through trial and (mostly) error...

I actually generate this table from a Python code block. In the past, I’ve often run into problems with raw output (like this), where running the code block multiple times causes the output to appear multiple times, rather than overwriting. I found that using :wrap seems to prevent this. I have no idea where “:wrap table” comes from, but org exported this without error, so I stopped thinking about it… Trying it with raw output just now, the table seems to be overwritten just fine when I run the code block multiple times. So maybe I don’t need to worry about this any more, but what are the recommended headers for a Python code block that exports a table? For example, ":results output raw” and ":results output drawer” both seem to work (without :wrap), while “:results output” puts everything in an example block, which then seems to get exported verbatim, not as a LaTeX table.

Best,

Richard

Re: How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

[Rens Oliemans]

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Richard H Stanton <rhstanton@berkeley.edu> writes:

> what are the recommended headers for a Python code block that exports a table? For example, ":results output raw” and ":results output drawer” both seem to work (without :wrap), while “:results output” puts everything in an example block, which then seems to get exported verbatim, not as a LaTeX table.

Take a look at
https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/languages/ob-doc-python.html. I found
this link in the Org manual, "(org) Results of Evaluation", and then to
"Documentation" link of python. From that page:

    :results {output, value}: Output results come from whatever the python code
    prints on stdout. Value results are the value of the last expression
    evaluated in the code block. Value mode is the default (as with other
    languages). In value mode you can use the following subtypes:

        verbatim: value is returned as string. In particular, use this to
        prevent conversion of lists and tuples to tables.

        table: (Org 9.7+) Try to convert the result to an Org table. Dicts,
        numpy arrays, and pandas DataFrames/Series can be returned as tables
        this way (by default, they are printed verbatim). Note that lists and
        tuples are already converted to table by default (use verbatim to
        prevent that).

So, ':results output' will output whatever python prints to stdout. With
'print()', I think that this will just be a string, and no conversion will take
place. If you specify 'output raw', python will still just print the string, but
*Org mode* will now interpret it as raw Org mode. This will probably work fine,
but you'll have to add '|' and newlines in your string correctly. Alternative:

':results value', the default. In this case ob-python will convert lists and
tuples to tables by default (and optionally, dicts and DataFrames as well).

That would be my recommendation: a code block with the default headers, which
returns a list of lists. I've attached an org file which does this.

> I actually generate this table from a Python code block. In the past, I’ve often run into problems with raw output (like this), where running the code block multiple times causes the output to appear multiple times, rather than overwriting.

':results append' will cause the output to appear multiple times, but I expect
that it happened due to other circumstances (':results replace' is default and I
expect you didn't change that). One such circumstance is when you, say, add a
':results output' header argument, and then change it back. For reasons unknown
to me, Org mode will then see the previous #+RESULTS: block as unrelated to the
current one, and will not replace it.

This is then kind of annoying, because you'll have to add the #+ATTR_LATEX: line
to the table again. I'd fix this manually, but if it gets annoying you can use
the suggestion by PA.


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#+begin_src python
  import random
  from collections import namedtuple

  Tier = namedtuple('Tier', ['number', 'total'])

  def generate_table(tiers):
      total = sum(tier.total for tier in tiers)
      total_numbers = sum(tier.number for tier in tiers)

      # A None in a list will result in a hline in org tables
      return [
          None,  # Header separator
          ('Tier', 'Number', 'Total', '% of Total'),
          None,  # Column header separator
          ,*[
              (i+1, tier.number, f'{tier.total:,.2f}', f'{100 * tier.total / total:.2f}')
              for i, tier in enumerate(tiers)
          ],
          None,  # Footer separator
          ('Total', total_numbers, f'{total:,.2f}', '100.00'),
          None,  # Final separator
      ]

  tiers = [
      Tier(4,  random.uniform(1000, 10000)),
      Tier(19, random.uniform(1000, 10000)),
      Tier(24, random.uniform(1000, 10000)),
  ]
  return generate_table(tiers)
#+end_src

#+RESULTS:
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|  Tier | Number | Total     | % of Total |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
|     1 |      4 | 8,022.65  |      65.45 |
|     2 |     19 | 1,549.71  |      12.64 |
|     3 |     24 | 2,685.28  |      21.91 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|
| Total |     47 | 12,257.65 |     100.00 |
|-------+--------+-----------+------------|

#+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :float t :placement [htbp]
#+RESULTS:

Re: How to specify column alignment in LaTeX table output?

[Rens Oliemans]

Rens Oliemans <hallo@rensoliemans.nl> writes:
>
> #+RESULTS:
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |  Tier | Number | Total     | % of Total |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> |     1 |      4 | 8,022.65  |      65.45 |
> |     2 |     19 | 1,549.71  |      12.64 |
> |     3 |     24 | 2,685.28  |      21.91 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
> | Total |     47 | 12,257.65 |     100.00 |
> |-------+--------+-----------+------------|
>
> #+ATTR_LATEX: :align rrrr :float t :placement [htbp]
> #+RESULTS:

Ah, here we see the exact problem we've both just attested to! The #+RESULTS: code block
got recreated because I was messing around with ':results' headers, and the #+ATTR_LATEX:
line doesn't belong to the correct table anymore.

You will notice that if you move the #+ATTR_LATEX line above the table, Org mode will keep
replacing that table on later code block evaluations (usually ;))