Ubuntu Manpage: groff_hdtbl - Heidelberger table macros for GNU roff

Name

       groff_hdtbl - Heidelberger table macros for GNU roff

Description

       The  hdtbl  macros  consist  of  four  base and three optional macros, controlled by about
       twenty arguments.  The syntax is simple and similar to the HTML table model and nearly  as
       flexible:  you can write sequences of tokens (macro calls with their arguments and content
       data), separated by blanks and beginning with a macro call, into  the  same  line  to  get
       compact  and  cleanly  arrranged  input.   An  advantage  of  hdtbl is that the tables are
       constructed without  calling  a  preprocessor;  this  means  that  groff(7)'s  full  macro
       capabilities are available.  On the other hand, table processing with hdtbl is much slower
       than using the tbl(1) preprocessor.  A further advantage is that the HTML-like  syntax  of
       hdtbl will be easily converted to HTML; this is not implemented yet.

Usage

In this and the next section, we present examples to help users understand the basic
workflow of hdtbl. First of all, you must load the hdtbl.tmac file. As with nearly all
other groff macro packages, there are two possibilities to do so: Either add the line

.mso hdtbl.tmac

to your roff file before using any macros of the hdtbl package, or add the option

-m hdtbl

to the command line of groff (before the document file which contains hdtbl macros). Then
you can include on or more tables in your document, where each one must be started and
ended with the .TBL and .ETB macros, respectively.

In this man page, we approximate the result of each example as terminal output to be as
generic as possible since hdtbl currently only supports the ps and pdf output drivers.

The simplest well-formed table consists of just single calls to the four base table macros
in the right order. Here we construct a table with only one cell.

.TBL
.TR
.TD
contents of the table cell
.ETB

A terminal representation is

+------------------------------------------------------+
| contents-of-the-table-cell |
+------------------------------------------------------+

Equivalent to the above is the following notation.

.TBL .TR .TD "contents of the table cell" .ETB

By default, the formatted table is inserted into the surrounding text at the place of its
definition. If the vertical space isn't sufficient, it is placed at the top of the next
page. Tables can also be stored for later insertion.

Using ‘row-number*column-number’ as the data for the table cells, a table with two rows
and two columns can be written as

.TBL cols=2
. TR .TD 1*1 .TD 1*2
. TR .TD 2*1 .TD 2*2
.ETB

A terminal representation is

+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| 1*1 | 1*2 |
+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2 |
+--------------------------+---------------------------+

Here we see a difference from HTML tables: The number of columns must be explicitly
specified using the ‘cols=m’ argument (or indirectly via the ‘width’ argument, see below).

The contents of a table cell is arbitrary; for example, it can be another table, without
restriction to the nesting depth. A given table layout can be either constructed with
suitably nested tables or with proper arguments to .TD and .TH, controlling column and row
spanning. Note, however, that this table

.TBL
. TR
. TD
. nop 1*1 1*2
. TR
. TD
. TBL cols=2 border=
. TR
. TD
. nop 2*1
. TD
. nop 2*2
. ETB
.ETB

and this table

.TBL cols=2
. TR
. TD colspan=2
. nop 1*1 1*2
. TR
. TD
. nop 2*1
. TD
. nop 2*2
.ETB

are similar but not identical (the use of .nop is purely cosmetic to get proper
indentation).

The first table looks like

+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1*1 1*2 |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| 2*1 2*2 |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------+

and the second one like

+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1*1 1*2 |
+---------------------------+--------------------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2 |
+---------------------------+--------------------------+

Here is the latter table in a more compact form.

.TBL cols=2 .TR ".TD colspan=2" 1*1 1*2
. TR .TD 2*1 .TD 2*2 .ETB

If a macro has one or more arguments (see below), and it is not starting a line,
everything belonging to this macro including the macro itself must be enclosed in double
quotes.

Macros and arguments

The order of macro calls and other tokens follows the HTML model. In the following list,
valid predecessors and successors of all hdtbl macros are given, together with the
possible arguments.

Macro arguments are separated by blanks. The order of arguments is arbitrary; they are of
the form

key=value

key='value1 [value2 [...]]'

with the only exception of the optional argument of the macro .ETB, which is the string
‘hold’. Another possible form is

"key=value1 [value2 [...]]"

However, this is limited to the case where the macro is the first one in the line and not
already enclosed in double quotes.

Argument values specified below as c are colors predefined by groff or colors defined by
the user with the .defcolor request. Argument values d are decimal numbers with or
without decimal point. Argument values m are natural numbers. Argument values n are
numerical values with the usual groff scaling indicators. Some of the arguments are
specific to one or two macros, but most of them can be specified with .TBL, .TR, .TD, and
.TH. These common arguments are explained in the next subsection.

Most of the argument default values can be changed by the user by setting corresponding
default registers or strings, as listed below.

.TBL [args]
Begin a new table.

predecessor: .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .CPTN, .TR
arguments:
border=[n]
Thickness of the surrounding box border. ‘border=’ (no value) means
neither a surrounding box border nor any horizontal or vertical
separator lines between the table rows and cells. ‘border=0’
suppresses the surrounding box border, but still allows separator
lines between cells and rows.
Default: ‘border=.1n’ (register ‘t*b’).
bc=c Border color.
Default: ‘bc=red4’ (string ‘t*bc’).
cols=m Number of table columns. This argument is necessary if more than one
column is in the table and no ‘width’ arguments are present.
Default: ‘cols=1’ (register ‘t*cols’).
cpd=n Cell padding, i.e., the extra space between the cell space border and
the cell contents.
Default: ‘cpd=.5n’ (register ‘t*cpd’).
csp=n Cell spacing, i.e., the extra space between the table border or
vertical or horizontal lines between cells and the cellspace.
Default: ‘csp=.5n’ (register ‘t*csp’).
tal=l|c|r
Horizontal alignment of the table, if it is smaller than the line
width. ‘tal=l’: left alignment. ‘tal=c’: centered alignment.
‘tal=r’: right alignment.
Default: ‘tal=l’ (register ‘t*tal’).
width='w1 [w2 [...]]'
Widths of table cells. w1, w2, ... are either numbers of type n or
natural numbers with the pseudo-scaling indicator ‘%’, with the
meaning “percent of the actual line length (or column length for
inner tables, respectively)”. If there are less width values than
table columns, the last width value is used for the remaining cells.
The argument

width='1.5i 10%'

for example indicates that the first column is 1.5 inches wide; the
remaining columns take 1/10 of the column length each.
Default: The table width equals the outer line length or column
length; the columns have equal widths.
height=n
Height of the table. If the table with its contents is lower than n,
the last row is stretched to this value.

.CPTN [args]
Text of caption.

The (optionally numbered) table caption. .CPTN is optional.

predecessor: .TBL
successor: .TR
arguments:
val=t|b
Vertical alignment of the table caption. ‘val=t’: The caption is
placed above the table. ‘val=b’: The caption is placed below the
table.
Default: ‘val=t’ (string ‘t*cptn’).

.TR [args]
Begin a new table row.

predecessor: .TBL, .CPTN, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .TD, .TH
arguments:
height=n
The height of the row. If a cell in the row is higher than n, this
value is ignored; otherwise the row height is stretched to n.

.TD [args [cell contents]]
Begin a table data cell.
.TH [args [cell contents]]
Begin a table header cell.

Arguments and cell contents can be mixed. The macro .TH is not really necessary
and differs from .TD only in three default settings, similar to the <TH> and <TD>
HTML tags: The contents of .TH is horizontally and vertically centered and typeset
in boldface.

predecessor: .TR, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .TD, .TH, .TR, .ETB, cell contents
arguments:
colspan=m
The width of this cell is the sum of the widths of the m cells above
and below this row.
rowspan=m
The height of this cell is the sum of the heights of the m cells left
and right of this column.

Remark: Overlapping of column and row spanning, as in the following
table fragment (the overlapping happens in the second cell in the
second row), is invalid and causes incorrect results.

.TR .TD 1*1 ".TD 1*2 rowspan=2" .TD 1*3
.TR ".TD 2*1 colspan=2" .TD 2*3

A working example for headers and cells with colspan is

.TBL cols=3
. TR ".TH colspan=2" header1+2 .TH header3
. TR .TD 1*1 .TD 1*2 .TD 1*3
. TR .TD 2*1 ".TD colspan=2" 2*2+3
.ETB

This looks like

+------------------------------+---------------+
| header1+2 | header3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 1*1 | 1*2 | 1*3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2+3 |
+--------------+-------------------------------+

A working example with rowspan is

.TBL cols=3
. TR
. TD 1*1
. TD rowspan=2 1+2*2
. TD 1*3
.
. TR
. TD 2*1
. TD 2*3
.ETB

which looks like

+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 1*1 | 1+2*2 | 1*3 |
+--------------+ +---------------+
| 2*1 | | 2*3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+

.ETB [hold]
End of the table.

This macro finishes a table. It causes one of the following actions.

• If the argument ‘hold’ is given, the table is held until it is freed by calling
the macro .t*free, which in turn prints the table immediately, either at the
current position or at the top of the next page if its height is larger than the
remaining space on the page.

• Otherwise, if the table is higher than the remaining space on the page, it is
printed at the top of the next page.

• If neither of the two above constraints hold, the table is printed immediately
at the place of its definition.

predecessor: .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .TBL, .TR, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
arguments:
hold Prevent the table from being printed until it is freed by calling the
macro .t*free. This argument is ignored for inner (nested) tables.

.t*free [n]
Free the next held table or n held tables. Call this utility macro to print tables
which are held by using the ‘hold’ argument of the .ETB macro.

Arguments common to .TBL, .TR, .TD, and .TH
The arguments described in this section can be specified with the .TBL and .TR macros, but
they are eventually passed on to the table cells. If omitted, the defaults take place,
which the user can change by setting the corresponding default registers or strings, as
documented below. Setting an argument with the .TBL macro has the same effect as setting
it for all rows in the table. Setting an argument with a .TR macro has the same effect as
setting it for all the .TH or .TD macro in this row.

bgc=[c]
The background color of the table cells. This includes the area specified with the
‘csp’ argument. The argument ‘bgc=’ (no value) suppresses a background color; this
makes the background transparent.
Default: ‘bgc=bisque’ (string ‘t*bgc’).
fgc=c The foreground color of the cell contents.
Default: ‘fgc=red4’ (string ‘t*fgc’).
ff=name
The font family for the table. name is a groff font family identifier, such as A
for Avant Garde or HN for Helvetica Narrow.
Default: The font family found before the table (string ‘t*ff’).
fst=style
The font style for the table. One of R, B, I, or BI for roman, bold, italic, or
bold italic, respectively. As with roff's .ft request, the ‘fst’ argument can be
used to specify the font family and font style together, for example ‘fst=HNBI’
instead of ‘ff=HN’ and ‘fst=BI’.
Default: The font style in use right before the table (string ‘t*fst’).
fsz='d1 [d2]'
A decimal or fractional factor d1, by which the point size for the table is
changed, and d2, by which the vertical line spacing is changed. If d2 is omitted,
value d1 is taken for both.
Default: ‘fsz='1.0 1.0'’ (string ‘t*fsz’).
hal=l|c|b|r
Horizontal alignment of the cell contents in the table. ‘hal=l’: left alignment.
‘hal=c’: centered alignment. ‘hal=b’: both (left and right) alignment. ‘hal=r’:
right alignment.
Default: ‘hal=b’ (string ‘t*hal’).
val=t|m|b
Vertical alignment of the cell contents in the table for cells lower than the
current row. ‘val=t’: alignment below the top of the cell. ‘val=m’: alignment in
the middle of the cell. ‘val=b’: alignment above the cell bottom.
Default: ‘val=t’ (string ‘t*val’).
hl=[s|d]
Horizontal line between the rows. If specified with .TD or .TH this is a separator
line to the cell below. ‘hl=’ (no value): no separator line. ‘hl=s’: a single
separator line between the rows. ‘hl=d’: a double separator line.

The thickness of the separator lines is the half of the border thickness, but at
least 0.1 inches. The distance between the double lines is equal to the line
thickness.

Remark: Together with ‘border=0’ for proper formatting the value of ‘csp’ must be
at least .05 inches for single separator lines and .15 inches for double separator
lines.
Default: ‘hl=s’ (string ‘t*hl’).
vl=[s|d]
Vertical separator line between the cells. If specified with .TD or .TH this is a
separator line to the cell on the right. ‘vl=s’: a single separator line between
the cells. ‘vl=d’: a double separator line. ‘vl=’ (no value): no vertical cell
separator lines. For more information see the documentation of the ‘hl’ argument
above.
Default: ‘vl=s’ (string ‘t*vl’).

hdtbl customization
Before creating the first table, you should configure default values to minimize the
markup needed in each table. The following example sets up defaults suitable for typical
papers:

.ds t*bgc white\" background color
.ds t*fgc black\" foreground color
.ds t*bc black\" border color
.nr t*cpd 0.1n\" cell padding

The file /usr/share/doc/groff-base/examples/hdtbl/common.roff provides another example
setup in the “minimal Page setup” section.

A table which does not fit on a partially filled page is printed automatically on the top
of the next page if you append the little utility macro t*hm to the page header macro of
your document's main macro package. For example, say

.am pg@top
. t*hm
..

if you use the ms macro package.

The macro t*EM checks for held or kept tables, and for missing ETB macros (table not
closed). You can call this macro by appending it the to end-of-input macro of the main,
or “full-service”, macro package your document uses. For example, try
.am pg@end-text
. t*EM
..
if you use the ms package.

Bugs and suggestions

       Please send your comments to the groff mailing list ⟨groff@gnu.org⟩  or  directly  to  the
       author.

Authors