Hi Ingo, Thanks for the input!!
I'm not sure this works for me. Since I am using groff/tbl to produce computer reports, there could actually be 1,000 lines in the table! So I can't specify the format for each line upfront. In my case, there can be zero or more (could be 50) of col6 col7 rows. for each col1 col2 col3 col4 row. I don't understand what you mean by "Nesting of tables is never needed". You seem to be saying that there is some general solution to this sort of thing. I don't see it. Thank for the help!! Blake On Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 3:22 PM Ingo Schwarze <schwa...@usta.de> wrote: > Hi Blake, > > Blake McBride wrote on Sun, Feb 09, 2020 at 01:50:01PM -0600: > > > I have a need to nest tables as follows: > > I'm reducing the number of columns (no col5 nor col8) > and lines to make the example code smaller: > > > col1 col2 col3 col4 > > col6 col7 > > col6 col7 > > col1 col2 col3 col4 > > col6 col7 > > > > How can I do something like this with TBL? Can I simply nest tables? > > Nesting of tables is never needed, but you can split columns > and join cells, for example as follows: > > .TS > allbox tab(:); > LLSLSLS > LLLSLS > LLLSLS > LLSLSLS > LLLSLS. > col1:col2:col3:col4 > ::col6:col7 > ::col6:col7 > col1:col2:col3:col4 > ::col6:col7 > .TE > > The allbox option is just intended for illustrative purposes, > of course it also works without that or with manual lines, e.g.: > > .TS > tab(:); > L | LS | LS | LS > LL | LS | LS | > LL | LS | LS | > L | LS | LS | LS > LL | LS | LS |. > col1:col2:col3:col4 > _ > ::col6:col7 > ::col6:col7 > _ > col1:col2:col3:col4 > _ > ::col6:col7 > .TE > > If you repeatedly want to switch between the two row types, > you cannot rely on the usual default of applying the last layout > row to all remaining data rows. You either need to specify the > layout for all lines up front or re-open the layout multiple times: > > .TS > tab(:); > L | LS | LS | LS > LL | LS | LS |. > col1:col2:col3:col4 > _ > ::col6:col7 > ::col6:col7 > _ > .T& > L | LS | LS | LS > LL | LS | LS |. > col1:col2:col3:col4 > _ > ::col6:col7 > ::col6:col7 > .TE > > Yours, > Ingo >