[comp.text] LaTeX table caption wrap how ?

mikew@wheeler.wrcr.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck) (12/06/89)

I would like the captions under tables to be limited in
horizontal extent to the width of the table. I think this looks
better than what I get by default. Also I have several small 
tables which I would like to squeeze onto one page. A sample
follows:

------------------------------------------------------
\documentstyle{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[p]
% \begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}\hline
 24 & bladder & Initial \\ 
 hour & pump & value \\ 
\hline
\hline
            .69 &             .69 &             .66 \\
              .7 &             .69 &             .69 \\
              .8 &             .69 &             .69 \\
              .7 &             .69 &             .69 \\
              .7 &             .69 &             .69 \\
 \hline
\hline
\end{tabular}
% \end{center}
\caption{NO3 recovery (mg/l) from run 16327PL\label{XXX}}
\end{table}

\end{document}
------------------------------------------------------

Note that as is the caption is wider than the table-- how can I
get the caption (in a box?) just the width of the table. Table
widths may vary some. This LaTeX file was in fact written with
an awk script extracting raw data from a database file; I would
like to keep the process 'automated' rather than do hand-tuning
if possible.


Thanks in advance.
___________________________________________________________
|Mike Whitbeck             |                              |
|Desert Research Inst.     | mikew@wheeler.wrc.unr.edu    |
|POB 60220                 |                              |
|RENO, NV 89506            | 702-673-7348                 |
|__________________________|______________________________|

bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger) (12/13/89)

[Email isn't worth the paper it's printed on . . .]

Just create a macro which puts the tabular in a box and gets its width;
requires diving into TeX (untested) (and sketchy, but should give the
idea if you know plain TeX any; maybe someone else can develop this
better . . .


\newbox\boxbox
\newbox\boxtoo
\newenvironment{boxtab}[1]
	{\def\boxcap{#1} \setbox\boxbox=\bgroup}
	{\egroup \setbox\boxtoo=\vbox{\hsize=\wd\boxbox\boxcap}
	 \begin{table} \boxbox \caption{\boxtoo} \end{table}
	 }

	 \begin{boxtab}{caption}
		this & that \\
		and & more
	 \end{boxtab}
-- 
-- Brian, the Man from Babble-on.		...!mcnc!rti!sas!bts
-- (Brian Schellenberger)
"No one will ever write a song called 'Nitro Burning Funny Cars'"
                 -- THE DEAD MILKMEN, "Nitro Burning Funny Cars"