I would like to redefine \columnwidth
and set it to the value corresponding to (\textwidth-\columnsep)/2
.
This is because I would like to use this redefined command inside tabular environment for controlling column width.
The problem with \columnwidth
is that it disregards the space between columns, therefore it doesn't do the job.
Here's what I'm talking about. The following code compiles but gives an undesirable output.
\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\setlength{\columnsep}{2cm}
\newcommand\testcolwidth{(\textwidth-\columnsep)/2}
\begin{document}
\lipsum
\begin{table}[!h]
\begin{tabular}{p{.25\columnwidth}|p{.75\columnwidth}}
\hline
col 1 & col 2
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\lipsum
\end{document}
This is what the output look like. It's undesirable because I don't want this line (and the table) to stretch into the space between the columns.
I have tried to define column width with the following line:
\newcommand\testcolwidth{(\textwidth-\columnsep)/2}
It results in an error when using \testcolwidth
in place of \columnwidth
. The error reads: Illegal unit of measure (pt inserted)
Any help? Thanks a lot.