How to make all cells boldface in LaTeX table? - latex

Question

Given the following LaTeX table, how can I make all cells have a bold style?
MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]%
\centering
\caption[Data description]{Dataset description}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
&Dataset &Samples&Numerical&Categorical&Class\\ \hline
1&Horse & 300 & 7 & 16 & 2 \\ \hline
2&Ionosphere & 351 & 32 & 1 & 2 \\ \hline
3&Band & 540 & 13 & 6 & 2 \\ \hline
4&Australian+MV& 621 & 3 & 11 & 2 \\ \hline
5&Hepatitis & 155 & 2 & 17 & 2 \\ \hline
6&Credit & 690 & 3 & 12 & 2 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:data}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Answer 1

You can set the formatting of each column in the tabular argument with >{...}, see Tabular, make a column or a row emphasized:
\begin{tabular}{|>{\bfseries}l|>{\bfseries}l|>{\bfseries}c|>{\bfseries}c|>{\bfseries}c|>{\bfseries}c|}
Use the *{num}{str} syntax to make it shorter and more readable:
\begin{tabular}{*{2}{|>{\bfseries}l} *{4}{|>{\bfseries}c} |}\hline
I.e. 'two times flush left and bold', then 'four times centred and bold'. (Note that \bf is deprecated.)
Your MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array} % otherwise you get "Error: Illegal character in array arg."
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]%
\centering
\caption[Data description]{Dataset description}
\begin{tabular}{*{2}{|>{\bfseries}l} *{4}{|>{\bfseries}c} |}\hline
&Dataset &Samples&Numerical&Categorical&Class\\ \hline
1&Horse & 300 & 7 & 16 & 2 \\ \hline
2&Ionosphere & 351 & 32 & 1 & 2 \\ \hline
3&Band & 540 & 13 & 6 & 2 \\ \hline
4&Australian+MV& 621 & 3 & 11 & 2 \\ \hline
5&Hepatitis & 155 & 2 & 17 & 2 \\ \hline
6&Credit & 690 & 3 & 12 & 2 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:data}
\end{table}
\end{document}
You can also set the formatting of a whole row (less interesting in this case) - see for instance How to change a whole row of a table.
Note: you can make a single cell normal again by using \normalfont{}.

Answer 2

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]%
% If you want all in bold face then enclose it between {\ bf }
\centering {\bf
\caption[Data description]{Dataset description}
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|c|c|c|c|}\hline
& Dataset & Samples & Numerical & Categorical & Class\\\hline
1 & Horse & 300 & 7 & 16 & 2 \\\hline
2 & Ionosphere & 351 & 32 & 1 & 2 \\\hline
3 & Band & 540 & 13 & 6 & 2 \\\hline
4 & Australian+MV& 621 & 3 & 11 & 2 \\\hline
5 & Hepatitis & 155 & 2 & 17 & 2 \\\hline
6 & Credit & 690 & 3 & 12 & 2 \\\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{tab:data}