latex list environment inside the tabular environment: extra line at top preventing alignment

Question

Hello good people of stackoverflow. I have a LaTeX question that is bugging me. I have been trying to get a list environment to appear correctly inside the tabular environment. So far I have gotten everything to my liking except one thing: the top of the list does not align with other entries in the table, in fact it looks like it adds one line above the list... I would like to have these lists at the top. This is what I have, a custom list environment:

  \newenvironment{flushemize}{
    \begin{list}{$\bullet$}
    {\setlength{\itemsep}{1pt}
      \setlength{\parskip}{0pt}
      \setlength{\parsep}{0pt}
      \setlength{\partopsep}{0pt}
      \setlength{\topsep}{0pt}
      \setlength{\leftmargin}{12pt}}}{\end{list}}

Renamed ragged right:

\newcommand{\rr}{\raggedright}

and here is my table:

\begin{table}[H]\caption{Tank comparisons}\label{tab:tanks}
    \centering
    \rowcolors{2}{white}{tableShade}

    \begin{tabular}{p{1in}p{1.5in}p{1.5in}rr}

    \toprule

    {\bf Material} & {\bf Pros} & {\bf Cons} & {\bf Size} & {\bf Cost} \\

    \midrule

    \rr Reinforced concrete &\rr  \begin{flushemize}\item Strong \item Secure \end{flushemize}&\rr  \begin{flushemize}\item Prone to leaks \item Relatively expensive to install \item Heavy \end{flushemize} & 100,000 gal & \$299,400  \\

    \rr Steel & \begin{flushemize}\item Strong \item Secure \end{flushemize} & \begin{flushemize}\item Relatively expensive to install \item Heavy \item Require painting to prevent rusting \end{flushemize} & 100,000 gal & \$130,100  \\

    \rr Polypropylene & \begin{flushemize}\item Easy to install \item Mobile \item Inexpensive \item Prefabricated \end{flushemize} & \begin{flushemize}\item Relatively insecure \item Max size available 10,000 gal \end{flushemize} & 10,000 gal & \$5,000  \\

    \rr Wood & \begin{flushemize}\item Easy to install \item Mobile \item Cheap to install \end{flushemize} & \begin{flushemize}\item Prone to rot \item Must remain full once constructed \end{flushemize} & 100,000 gal &  \$86,300\\

    \bottomrule

    \end{tabular}
\end{table}

Thank you for any advice :)

---

Update

Thank you Little Bobby Tables and Charles Stewart for your responses. I tried out both of your suggestions and unfortunately could not get them to work.

For tweaklist I tried:

...
\usepackage{tweaklist}  
\renewcommand{\enumhook}{\setlength{\topsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\itemsep}{0pt}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[H]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lp{2in}l}

  blah & \begin{itemize}\item One \item Two\end{itemize} & blah \\

  blah & blah & blah \\

\end{tabular}
\end{table}
...

and for paralist I tried:

...
\usepackage{paralist}  

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[H]
\centering
\begin{tabular}{lp{2in}l}

  blah & \begin{compactitem}\item One \item Two\end{compactitem} & blah \\

  blah & blah & blah \\

\end{tabular}
\end{table}
...

Tanks again, let me know if I missed something I tried to use the documentation provided with the packages as best I could.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, your change to topsep won't take effect, as the dimension has already been used by the time your definition is used. Take a look at Jason Schiøtz's tweaklist package, that adjusts the list environments so that these definitions happen in good time.

I had exactly this problem for years before I understood what was going on...

Answer 2

Another option is to use the paralist package. It's compactitem env. is probably what you want - A compacted items list with very little vertical spaces, much more suitable in a table than the default env.