How to create a \newenvironment in latex for a scaled table

Question

Hi,

I try to define a table as a new environment.

\newenvironment{scaledtable}[1]{%
\begin{table}[h]
\caption{xxx}
\label{tab:xxx}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{rcrrrrrrrrrrrrcc}
}{
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}}

The problem I have is that I can't use scalebox{}. If I put the closing bracket into the end definition of the environment, latex can't assign the brackets anymore. I also can not use PStricks because of pdflatex.
/Markus

Answer 1

Use \lrbox to temporarily store the table, then scale it

\newsavebox{\scaledtablebox}
\newcommand*{\scaledtablefactor}{1}
\newenvironment{scaledtable}[1]{%
\renewcommand*{\scaledtablefactor}{#1}%
\begin{table}[h]%
\caption{xxx}%
\label{tab:xxx}%
%
\begin{lrbox}{\scaledtablebox}%
\begin{tabular}{ll}%
}{%
\hline%
\end{tabular}%
\end{lrbox}%
%
\begin{center}%
\scalebox{\scaledtablefactor}{\usebox{\scaledtablebox}}%
\end{center}%
\end{table}%
}

Works like this (0.5 is the scale factor):

\begin{scaledtable}{0.5}
Hello & World! \\
\end{scaledtable}