% bigbrace.sty : Oct 2, 1994
%         from: \dobrace by piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum): see below
%
\def\leftbrace#1#2{\@ifnextchar [{\@leftbrace#1#2}{\@leftbrace#1#2[\null]}}
\def\@leftbrace#1#2[#3]%
% \newcommand{\dolbrace}[3]% #1=number of rows #2=width #3=text
 {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
  #3$\left\{{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width 0pt}}%
     \right.$}}
%
\def\rightbrace#1#2{\@ifnextchar [{\@rightbrace#1#2}{\@rightbrace#1#2[\null]}}
\def\@rightbrace#1#2[#3]%
% \newcommand{\dolbrace}[3]% #1=number of rows #2=width #3=text
 {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
   $\left.{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width 0pt}}%
     \right\}$#3}}
%
\endinput
%
\documentstyle[multirow,bigbrace]{article}
\begin{document}
A sample of {\tt bigbrace.sty}:
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|l|} \hline
\leftbrace{3}{1.2cm}[gnats] & foo & bar & \rightbrace{2}{1cm} \\
                          & foo & bar & \\
                          & foo & bar & \rightbrace{5}{2cm}[armadillo] \\
                          & foo & bar & \\
                          & foo & bar & \\
\leftbrace{3}{1.2cm}[gnus]  & foo & bar & \\
                          & foo & bar & \\
                          & foo & bar & \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{document}
%
         ORIGINAL ARTICLES ON NETWORK NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: /ystein Bache <bache@kjemi.unit.no>
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: [Q] Putting big { in tables
Date: 28 Sep 1994 08:03:01 GMT
Organization: The Norwegian Institute of Technology
In article <369ts5$leu@lace.Colorado.EDU> Jeffrey Lessem,
lessem@Colorado.EDU writes:
>I have been wondering how to do this for some time; basically I want
>to put a large left brace in a table, so that it spans several rows of
>the table:
I finaly managed to do this. In fact Piet van Oostrum told me how to do
it. Get the multirow package and define:
A right brace:
\newcommand{\rigthbrace}[2]% #1=number of rows #2=width
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
       $\left.{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width
0pt}}%
     \right\}$}}
I guess a left turning brace would be (I have not tried it)
\newcommand{\leftbrace}[2]% #1=number of rows #2=width
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
       $\left\{.{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width
0pt}}%
     \right$}}
I use the right one as in the following example:
\begin{tabular}{@{}*{4}{r}@{}c@{}l@{}}\\\hline
        &    &1547              &1631    &&$\nu$(C=O)\\
        &    &                  &1327    &&$\nu$($\alpha$-C-O)\\
        &    &                  &1306    &&Phenyl\\
        &821 &                  &821     &&Ti oxychloride\\
        &    &                  &715     &&Phenyl in-phase wag\\
498     &    &496               &        &&ads. TiCl$_4$\\
476     &    &                  &        &\rightbrace{4}{0.4cm}
&\multirow{4}{3cm}{$\nu$(Ti-Cl$_t$)}\\
461     &    &458               &        &\\
450     &    &                  &        &\\
        &    &                  &397     &\\
408-330 &    &378               &        &&$\nu$(Ti-Cl$_b$)\\\hline
\end{tabular}
As you can see, the brace is in a slim column by it self, empty for the
other rows. The column entry pointed on by the brace is made with the
\multirow command.  It should be possible to make long [, ], etc. in the
same manner.
Regards,
________________________________________________________________________
\O ystein Bache                                email:bache@kjemi.unit.no
Department of Inorganic Chemistry
The Norwegian Institute of Thechnology
The University of Trondheim
N-7034 Trondheim, Norway.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
% original article had one spell-mistake and one bug.
%
\newcommand{\rightbrace}[2]% #1=number of rows #2=width
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
       $\left.{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width 0pt}}%
     \right\}$}}
%
\newcommand{\leftbrace}[2]% #1=number of rows #2=width
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
       $\left\{{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width 0pt}}%
     \right.$}}
%
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
% \begin{tabular}{@{}*{4}{r}@{}c@{}l@{}}\\\hline % original
\begin{tabular}{rrrrcl} \hline
% leftbrace added to the original
        & \leftbrace{5}{1cm} &1547 &1631 &&$\nu$(C=O)\\
        &    &                  &1327    &&$\nu$($\alpha$-C-O)\\
% string added to the original
XYZ     &    &                  &1306    &&Phenyl\\
        &821 &                  &821     &&Ti oxychloride\\
        &    &                  &715     &&Phenyl in-phase wag\\
498     &    &496               &        &&ads. TiCl$_4$\\
476     &    &                  &        &\rightbrace{4}{0.4cm}
&\multirow{4}{3cm}{$\nu$(Ti-Cl$_t$)}\\
461     &    &458               &        &\\
450     &    &                  &        &\\
        &    &                  &397     &\\
408-330 &    &378               &        &&$\nu$(Ti-Cl$_b$)\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{document}
------------------------------------------------------------
From: piet@cs.ruu.nl (Piet van Oostrum)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: [Q] Putting big { in tables
Message-ID: <Cwu0HC.FFy@cs.ruu.nl>
Date: 28 Sep 94 08:48:47 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Use multirow.sty (be sure to really get the latest version)
\newcommand{\dolbrace}[3]% #1=number of rows #2=width #3=text
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
       #3$\left\{{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip width 0pt}}%
     \right.$}}
%
Enter:
%
\dobrace{5}{2cm}{gnats} & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
\dobrace{3}{2cm}{gnus}  & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
                        & foo & bar & ...\\
-- 
Piet* van Oostrum, Dept of Computer Science, Utrecht University,  (*`Pete')
Padualaan 14, P.O. Box 80.089, 3508 TB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Telephone: +31 30 531806 Telefax: +31 30 513791 Internet: piet@cs.ruu.nl 
PGP public key by finger or WWW http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~piet
----------------------------------------------------------
From: lessem@Colorado.EDU (Jeffrey Lessem)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: [Summary] Putting big { in tables
Date: 28 Sep 1994 17:50:29 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Thanks to Piet van Oostrum, Oystein Bache, and Timothy Murphy for
helping me figure this out.
Use the multirow package (CTAN: /macros/latex209/contrib/multirow.sty)
and the macro supplied by Piet van Oostrum:
\newcommand{\dolbrace}[3]% #1=number of rows #2=width #3=text
  {\multirow{#1}{#2}{%
      #3$\left\{{\vcenter{\hsize=0pt\vrule height #1\baselineskip
width 0pt}}%
     \right.$}}
This macro is easy to change for left, right, square, etc. brackets,
the important parts being `\left\{' `\right.' and `#3'.
-------------------------------------
Jeff Lessem (Jeff.Lessem@Colorado.EDU)
Institute for Behavioral Genetics
University of Colorado
