Tabular formatting problems 1

Tabular formatting determines the physical dimensions of tables according to size constraints. Many factors contribute to the complexity of the formatting process so we analyze the computational complexity of tabular formatting with respect to diierent restrictions. We also present an algorithm for tabular formatting that we have implemented in a prototype system. It supports automatic line breaking and size constraints expressed as linear equalities or inequalities. This algorithm determines in polynomial time the physical dimensions for many tables although it takes exponential-time in the worst case. Indeed, we have shown elsewhere that the formatting problem it solves is NP-complete.