tabularx and textwidth

Question

I'd like to insert a 3-columm table in my project, but I am facing problems trying to fit text in a multicolumm cell. Here is my code:
begin{center}
begin{tabularx}{textwidth}{|c X c|}
hline

multicolumn{1}{|c}{} & 
multicolumn{2}{>{hsize=dimexpr2hsize+2tabcolsep+arrayrulewidthrelax}X|}{ cell0: text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text }
hline

cell1 & cell2: text text text text text text text text & cell3

hline
end{tabularx}
end{center}

The problem is, whenever I use the hsize command to make the text fit into cell0 properly, cell2 in the following line loses its automatic adjustment to text and acquires fixed width (which I do not want). So, how can I adjust the text in cell0 at the same time that cell2 keeps the automatic adjustment to text?

Mico · Accepted Answer

Your calculation of the usable width of the "cell0" object is incorrect. It would be (almost) correct if both underlying columns were of type X; however, that's not the case, is it?
To calculate the usable combined width of columns 2 and 3 correctly, I suggest you proceed as follows.

First, find the cell in column 3 that determines the natural width of that column. This is usually done easily and reliably by visual inspection.

Suppose the cell that defines the natural width of column 3 consists of the string aratherlongword. Its width may be determined by running

newlengthcolwidth
   settowidthcolwidth{aratherlongword}

Then the usable combined width of columns 2 and 3 may be calculated as

hsize=dimexprhsize+colwidth+2tabcolseprelax

A full MWE (note that I've discarded multicolumn{1}{|c}{} since it's redundant.)

documentclass{article}
usepackage{tabularx}
begin{document}

begin{center}
newlengthcolwidth
settowidthcolwidth{aratherlongword}
begin{tabularx}{textwidth}{|c X c|}
hline
& multicolumn{2}{>{hsize=dimexprhsize+colwidth+2tabcolseprelax}X|}{%
  cell0: text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text }
hline
cell1 & cell2: text text text text text text text text & aratherlongword
hline
end{tabularx}
end{center}
end{document}

tabularx and textwidth

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