In my experiments with pgfplotstable, I've run into some bumps:

• merging multiple columns


• adding formatting commands to text within cells

Problem

I cannot seem to properly add a multicolumn{}{}{} to my portable graphics format plot table.

I've viewed the following questions:

• Multiple Multi columns with pgfplotstable


• Pgfplotstable multicolumn table with dec sep align and Tabularx

Example

documentclass{article}

usepackage{fontspec}

usepackage{booktabs}

usepackage{pgfplotstable}

usepackage{multicol}% <-- Don't think this is needed.

pgfplotstableset{% Global config

    every head row/.style={before row=toprule,after row=midrule},

    every last row/.style={after row=bottomrule},

    col sep=&,

    row sep=\,

    column type=l,

    column type={>{fontseries{bx}selectfontcolor{orange}}l}, %see sec 2.6 for defining column types

    string type,

    postproc cell content/.append style={ % see sec 3.2

    /pgfplots/table/@cell content/.add={fontseries{seriesdefault}selectfontcolor{black}}{}}

}%



begin{document}

pgfplotstabletypeset{%

col1 & col2 & col3\ 

here & more & stuff\

for & good & looks \ % multicolumn{2}{c}{good looks} % <-- Replacing the cells "good" and look" with this causes problems

}%

end{document}

I think it is better to give a true minmal working example. There is much stuff, which has nothing to do with the problem...

Maybe, you are looking for something like this:

pgfplotstableset{

every row no 0/.append style={after row={

for & multicolumn{2}{c}{color{red} good   looks} \

}},

}

% arara: lualatex



%documentclass{article}

documentclass[margin=5mm]{standalone}

usepackage{fontspec}

usepackage{booktabs}

usepackage{pgfplotstable}



%usepackage{multicol}% <-- Don't think this is needed.



pgfplotstableset{% Global config

    every head row/.style={before row=toprule,after row=midrule},

    every last row/.style={after row=bottomrule},

    col sep=&,

    row sep=\,

    column type=l,

    column type={>{fontseries{bx}selectfontcolor{orange}}l}, %see sec 2.6 for defining column types

    string type,

    postproc cell content/.append style={ % see sec 3.2

    /pgfplots/table/@cell content/.add={fontseries{seriesdefault}selectfontcolor{black}}{}

},

%

}%



begin{document}

pgfplotstableset{

every row no 0/.append style={after row={

for & multicolumn{2}{c}{color{red} good   looks} \

}},

}







pgfplotstabletypeset{%

col1 & col2 & col3\ 

here & more & stuff\

for & good  & looks \ % multicolumn{2}{c}{good looks} \% <-- Replacing the cells "good" and look" with this causes problems

}%

end{document}