%%
%% The LaTeX Companion, 3ed
%%
%% Example 6-2-16 on page I-444 in "Tables inside tables or other environments".
%%
%% Copyright (C) 2022 Frank Mittelbach
%%
%% It may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions
%% of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3c
%% of this license or (at your option) any later version.
%%
%% See https://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt for details.
%%

\documentclass{tlc3exa}
\pagestyle{empty}
\setcounter{page}{6}
\setlength\textwidth{231.0pt}
%StartShownPreambleCommands
\usepackage{array}
%StopShownPreambleCommands

\begin{document}
Tables \begin{tabular}[t]{l}
 with no\\ hline \\ commands \\ used
\end{tabular}
versus tables
\begin{tabular}[t]{|l|}  \firsthline
 with some \\ hline \\ commands \\
\lasthline
\end{tabular} used.
\end{document}