[texhax] raiseboxing \hrulefill in multicolumn{}

[Lincoln Turner]

Hello,

I've got a large table with a lot of column-spanning (\multicolumn)
entries. I want to make it clear when a short-ish entry spans several
columns by ruling a centred horizontal line either side of the centred
entry.

The code:

... & \multicolumn{4}{c}{\hrulefill Something \hrulefill} & ...

does this quite well, the only problem is that the rule is sitting on
the baseline. I'd like the rule to be centred, say at half the
x-height. The problem is that no amount of \raisebox{}ing seems to help
here as all the box commands want a definite width, not a rubber one! On
the other hand, the basic TeX commands don't seem to play nicely with
rubber lengths. 

I'm using tabularx so I don't know the exact column-widths, and it's
clear that tex can do the maths, it's just the rule is a few points too
low. 

Thanks for any help!

Lincoln

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