Btukfyl

I have a table that I want to insert on a page, but at least one (perhaps both) of the following conditions are met:

1. The table is too wide to fit within the text block or page. That is, I'm exceeding some horizontal restriction.




2. The table is too tall to fit within the text block or page. That is, I'm exceeding some vertical restriction.

What are my options to make this table fit? If it doesn't fit, regardless of my attempts, what other options exist?

Let's first identify what we're referring to when we use the term "table". The typical table environment is a float, and can contain anything: a paragraph of text, an image, or even a tabular. Working with the latter - a tabular - and how to adjust it is what is discussed here. The discussion also applies to array structures since they provide an math analogue to tabular.

Consider reading How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX? if you're interested in float-specific placements.

Secondly, understand that a tabular is a static, two-dimensional construction. As such, it's probably best-suited for representing two dimensions (like age x gender, or region x type). Representing anything more than two dimension may therefore inherently be problematic if not presented "carefully," since the number of elements to tabulate expands geometrically. If you're presenting (say) three dimensions of information by (say) age, gender and ethnicity and the table doesn't fit, perhaps consider breaking this single table into a tabular by age and gender for each ethnicity. Remember that tables should extend or ease the digestion of the information, so if its representation seems complex, dense or confusing, separation into more elementary components might be your best option.

1. My table/tabular is too wide. What can I do to make it fit?

The following are possible options to consider (in no particular order):

• 
  

  If you're presenting data that has large (wide) column headings, consider stacking or abbreviating these to collapse too-wide columns:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{makecell}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide. \
  
      hline
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    % Condense column headers using abbreviations or acronyms
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tbl}&with&twelve&cols&that&is&just&too&wide. \
  
      hline
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \[.5normalbaselineskip]
  
      multicolumn{12}{l}{%
  
        footnotesize texttt{tbl}: texttt{tabular} title; cols: column title}
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{3}{c} }
  
      This is a texttt{tabular} with&three columns that is just&too wide to fit in texttt{stringtextwidth}. \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    % Condense column headers via stacking
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{3}{c} }
  
            This is           &                    &           too wide             \ 
  
      a texttt{tabular} with & three columns that &            to fit              \
  
                              &      is just       & in texttt{stringtextwidth}. \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    % Condense column headers via stacking
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{3}{c} }
  
      makecell[b]{This is \ a texttt{tabular} with} & 
  
      makecell[t]{three columns that \ is just} & 
  
      makecell{too wide \ to fit \ in texttt{stringtextwidth}.} \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    % Condense column headers via stacking in a paragraph-style column
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{3}{c} }
  
      multicolumn{1}{p{60pt}}{centering This is a texttt{tabular} with} & 
  
      multicolumn{1}{p{7em}}{raggedleft three columns that is just} & 
  
      multicolumn{1}{p{3cm}}{raggedright too wide to fit in texttt{stringtextwidth}.} \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Manual stacking may be tedious. Setting a column heading a fixed-width p{<len>}-column is a way of providing an automated way of line-breaking (also shown above).

  
  


• 
  

  Allowing columns entries to wrap naturally is possible when using a paragraph-style column specification. This p{<len>}-style column wraps at <len>. If you don't know what <len> should be, tabularx can help with its flexible X-column:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{tabularx}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{3}{c} }
  
      This is a texttt{tabular} with&three columns that is just&too wide to fit in texttt{stringtextwidth}. \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    % tabularx provides a fixed-width table with flexible columns
  
    begin{tabularx}{textwidth}{ c X >{raggedrightarraybackslash}X }
  
      This is a texttt{tabular} with&three columns that is just&too wide to fit in texttt{stringtextwidth}. \
  
      hline
  
      1  2  3  4 & 5  6  7  8 & 9  10  11  12
  
    end{tabularx}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Justified wrapping within the X-columns may cause overfull hbox warnings, which may be avoided by using a raggedright setting. Since tabularx loads array, column prefixes >{<prefix>} can be added.

  
  
  

  tabulary provides a similar interface and may also be helpful in this regard.

  
  


• 
  

  Header rotation may also provide some horizontal reduction:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{graphicx}
  
  newcommand{hd}{rotatebox{60}}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide. \
  
      hline
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    % Condense column headers using rotation
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      hd{This}&hd{is}&hd{a}&hd{texttt{tabular}}&hd{with}&hd{twelve}&
  
        hd{columns}&hd{that}&hd{is}&hd{just}&hd{too}&hd{wide.} \
  
      hline
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Rotational formatting is fairly extreme visually and should be used sparingly.

  
  


• 
  

  Probably the best way of attempt a horizontal fit would be to break the tabular is smaller, width-fitting tabulars. It's the least invasive visually (in general) and perhaps airs out the information for better reader digestion:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{6}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 \
  
      hline
  
      This & is & a & texttt{tabular} & with & twelve \
  
      \
  
      7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      columns & that & is & just & too & wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{6}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 \
  
      hline
  
      This & is & a & texttt{tabular} & with & twelve
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    medskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{6}{c} }
  
      7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      columns & that & is & just & too & wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  Consider removing horizontal content to make it fit within the width that you need. You can either remove content manually, although this might be tedious for large tabulars. However, if you don't want to remove the content yet still remove a column(s), read Easiest way to delete a column?.

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  
  
  % https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/16607/5764
  
  usepackage{array}
  
  newcolumntype{H}{>{setbox0=hboxbgroup}c<{egroup}@{}}
  
  
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    % Drop/Hide column 10
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{9}{c} H *{2}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  Consider reducing the horizontal separation between columns. The default document classes define tabcolsep to be 6pt. For arrays the length used if arraycolsep with a default of 5pt. This may be more than you need. For a multi-column tabular, reducing the tabcolsep could save you valuable points.

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begingroup
  
    setlength{tabcolsep}{0.75tabcolsep}% Reduce tabcolsep by 25%
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
    endgroup
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  It may be required to limit the scope of the change to tabcolsep, hence the use of grouping the setlength adjustment (via begingroup...endgroup or {...}).

  
  


• 
  

  Consider reducing the size of fonts used for the tabular. If using the default normalsize for your document, perhaps small or footnotesize might make it fit:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    % This tabular is too wide
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begingroup
  
    footnotesize% Change to smaller font from normalsize
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
    endgroup
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  See What is the default font size of a LaTeX document? and What point (pt) font size are Large etc.? for a discussion on fonts and font sizes.

  
  
  

  It may be required to limit the scope of the change to the font, hence the use of grouping (via begingroup...endgroup or {...}).

  
  


• 
  

  For just-too-wide tabulars, you can resize the entire table to fit within your bounds horizontally using resizebox{<width>}{<height>}{<tabular>} where <width> is at most linewidth or textwidth (see Difference between textwidth, linewidth and hsize). The notation ! for <height> will ensure that the aspect ratio of the resizing is kept.

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{graphicx}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    % resizebox{<width>}{<height>}{<tabular>}
  
    resizebox{linewidth}{!}{%
  
      begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
        hline
  
        This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
      end{tabular}}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Scaling the tabular shrinks all the content... text included. If the factor of shrinking is small enough, there may not be a noticeable different between the fonts used in the document and the scaled tabular.

  
  


• 
  

  Maybe you've conceded that the tabular can butt into the margin(s) because any of the above changes are just not sufficient for your needs. However, the default centering doesn't set the tabular in a centred way, so you can set the tabular inside a makebox[<width>] of small enough <width> (less than linewidth) which will automatically centre it within the margin span (see How can I center a too wide table?):

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    % This tabular is still too wide, but we'll keep it as-is...
  
    makebox[textwidth]{%
  
      begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
        hline
  
        This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
      end{tabular}}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  You can rotate the table by 90 degrees (clockwise or counter-clockwise), placing it on its side. Typically pages are taller than they are wider, which may make the tabular fit. This, however, would be an extreme adjustment as you're requesting your audience to adjust their point of view and some people may not enjoy this switch between horizontal (left-to-right) and vertical (bottom-to-top) setting:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}        
  
  usepackage{graphicx}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    rotatebox{90}{%
  
      begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
        1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
        hline
  
        This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
      end{tabular}}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  graphicx's rotatebox{<angle>}{<tabular>} is used to rotate the <tabular> by <angle> degrees.

  
  
  

  The above example rotates the tabular only, leaving the caption in its original place. If you want to rotate the entire float - caption included, you can use a sidewaystable (provided by the rotating package):

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}        
  
  usepackage{rotating}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  begin{sidewaystable}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ *{12}{c} }
  
      1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12 \
  
      hline
  
      This&is&a&texttt{tabular}&with&twelve&columns&that&is&just&too&wide.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{sidewaystable}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Note that a sidewaystable assumes your table is fairly wide and therefore will occupy most of the text block height during rotation. As such, the default behaviour is to place it on a page of its own.

  
  

2. My table/tabular is too tall. What can I do to make it fit?

Many of the same procedures listed above can be applied vertically in order to adjust your tabular layout, like font changes, rotation or manually breaking content into multiple tabulars; some suggestions are listed below.

• 
  

  arraystretch is used to stretch (or shrink) each row within a tabular. Perhaps your documentclass increased this. You can adjust it using renewcommand:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
  
  
    begin{minipage}{0.3333linewidth}
  
      centering
  
      renewcommand{arraystretch}{1.2}    
  
  
  
      begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
        1&This \ 
  
        hline
  
        2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
        7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
      end{tabular}
  
  
  
    end{minipage}%
  
    begin{minipage}{0.3333linewidth}
  
      centering
  
      renewcommand{arraystretch}{1}
  
  
  
      begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
        1&This \ 
  
        hline
  
        2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
        7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
      end{tabular}
  
  
  
    end{minipage}%
  
    begin{minipage}{0.3333linewidth}
  
      centering
  
      renewcommand{arraystretch}{0.8}
  
  
  
      begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
        1&This \ 
  
        hline
  
        2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
        7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
      end{tabular}
  
  
  
    end{minipage}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  Consider cutting out chunks of rows and stacking them horizontally rather than keeping the content in a vertical fashion.

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
      7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ c c @{hspace{2em}} c c }
  
      1&This & 1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is & 8&that \
  
      3&a  & 9&is \
  
      4&texttt{tabular} & 10&just \
  
      5&with & 11&too \
  
      6&twelve & 12&tall. \
  
      7&rows
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    bigskip
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}[t]{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \ 7&rows
  
    end{tabular}hspace{2em}%
  
    begin{tabular}[t]{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
    end{tabular}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  Reducing the font size also reduces the line height and consequently the vertical span of a tabular:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
      7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
    end{tabular}%
  
    hspace{2em}%
  
    begingroup
  
    small% Change to smaller font size from normalsize
  
    begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
      7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
    end{tabular}%
  
    endgroup
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  
  

  Again, here, scoping might be required to limit font changes.

  
  


• 
  

  graphicx's scalebox{<factor>} or resizebox{<width>}{<height>} is an option. You can specify an appropriate height-fitting <height> length or portion. A <width> of ! ensures to maintain the aspect ratio during resizing:

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{graphicx}
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  begin{table}
  
    centering
  
  
  
    begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
      1&This \ 
  
      hline
  
      2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
      7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
    end{tabular}%
  
    hspace{2em}%
  
    resizebox{!}{.8height}{%
  
      begin{tabular}{ c c }
  
        1&This \ 
  
        hline
  
        2&is \ 3&a \ 4&texttt{tabular} \ 5&with \ 6&twelve \
  
        7&rows \ 8&that \ 9&is \ 10&just \ 11&too \ 12&tall.
  
      end{tabular}}
  
  
  
    caption{This is a table caption.}
  
  end{table}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  


• 
  

  If your tabular is just too tall, you can consider breaking it across the page boundary manually (that is, setting separate tabulars to fit on each page). This may require the use of separate floats (and perhaps continued captions as well). However, there are packages that can assist with such automated breaking: longtable, supertabular and xtab are a couple such packages. More packages are listed on CTAN. Also see How can I make a table that takes up more than a single page? or Make a table span multiple pages.

  
  
  

  The following example is taken directly from the longtable documentation and illustrates the construction of the longtable environment components in order to break a table across multiple packages (with a "continued caption"):

  
  
  

  

  
  
  

  documentclass{article}
  
  usepackage{longtable}
  
  
  
  defv{char`}
  
  
  
  begin{document}
  
  
  
  % Note: Various parts of the following table will
  
  % *not* line up correctly until this document has been run
  
  % through LaTeX several times. This is a characteristic feature of
  
  % this package, as described below.
  
  
  
  begin{longtable}{@{*}r||p{1in}@{*}}
  
      KILLED & LINE!!!! kill
  
      caption
  
        [An optional table caption (used in the list of tables)]
  
        {A long tablelabel{long}} \
  
      hlinehline
  
      multicolumn{2}{@{*}c@{*}}%
  
        {This part appears at the top of the table} \
  
      textsc{First} & textsc{Second} \
  
      hlinehline
  
    endfirsthead
  
      caption{(continued)} \
  
      hlinehline
  
      multicolumn{2}{@{*}c@{*}}%
  
           {This part appears at the top of every other page} \
  
      textbf{First} & textbf{Second} \
  
      hlinehline
  
    endhead
  
      hline
  
      This goes at the & bottom. \
  
      hline
  
    endfoot
  
      hline
  
      These lines will & appear \
  
      in place of the  & usual foot \
  
      at the end       & of the table \
  
      hline
  
    endlastfoot
  
      texttt{longtable} columns are specified & in the \
  
      same way as  in the texttt{tabular} & environment. \
  
      ``verb~@{*}r||p{1in}@{*}~'' & in this case. \
  
      Each row ends with a & ``verb|\|'' command. \
  
      The ``verb|\|'' command  has an & optional \
  
      argument, just as in & the \
  
      texttt{tabular} & environment. \[10pt]
  
      See the effect of ``verb|\[10pt]|'' & ? \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Also ``verb|hline|'' may be used, & as in texttt{tabular}. \
  
      hline
  
      That was a ``verb|hline|'' & . \
  
      hlinehline
  
      That was ``verb|hlinehline|'' & . \
  
      multicolumn{2}{||c||}%
  
        {This is a ttfamilyv\multicolumnv{2v}v{||c||v}} \
  
      If a page break occurs at a ``verb|hline|'' then & a line is drawn \
  
      at the bottom of one page and at the & top of the next. \
  
      hline
  
      The ``verb|[t] [b] [c]|'' argument of texttt{tabular} & can not be used. \
  
      The optional argument may be one of & ``verb|[l] [r] [c]|'' \
  
      to specify whether the table should be & adjusted \
  
      to the left, right & or centrally. \
  
      hlinehline
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Some lines may take up a lot of space, like this: &
  
         raggedleft This last column is a ``texttt{p}'' column so this
  
         ``row'' of the table can take up several lines. Note however that
  
         TeX will  never break a page within such a row. Page breaks only
  
         occur between rows of the table or at ``verb|hline|'' commands.
  
         tabularnewline
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      hline
  
      Lotsfootnote{This is a footnote.} of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like thisfootnote{texttt{longtable} takes special
  
         precautions, so that footnotes may also be used in `texttt{p}' columns.} \
  
      hline
  
      Lots of lines & like this. \
  
      Lots of lines & like this.
  
  end{longtable}
  
  
  
  end{document}
  
  

  
  

3. My tabular is too wide and too tall for where I placed it. What can I do?

Typically one can combine the above methods for width/height improvements. There may be some incompatible choices (like resizing a longtable, for example).