Btukfyl

What I want to do is make a table in the format that I have showed below. At the moment the width of the columns is different and the table is to wide for the page. It looks as following:

What I am trying to do is

1) set the table to be as wide as the text, so that it takes up maximum space within the margins

2) set that column 2, 3 and 4 that contain the results are the same width.

begin{table}[H] centering caption{X} label{X}

begin{tabular}{cccc}

        textbf{References} & textbf{Results 1} & textbf{Results 2} & textbf{Results 3} \hlinehline



    Author (Year)

    & 

    Answer Answer 

    & 

    Answer Answer Answer Answer 

    & 

        begin{tabular}{c} 

        Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer  \

        Answer Answer Answer  \ 

        end{tabular} 

    \hline



    Author (Year) & 

        begin{tabular}{c} 

        Answer \ 

        Answer \ 

        end{tabular}

    &

    Answer Answer 

    &

        begin{tabular}{c} 

        Answer Answer Answer  \ 

        Answer Answer Answer  \ 

        end{tabular}

    \hline   



    Author (Year) & 

    begin{tabular}{c} 

    Answer \ 

    Answer \ 

    Answer \ 

    end{tabular} 

    &

    multicolumn{2}{c}{Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer }

    \hline 

end{tabular}

end{table}

with tabularx is no need to nest tables:

documentclass{article}

usepackage{geometry}

usepackage{booktabs, tabularx}

usepackage[skip=1ex]{caption}



begin{document}

    begin{table}[htb]

    caption{X} 

    label{X}

begin{tabularx}{linewidth}{@{} l *{3}{>{centeringarraybackslash}X} @{}}

    toprule

textbf{References} & textbf{Results 1} & textbf{Results 2} & textbf{Results 3}  \

    midrule

Author (Year)       

    &  Answer Answer    

        &   Answer Answer Answer Answer

            &   Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer 



                Answer Answer Answer                                                \

    midrule

Author (Year) 

    &   Answer 



        Answer

        &   Answer Answer

            &   Answer Answer Answer 

                Answer Answer Answer                                                \

    midrule

Author (Year) 

    &   Answer



        Answer



        Answer

        &   multicolumn{2}{>{hsize=dimexpr2hsize+2tabcolsep+arrayrulewidth

                              centeringarraybackslash}X}{%

            Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer Answer }               \

    bottomrule

end{tabularx}

    end{table}

end{document}

instead of horizontally centered cells text i would rather have left aligned, i.e. instead of >{centeringarraybackslash}X use >{raggedrightarraybackslash}X