Creating a large table in one without overlapping text in latex

Question

I have used the following code to create a large table with vertical column names. However, the table overlapped on my text. I need to have a table on the whole page. I appreciate any help about this as I am working on my paper.

\documentclass[compsoc]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{rotating}

\newcolumntype{P}[2]{%
  >{\begin{turn}{#1}\begin{minipage}{#2}\small\raggedright\hspace{0pt}}l%
  <{\end{minipage}\end{turn}}%
}
\begin{document}
    \begin{table}
    %   \centering
      \caption{Some properties}
      \label{tab:test1}
      \begin{tabular}{@{}rcccccccccccccccccc@{}}
       \toprule
      & \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}}{Feedback} &
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}}{Adaptation} &
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Challenging Assessment Methods}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Collaborative Learning}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Authentic \& Challenging Goals}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Inquiry-Based LEarning}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Use of Multimedia}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Multi vs. Single users}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Visibilitiy of System Status}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Sense of Presence}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Matching with Real-world}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{User Control \& Freedom}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Consistency \& Standards}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Error Prevention}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Recognition Rather than Recall}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Flexible and ease of use}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{High Representational Fidelity}\\
         \midrule
        Babich et al.\cite{Babich2004} & N & N & N & N & N & N& N & X & X & N & N & N & N& X & N & N & N & N\\
    %   System 2 & X & X & X \\
    %   System 3 & X &    & X \\
      \bottomrule
      \end{tabular}
    \end{table}

\end{document}

please edit your example so it is a complete document people can run, as it is we do not know what a P column is, or the size of your page so it is impossible to help — David Carlisle, Jul 25 '19 at 19:27
Welcome to TeX.SE! Please extend your code fragment to complete small document, which we can test as it is. — Zarko, Jul 25 '19 at 19:28
You declared a total of 19 columns but used 20. In order to get rid of the error message, you will have to add another column: \begin{tabular}{@{}rccccccccccccccccccc@{}} or shorter: \begin{tabular}{@{}r*{19}{c}@{}}. Nevertheless, I'd suggest to switch the page orientation to landscape as the table is now too wide for the page. — leandriis, Jul 25 '19 at 19:36
@leandriis I applied your command but the table is still overlapping on the text. — kiana khademi, Jul 25 '19 at 19:39
Yes, you can change the orientation of a specific page using the landscape environment. Other possibilities might be found here: How to rotate a table?. If you want to keep your table on a portrait page, you might want to allow the header row to be a bit taller (replace {1.6cm}by{3.25cm}` and your table's width will no longer exceed teh textwidth. — leandriis, Jul 25 '19 at 19:45

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 25 '19 at 20:00

In the following example, I have added the missing column specifier, replaced table by table* to prevent the table from overlapping the text and used a taller header row in combination with a slightly decreased \tabcolsep in order to make the table narrow enough to fit into the page:

\documentclass[compsoc]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{rotating}

\usepackage{lipsum}

\newcolumntype{P}[2]{%
  >{\begin{turn}{90}\begin{minipage}{#2}\small\raggedright\hspace{0pt}}l%
  <{\end{minipage}\end{turn}}%
}

\newcommand{\myrothead}{\multicolumn{1}{P{90}{3.25cm}}}



\begin{document}
\lipsum\lipsum \lipsum
    \begin{table*}
      \setlength{\tabcolsep}{4.9pt}
      \caption{Some properties}
      \label{tab:test1}
      \begin{tabular}{@{}r*{19}{c}@{}}
       \toprule
      & \myrothead{Feedback} &
        \myrothead{Adaptation} &
        \myrothead{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \myrothead{Challenging Assessment Methods}&
        \myrothead{Collaborative Learning}&
        \myrothead{Authentic \& Challenging Goals}&
        \myrothead{Inquiry-Based LEarning}&
        \myrothead{Use of Multimedia}&
        \myrothead{Multi vs. Single users}&
        \myrothead{Visibilitiy of System Status}&
        \myrothead{Sense of Presence}&
        \myrothead{Matching with Real-world}&
        \myrothead{User Control \& Freedom}&
        \myrothead{Consistency \& Standards}&
        \myrothead{Error Prevention}&
        \myrothead{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \myrothead{Recognition Rather than Recall}&
        \myrothead{Flexible and ease of use}&
        \myrothead{High Representational Fidelity}\\
         \midrule
        Babich et al.\cite{Babich2004} & N & N & N & N & N & N& N & X & X & N & N & N & N& X & N & N & N & N\\
    %   System 2 & X & X & X \\
    %   System 3 & X &    & X \\
      \bottomrule
      \end{tabular}
    \end{table*}
\lipsum

\end{document}

Depending on how many entries (rows your final table will have, you could also consider transposing the table. This might make the quite long column headers more easily readable.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 25 '19 at 20:36

Your table will perfectly fit in portrait orientation provided you take a larger height for the column heads and a smaller value for \tabcolsep, and use the table* environment. I did so using the \rothead command from makecell for its much simpler syntax. Last, I used the tabularx environment, and the X type for the first column;

\documentclass[compsoc]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage{tabularx, makecell}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{rotating}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
 \centering
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{3.5pt}
\setlength\rotheadsize{3.2cm}
\renewcommand{\theadfont}{\small}
  \caption{Some properties}
  \label{tab:test1}
  \begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{}X*{19}{c}@{}}
   \toprule
  & \rothead{Feedback} &
    \rothead{Adaptation} &
    \rothead{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
    \rothead{Challenging Assessment Methods}&
    \rothead{Collaborative Learning}&
    \rothead{Authentic \& Challenging Goals}&
    \rothead{Inquiry-Based LEarning}&
    \rothead{Use of Multimedia}&
    \rothead{Multi vs. Single users}&
    \rothead{Visibilitiy of System Status}&
    \rothead{Sense of Presence}&
    \rothead{Matching with Real-world}&
    \rothead{User Control \& Freedom}&
    \rothead{Consistency \& Standards}&
    \rothead{Error Prevention}&
    \rothead{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
    \rothead{Recognition Rather than Recall}&
    \rothead{Flexible and ease\\ of use}&
    \rothead{High Representational Fidelity}\\
     \midrule
    Babich et al.\cite{Babich2004} & N & N & N & N & N & N& N & X & X & N & N & N & N& X & N & N & N & N\\
% System 2 & X & X & X \\
% System 3 & X & & X \\
  \bottomrule
  \end{tabularx}
\end{table*}

\lipsum[1-25]

\end{document}

Thanks Bernard for your solution it perfectly fits to my document without any error! — kiana khademi, Aug 02 '19 at 13:40

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 25 '19 at 19:46

I have found the solution. As @leandriis mentioned in the comment, the width of the table is big so I needed to change the direction to landscape. At the end, code looks like this:

\documentclass[compsoc]{IEEEtran}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{rotating}
\usepackage{lscape}
\newcolumntype{P}[2]{%
  >{\begin{turn}{#1}\begin{minipage}{#2}\small\raggedright\hspace{0pt}}l%
  <{\end{minipage}\end{turn}}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{landscape}
    \begin{table}
    %   \centering
      \caption{Some properties}
      \label{tab:test1}
      \begin{tabular}{@{}rcccccccccccccccccc@{}}
       \toprule
      & \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}}{Feedback} &
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}}{Adaptation} &
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Challenging Assessment Methods}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Collaborative Learning}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Authentic \& Challenging Goals}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Inquiry-Based LEarning}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Use of Multimedia}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Multi vs. Single users}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Visibilitiy of System Status}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Sense of Presence}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Matching with Real-world}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{User Control \& Freedom}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Consistency \& Standards}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Error Prevention}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Previous Knowledge Construction}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Recognition Rather than Recall}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{Flexible and ease of use}&
        \multicolumn{1}{P{90}{1.6cm}@{}}{High Representational Fidelity}\\
         \midrule
        Babich et al.\cite{Babich2004} & N & N & N & N & N & N& N & X & X & N & N & N & N& X & N & N & N & N\\
    %   System 2 & X & X & X \\
    %   System 3 & X &    & X \\
      \bottomrule
      \end{tabular}
    \end{table}
\end{landscape}
\end{document}

This code still results in the already mentioned error message ! Extra alignment tab has been changed to \cr. — leandriis, Jul 25 '19 at 19:47

Creating a large table in one without overlapping text in latex

3 Answers3