LaTeX table in minipage: Not in outer par mode

Question

I try to use a table in a minipage like this:

\begin{center}
    \begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
        \subsection{My Title}
    Some text

    \begin{table}[h!]
        \begin{tabular}{ l c l }
            \hline
            Quality            &amp; Abbr. &amp; Frequency \\
            \hline
            Uncirqulated       &amp; UNC   &amp;           \\
            \hline
        \end{tabular}
    \end{table}

\end{minipage}\quad
\begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
    ...

\end{minipage}

\end{center}

And I get this error on the line \begin{table}[h!]:

Not in outer par mode.
LaTeX
Undefined control sequence.
\latex@xfloat ...vf \fi \global \setbox @currbox 
LaTeX
Missing number, treated as zero.
<to be read again> 
LaTeX

What did I wrong or what I miss?

You get the error because you can't use a float environment (table in this case) inside a minipage. — Imran, Jan 07 '22 at 17:07
It's a mistake to embed a LaTeX float -- such as figure or table environment -- in a minipage, as doing so would fly in the face of the purpose of using a float to begin with. Please tell us what you're trying to achieve, typographically speaking. — Mico, Jan 07 '22 at 17:07
I want to put a table into a column between two paragraps. I'm really new to LaTeX, and the stackoverflow codes suggested this method. What is the correct way? — netdjw, Jan 07 '22 at 17:09
Unrelated: You should not use only [h!] as the positioning argument. See this answer for details on float placement. — Imran, Jan 07 '22 at 17:12

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '22 at 17:18

For the purpose of placing some tabular material between two particular paragraphs, you don't need either a table or a minipage environment. If you want to assign a caption to the tabular material, I suggest you load the caption package ane employ its \captionof macro.

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{caption} % for '\captionof' macro
\usepackage{lipsum}  % filler text
\begin{document}
\lipsum[2]
\begin{center}
    %\begin{minipage}[t]{\columnwidth}
        %%\subsection{My Title}
        \centering
        \captionof{table}{My title}
        %%\begin{table}[h!]
            \begin{tabular}{ l c l }
                \hline
                Quality            & Abbr. & Frequency \
                \hline
                Uncirculated       & UNC   &           \
                \hline
            \end{tabular}
        %%\end{table}
    %\end{minipage}
\end{center}
\lipsum[2]
\end{document}

Simon Dispa · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-07T21:57:43.510

To have a table (a floating environment, to add a caption?) inside a minipage (non floating environment) can be done using the package float.

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{float}% added <<<<<<<<<<
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
        \begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
            \subsection{My Title}

            Some text
        \begin{table}[H] % changed &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;
            \begin{tabular}{ l c l }
                \hline
                Quality            &amp; Abbr. &amp; Frequency \\
                \hline
                Uncirqulated       &amp; UNC   &amp;           \\
                \hline
            \end{tabular}
        \caption{First table}
        \end{table}     
    \end{minipage} \hfill
    \begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
        \subsection{My Title}       
        Some text

        \begin{table}[H]
            \begin{tabular}{ l c l }
                \hline
                Quality            &amp; Abbr. &amp; Frequency \\
                \hline
                Uncirqulated       &amp; UNC   &amp;           \\
                \hline
            \end{tabular}
            \caption{Second table}
        \end{table}     
    \end{minipage}

\end{center}
\end{document}

Alternative

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{float}% added <<<<<<<<<<

\begin{document}
\section{My Title}
\begin{center}
        \begin{minipage}[t]{.48\textwidth}
            Some text
        \begin{table}[H] % changed &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;
            \begin{tabular}{ l c l }
                \hline
                Quality            &amp; Abbr. &amp; Frequency \\
                \hline
                Uncirqulated       &amp; UNC   &amp;           \\
                \hline
            \end{tabular}
        \caption{First table}
        \end{table} 
    \smallskip
    Some more text      
    \end{minipage}

\end{center}
\end{document}

LaTeX table in minipage: Not in outer par mode

2 Answers2