How to make a cell content take up multiple lines

Question

I am creating a table where some cells would contain very long text. For these cases, I want the content of this cell to take up multiple lines. With the default implementation, after building , I see that the contents are truncated. Clearly this isn't what I would like to achieve.

Please find the code below. As you can see, some of the entries for second column is quite big to fit in one row. This is also causing the third column to never appear on PDF file.

\documentclass[twoside,11pt]{article}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Categories and example of attributes}
\label{atts}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l l p{8.0cm} l}
\hline
Variable & Items & Category \\
\hline
Built-up area  & Inside built-up area; outside built-up area & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of road  & Highway; district or province road & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of road lanes  & Road with one road lane; road with separated road lanes & !!!CAT!!! \\
Intersection  & Near intersection; outside intersection & !!!CAT!!! \\
Location characteristic  & Road works; bridge; tunnel; railroad; roundabout & !!!CAT!!! \\
Road factors  & Bad road surface; faulty signals; faulty lighting; road works; queue; downhill; curve; bad visibility & !!!CAT!!! \\
Miscellaneous  & Accident following accident; aquaplaning; sun blinded; school; recreation centre; bus stop; person swung out of vehicle; no safety belt; no helmet; no child seat; cargo on roadway before accident; cargo on roadway because of accident; fire after accident; comments & !!!CAT!!! \\
Total number of deaths  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 & !!!CAT!!! \\ [1ex]
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

~\ref{atts} is bad.

\end{document}

Answer 1

Using {l p{8.0cm} l} seems to work:

Notes:

• You should consider using the tabularx package pacakge so that you can eaily take up the fill \linewidth available on the page.
• Also you should have a look at the booktabs package for more professional looking tables.

Code:

\documentclass[twoside,11pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Categories and example of attributes}
\label{atts}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l p{8.0cm} l}
\hline
Variable & Items & Category \
\hline
Built-up area  & Inside built-up area; outside built-up area & !!!CAT!!! \
Type of road  & Highway; district or province road & !!!CAT!!! \
Type of road lanes  & Road with one road lane; road with separated road lanes & !!!CAT!!! \
Intersection  & Near intersection; outside intersection & !!!CAT!!! \
Location characteristic  & Road works; bridge; tunnel; railroad; roundabout & !!!CAT!!! \
Road factors  & Bad road surface; faulty signals; faulty lighting; road works; queue; downhill; curve; bad visibility & !!!CAT!!! \
Miscellaneous  & Accident following accident; aquaplaning; sun blinded; school; recreation centre; bus stop; person swung out of vehicle; no safety belt; no helmet; no child seat; cargo on roadway before accident; cargo on roadway because of accident; fire after accident; comments & !!!CAT!!! \
Total number of deaths  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 & !!!CAT!!! \ [1ex]
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
~\ref{atts} is bad.
\end{document}

Answer 2

As Peter Grill mentioned, the code containing the p{}-columntype is working well. As your table is quite long, i created a solution using the longtable-package, which creates the table over several pages. You will need two runs of pdflatex or whatever you use to make this being print correctly. Please containe the documentation of the longtable-package for more information.

\documentclass[twoside,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{longtable}
\begin{document}

\begin{longtable}{p{.25\linewidth}p{.45\linewidth}p{1.5cm}}
\caption{Categories and example of attributes}\label{atts}\\\hline
Variable & Items & Category \\\hline
\endfirsthead
\hline
Variable & Items & Category \\\hline
\endhead
Built-up area  & Inside built-up area; outside built-up area & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of road  & Highway; district or province road & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of road lanes  & Road with one road lane; road with separated road     lanes & !!!CAT!!! \\
Intersection  & Near intersection; outside intersection & !!!CAT!!! \\
Intersection traffic regulation  & Intersection police officer; intersection; signalized intersection flashing light; intersection traffic signs; intersection priority to right & !!!CAT!!! \\
Location characteristic  & Road works; bridge; tunnel; railroad; roundabout & !!!CAT!!! \\
Road factors  & Bad road surface; faulty signals; faulty lighting; road works; queue; downhill; curve; bad visibility & !!!CAT!!! \\
Miscellaneous  & Accident following accident; aquaplaning; sun blinded; school; recreation centre; bus stop; person swung out of vehicle; no safety belt; no helmet; no child seat; cargo on roadway before accident; cargo on roadway because of accident; fire after accident; comments & !!!CAT!!! \\
Weather conditions  & Normal weather; rain; fog; wind; snow; hail; other weather & !!!CAT!!! \\
Road conditions  & Road surface: dry; wet; snow; clean; dirty & !!!CAT!!! \\
Light conditions  & Daylight; twilight; public lighting; night & !!!CAT!!! \\
Week  & Week; weekend & !!!CAT!!! \\
Day of week  & Monday; Tuesday; Wednesday; Thursday; Friday; Saturday; Sunday & !!!CAT!!! \\
Part of the day  & Morning rush hour (7-–9 a.m.); morning (10-–12 a.m.); afternoon (1-–3 p.m.); evening rush hour (4-–6 p.m.); evening (7-–9 p.m.); night (10-–6 a.m.) & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of road user  & Car; car double use; minibus; light truck; camper; truck; truck and trailer; truck; tractor; bus; trolleybus; motor coach; motorbike under 400 cm3; motorbike over 400 cm 3; moped A; moped B; moped three to four wheels; bike; span; wheel chair; pedestrian with bike; pedestrian; horseman; other road user & !!!CAT!!! \\
Direction  & Positive way; negative way; transverse way; way not applicable & !!!CAT!!! \\
Movement  & Straight direction; opposite direction; loss control to the left; loss control to the right; left turn; right turn; pass left; pass right; u-turn; drive backwards; car breakdown; standstill opening door; standstill; parking; private property; other movement & !!!CAT!!! \\
Dynamics  & Constant speed; brake; accelerate; standstill & !!!CAT!!! \\
Alcohol  & No alcohol test; refused alcohol test; positive alcohol test; negative alcohol test & !!!CAT!!! \\
Sex road user  & Male road user; female road user & !!!CAT!!! \\
Consequences road user  & Dead road user; seriously injured road user; lightly injured road user; uninjured road user & !!!CAT!!! \\
Age road user  & Age road user 0–-17; 18–-29; 30-–45; 46-–60; over 60 & !!!CAT!!! \\
Condition road user  & Road user in normal condition; drunken road user; sedated road user; ill road user & !!!CAT!!! \\
Factors road user  & Through red light; no priority, over white line; incorrect passing; sidestep maneuver; incorrect position on roadway; loss control steering wheel; no distance; fall & !!!CAT!!! \\
Factors vehicle  & Incorrect vehicle lights; bad tires; flat tire; defect trailer or cargo & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of collision  & Multiple collision; frontal collision; parallel collision; sideways collision; pedestrian collision; collision obstacle on roadway; collision obstacle outside roadway; collision no obstacle & !!!CAT!!! \\
Type of obstacle  & Animal; train; streetcar; load on roadway; container; road works; street border; speed ramp; excavation; tree; public lighting; post; over crash barrier; against crash barrier; wall; fence; canal; other obstacle & !!!CAT!!! \\
Position pedestrian  & On footpath; pedestrian on cycle track; pedestrian out of vehicle; pedestrian right side roadway; pedestrian left side roadway; zebra crossing with traffic lights; zebra crossing with police officer; zebra crossing; next to zebra crossing with traffic lights; next to zebra crossing with police officer next to zebra crossing; no zebra crossing; pedestrian not moving on roadway & !!!CAT!!! \\
Visibility pedestrian  & Pedestrian visible; pedestrian not visible & !!!CAT!!! \\
Walking distance pedestrian  & Walking distance 1–4 m; walking distance 5–10 m; walking distance 11–15 m; walking distance over 16 m & !!!CAT!!! \\
Position cyclist  & Separated cycle track; marked cycle track on roadway; other cycle track & !!!CAT!!! \\
Cycle track  & One way cycle track; two way cycle track normal direction; one way cycle track opposite direction & !!!CAT!!! \\
Gender passenger  & Male passenger; female passenger & !!!CAT!!! \\
Consequences passenger  & Dead passenger; seriously injured passenger; lightly injured passenger & !!!CAT!!! \\
Position passenger  & Passenger front seat; passenger back seat & !!!CAT!!! \\
Age passenger  & 0–-17; 18–-29; 30-–45; 46-–60; over 60 years old & !!!CAT!!! \\
Gender victim  & male victim; female victim & !!!CAT!!! \\
Age victim  & 0–-17; 18–-29; 30–-45; 46-–60; over 60 years old & !!!CAT!!! \\
Consequences victim  & Dead; seriously injured; lightly injured & !!!CAT!!! \\
Number of road users  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8 & !!!CAT!!! \\
Number of passengers  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5  & !!!CAT!!! \\
Number of victims  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5  & !!!CAT!!! \\
Total number of lightly injured  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7 & !!!CAT!!! \\
Total number of seriously injured  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 & !!!CAT!!! \\
Total number of deaths  & 0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5 & !!!CAT!!! \\ [1ex]\hline
\end{longtable}

\end{document}