Center table on page?. Center and centering not working

centerhorizontal alignmenttablestabularx

I am trying to center the following table. I have tried using \center and \centering after \begin{table} but it do not work. This is my code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\begin{document}
\section{table of model and predictions}

\begin{table}[h]
\centering    
\begin{tabular}{lllll}
\hline
                              &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
\multicolumn{5}{c}{Hidden Variable}                                                                                                     \\
\multicolumn{1}{c}{}          &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\ \hline
                              &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
\textbf{Equations of motions} &  & Correct                                    &  & Rediscovered                                         \\
\textbf{}                     &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\ \hline
Saddle-Node                   &  & t                                          &  & $0.8*t + 2e-10*t^2 + 10e-4*t^3$                      \\
                              &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
                              &  & $4\sin(t) + 9.42$                          &  & $0.17*t -2*10^{-2}*t^2+8*10^{-3} + 3.89 sin(t) + 12$ \\
Hopf                          &  & $-t+t^2-t^3$                               &  & $12.99t   -0.8t^2 +   1.06t^3$ cualitatively good    \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\end{document}

Best Answer

This is because your table is too wide to put in the line, so it spans to the margin. You can see:

So you need to make adjustments to the table or change the page settings.

BTW, your empty line and column are also not recommendable which should be replaced by setting row and column separation.

EDIT

If you do want to keep this wide table, you can use \centerline,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
\section{table of model and predictions}

\centerline{
    \begin{tabular}{lllll}
    \hline
                                  &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
    \multicolumn{5}{c}{Hidden Variable}                                                                                                     \\
    \multicolumn{1}{c}{}          &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\ \hline
                                  &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
    \textbf{Equations of motions} &  & Correct                                    &  & Rediscovered                                         \\
    \textbf{}                     &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\ \hline
    Saddle-Node                   &  & t                                          &  & $0.8*t + 2e-10*t^2 + 10e-4*t^3$                      \\
                                  &  &                                            &  &                                                      \\
                                  &  & $4\sin(t) + 9.42$                          &  & $0.17*t -2*10^{-2}*t^2+8*10^{-3} + 3.89 sin(t) + 12$ \\
    Hopf                          &  & $-t+t^2-t^3$                               &  & $12.99t   -0.8t^2 +   1.06t^3$ cualitatively good    \\
    \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \vspace{1em}
}

\lipsum[1]

\end{document}

which yields

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Tabular and grid typesetting

Using David's suggestion, I used

\let\oldtabular\tabular
\let\oldendtabular\endtabular
\def\tabular{\setlength{\lineskiplimit}{0pt}\oldtabular}
\def\endtabular{\oldendtabular\setlength{\lineskiplimit}{-10pt}}

which more or less seems to fix the problem. If anyone has a more elegant/better solution, please let me know!

[Tex/LaTex] tabu package – gaps in vertical lines

One way is to shift up the skip prior to the mid-height \tabucline with a \\[-1pt]. See below for 2nd approach.

%Dokumentclass
\documentclass[landscape]{letter}

%Packages
\usepackage[landscape]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]     {inputenc}
\usepackage           {multirow}
\usepackage           {tabu}

%Formatting
\pagestyle{empty} %Remove numbering

\begin{document}
  \begin{tabu}{ |[1pt] l | l l | l | l |[1pt] }
                                                                                                                 \tabucline[1 pt]{1-5}
    \multicolumn{2}{ |[1pt] l }{ } & \multicolumn{3}{ |[1pt] l |[1pt]}{ }                                     \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } & \multicolumn{2}{  l |[1pt] }{ }   \\                       \hline
 y   &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } & \multicolumn{2}{  l |[1pt] }{ }   \\[-1pt]   \tabucline[1 pt]{3-5} 
\hline
 x   &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\ \tabucline[1 pt]{1-5}
  \end{tabu}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Alternately, if you want the thin line to bisect the thick line, then the approach: \\[-1pt] \tabucline[1 pt]{3-5}\\[-12.5pt]\hline works.

%Dokumentclass
\documentclass[landscape]{letter}

%Packages
\usepackage[landscape]{geometry}
\usepackage[utf8]     {inputenc}
\usepackage           {multirow}
\usepackage           {tabu}

%Formatting
\pagestyle{empty} %Remove numbering

\begin{document}
  \begin{tabu}{ |[1pt] l | l l | l | l |[1pt] }
                                                                                                                 \tabucline[1 pt]{1-5}
    \multicolumn{2}{ |[1pt] l }{ } & \multicolumn{3}{ |[1pt] l |[1pt]}{ }                                     \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } & \multicolumn{2}{  l |[1pt] }{ }   \\                       \hline
 y   &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } & \multicolumn{2}{  l |[1pt] }{ }   \\[-1pt]   \tabucline[1 pt]{3-5}\\[-12.5pt]
\hline
 x   &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\                       \hline
    &                              & \multicolumn{1}{ |[1pt] l |     }{ } &                                 & \\ \tabucline[1 pt]{1-5}
  \end{tabu}
\end{document}