[Tex/LaTex] How to format long and large tables in a thesis

best practicesformattingtables

In my master's thesis I have a lot of tables, large and long;
what's the best practice to fit them ?

It would be fine split the longer table in multiple pages?

what about the larger ones?

any advice will be appreciated

UPDATE

here an example of a large table

\begin{table}[H] 
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{|l|r|r|r|}
\hline HTTP Date & Time zone & Time shift & Timestamp \\
\hline Tue, 02 Jun 2015 20:33:31 GMT & America/Chicago & -6 & June 2nd 2015, 22:19:31.929 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:33:46 GMT & America/Denver & -7 & June 14th 2015, 13:19:07.193 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:34:01 GMT & America/Los\_Angeles & -8 & June 14th 2015, 13:19:21.755 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:33:46 GMT & America/New\_York & -5 & June 14th 2015, 13:19:07.417 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 12:19:18 GMT & America/Phoenix & -7 & June 14th 2015, 14:04:38.980 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:33:59 GMT & America/Toronto & -5 & June 14th 2015, 13:19:19.881 \\
\hline Fri, 12 Jun 2015 05:53:03 GMT & Asia/Shanghai & 8 & June 12th 2015, 07:38:31.238 \\
\hline Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:33:56 GMT & Europe/Amsterdam & 1 & June 14th 2015, 13:19:17.290 \\
...
        \hline      
    \end{tabular}

Best Answer

You can use the ltablex package, which loads both tabularx and longtable. What makes the table a little too wide is the head of the 3th column, which I circumvent with a \makebox[0pt] command.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{booktabs, ltablex}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\sisetup{table-format=-2.0, table-number-alignment=center}

\usepackage[showframe]{geometry}

\begin{document}

\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}%
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{@{\,}X@{\enspace}l r SX@{\enspace}l@{\,}}
  \toprule
  \multicolumn{2}{c}{HTTP Date}
  & \multicolumn{1}{c}{Time zone}
  & {\makebox[0pt]{Time shift}}
  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Timestamp} \\
  \midrule
  Tue, 02 Jun 2015, & 20:33:31 GMT
    & America/Chicago & -6 & June 2nd 2015, & 22:19:31.92 \\
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 11:33:46 GMT
    & America/Denver & -7 & June 14th 2015, & 13:19:07.193 \\
  % \hline
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 11:34:01 GMT
    & America/Los\_Angeles & -8 & June 14th 2015, & 13:19:21.755 \\
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 11:33:46 GMT
    & America/New\_York & -5 & June 14th 2015, & 13:19:07.417 \\
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 12:19:18 GMT
    & America/Phoenix & -7 & June 14th 2015, & 14:04:38.980 \\
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 11:33:59 GMT
    & America/Toronto & -5 & June 14th 2015, & 13:19:19.881 \\
  % \hline
  Fri, 12 Jun 2015, & 05:53:03 GMT
    & Asia/Shanghai & 8 & June 12th 2015, & 07:38:31.238 \\
  Sun, 14 Jun 2015, & 11:33:56 GMT
    & Europe/Amsterdam & 1 & June 14th 2015, & 13:19:17.290 \\
  \bottomrule
\end{tabularx}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Format ToC for thesis

Here's a possible solution.

I used the titletoc and tocloft packages to customize the ToC, LoF and LoT titles and entries as required. Firther customization might be required for the titles, but this might depend on the general layout for the chapter titles and this information was not provided in the question.
The tocbibind packge was used to automatically include the LoF and the LoT in the table of contents.
The afterpage package can be used to produce the corresponding headings in every page of the ToC, the LoF and the LoT; since these lists typically span few pages, one can use
```
\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\afterpage{tocheading}}
\addtocontents{lof}{\protect\afterpage{lofheading}}
\addtocontents{lot}{\protect\afterpage{lotheading}}
```
respectively, in the appropriate locations in the body of the document.
I used the book document class (instead of using report) to profit from the \frontmatter, \mainmatter (and \backmatter) commands.

The code:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{titletoc}
\usepackage{tocloft}
\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind}
\usepackage{afterpage}

% Change the name of the ToC
\AtBeginDocument{%
\renewcommand\contentsname{Table of Contents}}

% Headings for every page of ToC, LoF and Lot
\newcommand\tocheading{\par\bigskip\MakeUppercase{\chaptername}\hfill Page\par}
\newcommand\lofheading{\par\bigskip\figurename\hfill Page\par}
\newcommand\lotheading{\par\bigskip\MakeUppercase{\tablename}\hfill Page\par}

% Centering titles for the ToC, Lof and Lot
\renewcommand{\cfttoctitlefont}{\hfill\normalfont\MakeUppercase}
\renewcommand{\cftaftertoctitle}{\hfill}
\renewcommand{\cftloftitlefont}{\hfill\normalfont\MakeUppercase}
\renewcommand{\cftafterloftitle}{\hfill}
\renewcommand{\cftlottitlefont}{\hfill\normalfont\MakeUppercase}
\renewcommand{\cftafterlottitle}{\hfill}

% Chapter entries formatting for frontmatter chapters
\newcommand\frontmatterchaptoc{%
\titlecontents{chapter}
  [1.5em]{\addvspace{\baselineskip}}
  {\contentslabel{1.5em}\MakeUppercase}
  {\hspace*{-1.5em}\MakeUppercase}
  {\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}
}

% Chapter entries formatting for mainmatter chapters
\newcommand\mainmatterchaptoc{%
\titlecontents{chapter}
  [5em]{\addvspace{\baselineskip}}
  {\contentslabel{3em}\hspace*{-1em}\MakeUppercase}
  {\MakeUppercase}
  {\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}
}

% Section, subsection, table and figure entries formatting
\titlecontents{section}
  [7em]{}{\hspace{-1em}}{}{\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}
\titlecontents{subsection}
  [7.5em]{}{\hspace{-1em}}{}{\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}
\titlecontents{figure}
  [5em]{}
  {\contentslabel{3em}\hspace*{-1em}}{}
  {\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}
\titlecontents{table}
  [5em]{}
  {\contentslabel{3em}\hspace*{-1em}}{}
  {\titlerule*[1pc]{.}\contentspage}

\begin{document}

\frontmatter
\frontmatterchaptoc % activation of chapter entries formatting in the frontmatter

\chapter{Acknowledgements}

\cleardoublepage
\tableofcontents
\cleardoublepage
\addtocontents{lof}{\lofheading}% add heading to the first page in LoF
\listoffigures
\cleardoublepage
\addtocontents{lot}{\lotheading}% add heading to the first page in LoT
\listoftables
\cleardoublepage

\mainmatter
\addtocontents{toc}{\tocheading}% add heading to the first page in ToC, after frontmatter entries

\mainmatterchaptoc% activation of chapter entries formatting in the mainmatter

\chapter{Introduction}
\section{Section One One}
\begin{figure}
\centering
A
\caption{Test figure one}
\label{fig:test}
\end{figure}
\chapter{Policy divergence and traditional research}
\section{Section Two One}
\begin{figure}
\centering
A
\caption{William Adolphe Bouguereau, \emph{Youth of Bacchus}  (initial sketch), 1884}
\label{fig:wab}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Section Two One One}

\end{document}

An image of the obtained ToC:

enter image description here

an Image of the obtained LoF:

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Large space between tables

I'd like to suggest that you add the following instructions to the preamble:

\makeatletter
\setlength\@fptop{0pt}             % default: '0\p@ \@plus 1fil'
\setlength\@fpsep{2\baselineskip}  % default: '8\p@ \@plus 2fil'
\makeatother

This code governs the spacing above and between floats on floats-only pages.

2\baselineskip means: insert vertical whitespace in the amount of 2\baselineskip between floats on a floats-only page; you're obviously free to either increase or decrease this amount.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Format ToC for thesis

[Tex/LaTex] Large space between tables

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