[Tex/LaTex] minipage horizontal alignment

horizontal alignmentminipagetables

I'm using minipage to put two tables next to each other, and instead it is putting them in vertically. It seems like this is usually caused by having blank lines between the minipages, but that isn't the case here. What can I do to rectify this?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\begin{document}    
\begin{table}[htbp]\centering
\begin{minipage}[c]{\textwidth}
\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
\caption{phone T-tests}
\begin{tabular}{l*{1}{c}}
\hline\hline
                    &\multicolumn{1}{c}{Altruism\&Image}\\
\hline
pledge              &       10.00         \\
                &     (16.12)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_zeros        &       8.020         \\
                    &     (4.311)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_binary       &      0.0924\sym{**} \\
                    &    (0.0326)         \\
\hline
Observations        &         710         \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize Standard errors in parentheses}\\
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \sym{*} \(p<0.05\), \sym{**} \(p<0.01\), \sym{***} \                        (p<0.001\)}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}[c]{\textwidth}
\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
\caption{phone T-tests}
\begin{tabular}{l*{1}{c}}
\hline\hline
                    &\multicolumn{1}{c}{Alruism\&Pressure}\\
\hline
pledge              &      -3.091         \\
                    &     (15.40)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_zeros        &       0.781         \\
                    &     (4.831)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_binary       &      0.0243         \\
                    &    (0.0350)         \\
\hline
Observations        &         680         \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize Standard errors in parentheses}\\
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \sym{*} \(p<0.05\), \sym{**} \(p<0.01\), \sym{***} \    (p<0.001\)}\\

\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Best Answer

You have \textwidth wide minipages; however, in cases like these, it's better to use threeparttable, so the caption will be properly centered over the table.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{threeparttable}
\begin{document}    
\begin{table}[htbp]\centering
\def\sym#1{\ifmmode^{#1}\else\(^{#1}\)\fi}
\begin{minipage}{.45\textwidth}
\begin{threeparttable}
\caption{phone T-tests}
\begin{tabular}{l*{1}{c}}
\hline\hline
                    &\multicolumn{1}{c}{Altruism\&Image}\\
\hline
pledge              &       10.00         \\
                &     (16.12)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_zeros        &       8.020         \\
                    &     (4.311)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_binary       &      0.0924\sym{**} \\
                    &    (0.0326)         \\
\hline
Observations        &         710         \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize Standard errors in parentheses}\\
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \sym{*} \(p<0.05\), \sym{**} \(p<0.01\), \sym{***} \                        \(p<0.001\)}\\
\end{tabular}
\end{threeparttable}
\end{minipage}\hfill
\begin{minipage}{.45\textwidth}
\begin{threeparttable}
\caption{phone T-tests}
\begin{tabular}{l*{1}{c}}
\hline\hline
                    &\multicolumn{1}{c}{Alruism\&Pressure}\\
\hline
pledge              &      -3.091         \\
                    &     (15.40)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_zeros        &       0.781         \\
                    &     (4.831)         \\
[1em]
pledge\_binary       &      0.0243         \\
                    &    (0.0350)         \\
\hline
Observations        &         680         \\
\hline\hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize Standard errors in parentheses}\\
\multicolumn{2}{l}{\footnotesize \sym{*} \(p<0.05\), \sym{**} \(p<0.01\), \sym{***} \    \(p<0.001\)}\\

\end{tabular}
\end{threeparttable}
\end{minipage}
\end{table}
\end{document}

Notice also \begin{minipage}[t], so the vertical alignment will be with respect to the captions.

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Text alignment in a minipage

This can be done in several ways; below I include two options; the first one, using a minipage and the second one, a tabular with one l column (in case that the contents is required to wrap, a p{<length>} column should be used instead); showframe was only used to draw a frame as visual guideline for the alignment:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}

\begin{document}

%Using a minipage:
\hfill\begin{minipage}[t]{2.6cm}
    {\bfseries Some test text} \\[.35ex]
    \small
    Text again \\
    And again
\end{minipage}

%Using a tabular:
\hfill\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{}}
    {\bfseries Some test text} \\[.35ex]
    \small
    Text again \\
    And again
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Horizontal alignment across minipage columns

something like

note that tex gave lots of warnings about bad boxes, which shouldn't be ignored in cases like this.

The main issue is using [t] to top-align the minipages, never using \\ to end a paragraph, and a tabular with p{\textwidth} doesn't fit unless you use @{}p{\textwidth}@{} to remove the column padding, or as here just remove the tabular altogether as a one-column table isn't doing much.

If you want the point 2, the second table and the second paragraph in each column to align, simplest thing would be to put them in a second row of minipages rather than entering all of the first column then all of the second.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[margin=1.0in]{geometry}
\usepackage{array}

\begin{document}
\section*{Heading 1}
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.17\textwidth}%

\begin{enumerate}\setlength\itemsep{12pt}
    \item Point 1

    \item Point 2 % never end a paragraph with \\

    \item Point 3

\end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.31\textwidth}%
\begin{tabular}[t]{|l | c | c | c |}
    \firsthline
    &One&Two&Three \\ \hline
    ABCD&$\times$&& \\ \hline
    ABCD&&$\times$& \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\vspace{12mm}
\begin{tabular}[t]{|l | c | c | c |}
    \hline
    &One&Two&Three \\ \hline
    ABCD&$\times$&& \\ \hline
    ABCD&&$\times$& \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

\vspace{12mm}
\begin{tabular}[t]{|l | c | c | c |}
    \hline
    &One&Two&Three \\ \hline
    ABCD&$\times$&& \\ \hline
    ABCD&&$\times$& \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}%
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.23\textwidth}%
\setlength\parskip{12pt}
    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.

    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.

    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.
\end{minipage}%
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{0.23\textwidth}%
\setlength\parskip{12pt}

    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.

    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.

    This is an example. This line may go all along the end and wrap afterwards to the next as seen here.
\end{minipage}%
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Text alignment in a minipage

[Tex/LaTex] Horizontal alignment across minipage columns

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