[Tex/LaTex] Problem with ‘longtable’ and the width of the table

longtablewidth

I'm using the package longtable to define a table in two pages but it has too much width when I write long text in a cell that fills until the border of the page and doesn´t have room for all the text. Is there a way to fix or limit the width of the table or make the text fill in some lines?

I´ve just used double '\' to fill the long lines in many lines but there is a big space between them. Here is the code that i´ve used

\begin{longtable}{lp{5cm}lp{5cm}lp{5cm}}
\hline
Característica & DDS & MQTT \\
\hline
\endfirsthead

\hline
Característica & DDS & MQTT \\
\hline
\\
\endhead

\multicolumn{3}{c}{(Continúa en la página siguiente)} \\
\endfoot

\multicolumn{3}{c}{(Fin del Cuadro)} \\
\endlastfoot

%Aqui añadimos el cuerpo de la tabla
\\
Abstracción & Publicación/Suscripción & Publicación/Suscripción \\
\\
Arquitectura & Descentralizada (\emph{Global Data Space}) & Broker \\
\\
API & Si & No \\
\\
QoS & 22 & 3 \\
\\
Interoperabilidad & Si & Parcial \\
\\
Rendimiento & Más de 1000 mensajes fiables por segundo por suscriptor & Típicamente desde cientos \\
 & & (persistentes) hasta más de \\
 & & 1000 (\emph{best effort}) mensajes \\
 & & por segundo por suscriptor \\
\\
\emph{Real-Time} severo & Si & No \\
\\
Transporte & UDP por defecto (otros transportes como TCP pueden ser también usados) & TCP \\
\\
Control de suscripción & Particiones, tópicos con filtrado de mensajes & Tópicos con coincidencia \\
 & & jerárquica \\
\\
Filtrado & Contenido/Tiempo & No \\
\\
Serialización de datos & CDR & N/A \\
\\
Estándares & RTPS y DDSI de OMG & Propuesto por OASIS el \\
 & & estándar MQTT \\
\\
Codificación & Binaria & Binaria \\
\\
Modelo de licencia & Open Source y Licencia Comercial & Open Source y Licencia \\
 & & Comercial \\
\\
Descubrimiento dinámico & Si & No \\
\\
Dispositivos móviles & Si & Si \\
(Android, iOS) & & \\
\\
Dispositivos 6LoWPAN & Si & Si \\
\\
Transacciones multifase & No & No \\
Seguridad & Específica del vendedor pero típicamente basada en SSL o TLS con control de acceso propietario & Simple Nombre de \\
 & & usuario/Password, \\
 & & Autenticación, SSL para \\
 & & cifrado de datos \\
\\


\hline
\\
\caption{Comparativa de características entre DDS y MQTT.}
\label{ta:comparativa-dds-mqtt}
\end{longtable}

And this is a piece of the result:

Best Answer

Thanks for posting the code of your longtable environment. It would appear that the main problem is that whereas you intend to have three columns (each allowing text to wrap), you're currently specifying a total of six columns, alternating l and p types.

In addition to specifying just three columns (and removing the hard line breaks), I'd like to suggest making the following changes:

Since the column widths are quite narrow (5cm or less), it's probably better not to try to fully justify the contents, as doing so may create lines of text with very wide interword spaces. Better to use the ragged2e package and define a new column type that uses \RaggedRight instead of full justification. In the code below, I use the \newcolumntype instruction (which is provided by the array package) to create a new column type called P, which behaves very much like the p type except that the contents will be typeset raggedright while allowing hyphenation.
Instead of \hline, consider using the rule-drawing macros of the booktabs package, e.g., \toprule and \midrule.

(first page)

enter image description here

(second page)

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[spanish]{babel}
\usepackage{lmodern} % use a font family that supports accented characters natively
\usepackage{array,longtable,ragged2e,booktabs}
\newcolumntype{P}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{#1}}

\usepackage[textwidth=13cm]{geometry} % choose text width here
\hyphenation{android} % do not hyphenate the word "Android"
\begin{document}

\begin{longtable}{@{}P{4cm}P{4cm}P{4cm}@{}}
\toprule
Característica & DDS & MQTT \\
\midrule
\endhead


\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\multicolumn{3}{r@{}}{(Continúa en la página siguiente)} \\
\endfoot

\midrule[\heavyrulewidth]
\caption{Comparativa de características entre DDS y MQTT.}
\label{ta:comparativa-dds-mqtt}
\endlastfoot

%Aqui añadimos el cuerpo de la tabla
Abstracción & Publicación/Suscripción & Publicación/Suscripción \\[1\baselineskip]
Arquitectura & Descentralizada (\emph{Global Data Space}) & Broker \\[2\baselineskip]
API & Si & No \\[1\baselineskip]
QoS & 22 & 3 \\[1\baselineskip]
Interoperabilidad & Si & Parcial \\[1\baselineskip]
Rendimiento & Más de 1000 mensajes fiables por segundo por suscriptor & Típicamente desde cientos (persistentes) hasta más de 1000 (\emph{best effort}) mensajes por segundo por suscriptor \\[1\baselineskip]
\emph{Real-Time} severo & Si & No \\[1\baselineskip]
Transporte & UDP por defecto (otros transportes como TCP pueden ser también usados) & TCP \\[4\baselineskip]
Control de suscripción & Particiones, tópicos con filtrado de mensajes & Tópicos con coincidencia jerárquica \\[1\baselineskip]
Filtrado & Contenido/Tiempo & No \\[1\baselineskip]
Serialización de datos & CDR & N/A \\[1\baselineskip]
Estándares & RTPS y DDSI de OMG & Propuesto por OASIS el estándar MQTT \\[1\baselineskip]
Codificación & Binaria & Binaria \\[1\baselineskip]
Modelo de licencia & Open Source y Licencia Comercial & Open Source y Licencia Comercial \\[1\baselineskip]
Descubrimiento dinámico & Si & No \\[1\baselineskip]
Dispositivos móviles (Android, iOS)& Si & Si \\[2\baselineskip]
Dispositivos 6LoWPAN & Si & Si \\[1\baselineskip]
Transacciones multifase & No & No \\[1\baselineskip]
Seguridad & Específica del vendedor pero típicamente basada en SSL o TLS con control de acceso propietario & Simple Nombre de usuario\slash Password,  Autenticación, SSL para  cifrado de datos \\
\end{longtable}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] width and long table with tabularx and longtable

Your column specification was completely missing, also you have some non-ascii utf8 characters but not declared inputenc You alos had \multirow commands without loading the multirow package but i removed them as they appeared mis-placed.

\documentclass[a4paper,twoside,11pt, times, numbered]{report}
\usepackage{longtable} %%For tables, that exceed one page
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{pdflscape}
\usepackage{ragged2e}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\begin{document}

\begin{landscape}
\begin{longtable}{
>{\RaggedRight\hspace*{0pt}}p{1.5cm}
>{\RaggedRight}p{3cm}
>{\RaggedRight}p{3cm}
>{\RaggedRight}p{4cm}
>{\RaggedRight}p{3cm}
>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}p{3cm}
}

\caption{My caption\label{my-label}}\\
 \hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{Metric} & Taxonomic resolution & Definition & Expected response to increasing perturbation & Reference \\
\hline
\endfirsthead
\caption{My caption (continued}\\
 \hline
\multicolumn{2}{l}{Metric} & Taxonomic resolution & Definition & Expected response to increasing perturbation & Reference \\
\hline
\endhead
Measures of richness & Number of total taxa & Family & All different taxa at a site. & Decrease & Resh \& Jackson, 1993; Barbour et al., 1999 \\
 & Number of EPT taxa &  & Total number of taxa of the orders Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies) and Trichoptera (caddisflies). &  &  \\
 & Number of Ephemeroptera taxa & Genus or Species & Total number of taxa of the order Ephemeroptera (mayflies). &  &  \\
 & Number of Plecoptera taxa &  & Total number of taxa of the order Plecoptera (stoneflies). &  &  \\
 & Number of Trichoptera taxa &  & Total number of taxa of the order of Trichoptera (caddisflies). &  &  \\
Enumerations & Number of families in common & Family & Number of families in common between 2 samples. &  &  \\
 & \%EPT &  & Ratio of EPT abundance. &  &  \\
 & \%Ephemeroptera &  & Ratio of mayflies to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
 & \%Plecoptera &  & Ratio of stoneflies to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
 & \%Trichoptera &  & Ratio of caddisflies to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
 & \%Coleoptera &  & Ratio of individuals of the order of Coleoptera to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
 & \%Diptera &  & Ratio of individuals of the order of Diptera to total number of individuals. & Increase &  \\
 & \%Chironomidae &  & Ratio of chironomidae individuals to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
 & EPT / Chironomidae &  & Ratio of EPT abundance to chironomidae abundance. & Decrease &  \\
 & \% of most dominant genus & Genus & Ratio of individuals in numerically dominant genus to total numbers of individuals. & Increase &  \\
 & \% of dominant taxa & Family & Ratio of individuals in numerically dominant taxa to total number of individuals. &  &  \\
Diversity and Similarity indices & Shannon's Index &  & Description of community structure (Diversity). & Decrease & Shannon, 1948 \\
 & Simpson's Index &  & Diversity index commonly used in Ecology and Biology. & Increase & Simpson, 1949 \\
 & Margalef Index &  & Diversity index, where the number of species in the sample and the total number of organisms in the sampling are considered. & Decrease & Margalef, 1951 \\
 & Sequential Comparison Index (SCI) & Order or Family & Description of stream quality method, based upon distinguishing the number of different types of organisms and the number of « runs ». &  & Cairns et al., 1968 \\
 & Jaccard's Coefficient & Family & Description of the similarity between two samples. &  & Jaccard, 1901 \\
 & Sørensen Coefficient &  & Description of the similarity between two samples. &  & Sørensen, 1948 \\
Biotic indices & Trent Biotic Index (TBI) & Family (genus for Plecoptera and Ephemeroptera nymphs and species-level for Annelida, Mollusca, Crustacea and Megaloptera) & Description of the pollution level of streams, according to the sensitivity of key groups to pollution. &  & Woodiwiss, 1964; Metcalfe 1989 \\
 & Extended Biotic Index (EBI) & Family or Genus & Description of the pollution level of streams, according to the sensitivity of key groups to pollution. Aquatic ecosystems are described using « quality classes ». &  & Ghetti, 1997 \\
 & Beck Biotic Index (BI) & Genus & Classification of streams according to their organic pollution. Organisms are classed according to their tolerance to organic pollution. &  & Beck, 1955 \\
 & Family Biotic Index (FBI) & Family & Uses tolerance values to weight abundance in an estimate of overall pollution. Originally designed to evaluate organic pollution. & Increase & Hilsenhoff, 1982, 1988 ; Plafkin, 1989 \\
 & Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) &  & Score system using benthic macroinvertebrate classed according to their pollution tolerance for Britain rivers. & Decrease & ISO, 1979 ; National Water Council, 1981 \\
 & Biological Monitoring Working Party – Costa Rica (BMWP/CR) &  & Score system based on the BMWP modified to include macroinvertebrate communities of Costa Rica &  & Gutiérrez-Fonseca and Lorion, 2014 \\
 & Biological Monitoring Working Party- Average Score per Taxon (BMWP- ASPT) &  & Average Score Per Taxon, added to the BMWP Score System. &  & Armitage et al., 1983 \\
Functional Feeding measures & \%Filterer collectors &  & Percent of the macrobenthos that filter fine organic material. & Increase & Merrit \& Cummins, 2008 \\
 & \% Scrapers &  & Percent of the macrobenthos that feed on epiphytes. & Decrease &  \\
 & \%Shredder &  & Percent of the macrobenthos that feed on leaf litter. &  &  \\
 & \%Predators &  & Percent of the predator functional feeding group. They are carnivores-scavangers, engulf or pierce prey. &  &  \\
 & \% gathering collectors &  & Percent of the macrobenthos that collect fine deposited organic material. & Variable &  \\
Multimetric approach & IBI-west central Mexico &  & Computation of multimetric approaches which is summarized in a single value. & Decrease & Weigel et al., 2002

\end{longtable}
\end{landscape}


\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] How to control the width of longtable

your tables has more issues.

sum of column width are not equal to \textwidth (15.95 cm),
width of the multi column cells are equal to \textwidth, so it extend lats column that the width of the whole table is equal to \textwidth

in examples below are in determination of columns width considered \tabcolsep and \arrayrulewidth.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[hmargin=2.525cm]{geometry}%
%\textwidth 15.95cm

\usepackage{array, longtable}
\newcolumntype{C}[1]{>{\centering\arraybackslash}  p{#1}}
\newcolumntype{R}[1]{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{#1}}

%-------------------------------------- only for show page layout
\usepackage{showframe}
\renewcommand\ShowFrameLinethickness{0.25pt}
\renewcommand*\ShowFrameColor{\color{red}}
%---------------------------------------------------------------%
\begin{document}
%\begin{center}
width of table determined by sum of column width

\begin{longtable}{
|p{\dimexpr0.25cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr4.6cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2 cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.2cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr0.8cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.1cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr1.9cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}|
}
%\multicolumn{7}{|C{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-2\arrayrulewidth}|}{1}
\hline
a & a & a & a & a & a & a   \\
\hline
\end{longtable}
%\end{center}

width of table determined by multi column cell width

\begin{longtable}{
|p{\dimexpr0.25cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr4.6cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2 cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.2cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr0.8cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.1cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr1.9cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}|
}
\multicolumn{7}{|C{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-2\arrayrulewidth}|}{1}    \\
\hline
a & a & a & a & a & a & a   \\
\hline
\end{longtable}


width of the multi column cell is adopted to sum of ll columns widths

\begin{longtable}{
|p{\dimexpr0.25cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr4.6cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2 cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.2cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr0.8cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr2.1cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}
|p{\dimexpr1.9cm-2\tabcolsep-1.13\arrayrulewidth}|
}
\multicolumn{7}{|c|}{1}    \\
\hline
a & a & a & a & a & a & a   \\
\hline
\end{longtable}

second table:

%\begin{center}
\begin{longtable}{
| C{\dimexpr1.3cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}% 13cm
| R{\dimexpr9.0cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}
| R{\dimexpr2.42cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}
| R{\dimexpr2.42cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth} |
}
%\multicolumn{4}{|C{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-2\arrayrulewidth}|}{2}
\hline
a & a & a & a   \\
\hline
\end{longtable}
%\end{center}

\begin{longtable}{
| C{\dimexpr1.3cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}% 13cm
| R{\dimexpr9.0cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}
| R{\dimexpr2.42cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth}
| R{\dimexpr2.42cm-2\tabcolsep-1.25\arrayrulewidth} |
}
\multicolumn{4}{|C{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep-2\arrayrulewidth}|}{2}    \\
\hline
a & a & a & a   \\
\hline
\end{longtable}

\end{document}

(red lines indicates border of text area).

the first and second table without of multi column cells have different widths. the purpose of the first table row is not clear. see if the third version of the first table gives what you like to achieve.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] width and long table with tabularx and longtable

[Tex/LaTex] How to control the width of longtable

Related Question