[Tex/LaTex] Table and figure side by side in two column layout without space below

floatstablestwo-column

This is kind of a strange requirement I suppose. I have a table and a figure and I want them to be side by side on top of a page, on the same page, while the table is in the left column and the figure is in the right one.

I know I could put them inside a box or a minipage but the figure is much taller than the table and thus there would be wasted space under the table.

I also heard of the floatrow package but it has the limitation that the two objects need to be of the same type (a table and a figure).

Is there a way to do this or am I doomed to balance the text manually before the final revision?

Best Answer

Here is a solution. we set \setcounter{topnumber}{1} and then restore its value

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{mwe}
\edef\mttopnumber{\arabic{topnumber}}
\setcounter{topnumber}{1}
\begin{document}
\begin{table}[tp]
\centering
\caption{A table}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline 
12 & 13 \\ 
\hline 
10 & 11 \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular} 
\end{table}
\begin{figure}[tp]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=.5]{example-image}
\caption{Nice figure}
\end{figure}
\setcounter{topnumber}{\mttopnumber}
\lipsum
\begin{table}[tp]
\centering
\caption{A table}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline 
12 & 13 \\ 
\hline 
10 & 11 \\ 
\hline 
\end{tabular} 
\end{table}
\begin{figure}[tp]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=.5]{example-image}
\caption{Nice figure}
\end{figure}
\lipsum
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Join figure and table on the same page

I gather that the figure should be at the very top of a page, to be followed immediately by the table environment. (Moreover, I'm taking for granted that the two environments will actually fit on a single page, right?)

You could achieve these objectives by loading the afterpage package and "encasing" the figure and table environments in an \afterpage{...} statement, as is shown in the following code fragment:

\afterpage{%    % defer execution until the next page break occurs anyway
   \begin{figure}[t!] % not "pt"
      \centering
      % remaining contents of figure environment
   \end{figure}
   \begin{table}[h!] % not t or b or p
      \centering
      % remaining contents of table environment
   \end{table}
} % end of argument of `\afterpage` command

I'm further assuming that there are no deferred figure and/or table environments already waiting to be typeset. If that were the case, you should issue a \clearpage instruction as the very first item in the argument of the \afterpage command. (Even if there are no accumulated deferred floats to take care of, there's no harm done by issuing a \clearpage instruction anyway at the start of the \afterpage material; it would simply be ignored by TeX.)

In addition, if the figure and table environments combined take up most of the page (say, more than 75% of the page), you may also want to issue a second \clearpage instruction, following the end of the table environment. This will tell LaTeX that you want to have just those two floats on the page in question.

[Tex/LaTex] Using LyX, how do you put a table and a figure side by side and caption them Table XX and Figure XX

You can use minipages as you first tried, if you add the capt-of (or caption) package and write the caption in an ERT using captionof command, which has the syntax

\captionof{<float type>}{<caption>}

So, in LyX:

Document --> Settings --> LaTeX preamble, add either
```
\usepackage{capt-of}
```
(or \usepackage{caption})
Insert a figure float, with Insert --> Float --> Figure or the button on the toolbar.
Delete the caption that is there by default (just place the cursor outside it, and hit backspace or delete).
Add two minipages with Insert --> Boxes --> Frameless. Add the second one immediately after the first one, do not hit enter after the first one.
Set the width of both to just below half the line width, e.g. 49% of the line width.
In the minipage where you want the figure, add a new caption with Insert --> Caption. Add the image above it, as you normally would.
In the minipage where you want the table, add an ERT with Ctrl + L or Insert --> TeX Code, and write
```
\captionof{table}{Your table caption}
```
Add the table below the caption as you normally would.

Optionally, you could write
```
\captionsetup{type=table}
```
in the ERT, and add the caption outside the ERT with Insert --> Caption. Make sure the ERT is placed before the caption. Note that this will not change the caption type in the LyX GUI, there you'll still have two figure captions, but in the PDF it will be correct. This also makes it easier to add cross references or citations in the caption, as you can use the GUI for that.

You may have to change the vertical alignment of the minipages as well, which you can do in the settings for the Inset. In the image below, the right minipage has the vertical alignment for the Box set to Middle, all other vertical alignments are set to Top.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Join figure and table on the same page

[Tex/LaTex] Using LyX, how do you put a table and a figure side by side and caption them Table XX and Figure XX

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