LaTeX table too wide. How to make it fit?

Erik B picture Erik B · May 8, 2010 · Viewed 122k times · Source

I just started to learn latex and now I'm trying to create a table. This is my code:

\begin{table}
\caption{Top Scorers}
\begin{tabular}{ l l }
    \hline
    \bf Goals & \bf Players\\
    \hline
    4 & First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last\\
    3 & First Last\\
    2 & First Last\\
    1 & First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last, First Last\\
    \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

The problem is that the table is wider than the page. I was hoping that it would automatically fit to the page like normal text does, but it didn't. How do I tell latex to make the table fit to the page?

Answer

Cat Plus Plus picture Cat Plus Plus · May 8, 2010

Use p{width} column specifier: e.g. \begin{tabular}{ l p{10cm} } will put column's content into 10cm-wide parbox, and the text will be properly broken to several lines, like in normal paragraph.

You can also use tabular* environment to specify width for the entire table.