Caption outside table?

Question

I'm trying to add a caption to a table in latex, however it throws this error "! LaTeX Error: \caption outside float." From the error I am guessing it means that it is outside the table, but I have clearly put it inside.

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \caption{Table1} Potentiometer & Resistance  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Calculated V\textsubscript{32}} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Measured V\textsubscript{32}}\\ \cline{3-6} Position & R\textsubscript{34} & Amplitude & Phase & Amplitude & Phase\\ \hline \hline 1 & 303.8 & & 2.73 & 28.2 & 2.51\\ 2 & 1.141k & & 1.81 & 28.2 & 1.63\\ 3 & 3.453k & & 0.79 & 28.2 & 0.5\\ 4 & 5.33k & & 0.53 & 28.2 & 0.38\\ 5 & 7.45k & & 0.38 & 28.2 & 0.25\\ 6 & 9.54k & & 0.30 & 28.2 & 0.13\\ 7 & 10.84k & & 0.27 & 28.2 & 0.13\\ \hline \end{tabular} 

Answer 1

The tabular environment won't take a caption. You need to do something like this:

\begin{table} \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|} Potentiometer & Resistance  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Calculated V\textsubscript{32}} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Measured V\textsubscript{32}}\\ \cline{3-6} Position & R\textsubscript{34} & Amplitude & Phase & Amplitude & Phase\\ \hline \hline 1 & 303.8 & & 2.73 & 28.2 & 2.51\\ 2 & 1.141k & & 1.81 & 28.2 & 1.63\\ 3 & 3.453k & & 0.79 & 28.2 & 0.5\\ 4 & 5.33k & & 0.53 & 28.2 & 0.38\\ 5 & 7.45k & & 0.38 & 28.2 & 0.25\\ 6 & 9.54k & & 0.30 & 28.2 & 0.13\\ 7 & 10.84k & & 0.27 & 28.2 & 0.13\\ \hline \end{tabular} \caption{Table1} \label{tab:xyz} \end{table} 

Answer 2

If you don't want to use a "float" (e.g. table or figure) that will "float away" from the place you define it, you can add:

\usepackage{capt-of} 

in the preamble and then do something like:

\begin{center}   \captionof{table}{Caption text goes here}   \label{table1} % for use in \ref{table1} if you want to refer to the table number   \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|}   % etc.   \end{tabular} \end{center} 

to add a auto-numbered caption to a non-float.