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Footnotes for tables in LaTeX

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latex

When I do \footnote{} for a value in a table, the footnote doesn't show up. How do I get it to show up? Also, is it possible to get it to show up at the bottom of the table rather than the bottom of the page?

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polk Avatar asked May 22 '10 16:05

polk


People also ask

How do you footnote a table in LaTeX?

Use [h!] (or [H] with the float package) to control where the float will appear, and \footnotetext on the same page to put the footnote where you want it. Again, use \footnotemark to install the symbol.

How do you add a caption to a table in LaTeX?

Add the \caption macro before or after the tabular environment to place the caption above or below the table. To reference the table in the text, use \label . To get the correct reference number, the label has to be placed either right after the caption or into the caption macro. \caption {Caption above table.}

What is the command used for footnotes in LaTeX?

The \footnotemark command puts the footnote number in the text. This command can be used in inner paragraph mode. The text of the footnote is supplied by the \footnotetext command.


2 Answers

This is a classic difficulty in LaTeX.

The problem is how to do layout with floats (figures and tables, an similar objects) and footnotes. In particular, it is hard to pick a place for a float with certainty that making room for the associated footnotes won't cause trouble. So the standard tabular and figure environments don't even try.

What can you do:

  1. Fake it. Just put a hardcoded vertical skip at the bottom of the caption and then write the footnote yourself (use \footnotesize for the size). You also have to manage the symbols or number yourself with \footnotemark. Simple, but not very attractive, and the footnote does not appear at the bottom of the page.
  2. Use the tabularx, longtable, threeparttable[x] (kudos to Joseph) or ctable which support this behavior.
  3. Manage it by hand. Use [h!] (or [H] with the float package) to control where the float will appear, and \footnotetext on the same page to put the footnote where you want it. Again, use \footnotemark to install the symbol. Fragile and requires hand-tooling every instance.
  4. The footnote package provides the savenote environment, which can be used to do this.
  5. Minipage it (code stolen outright, and read the disclaimer about long caption texts in that case):
     \begin{figure}       \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}         ...         \caption[Caption for LOF]%           {Real caption\footnote{blah}}       \end{minipage}     \end{figure} 

Additional reference: TeX FAQ item Footnotes in tables.

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dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Avatar answered Sep 28 '22 08:09

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten


The best way to do it without any headache is to use the \tablefootnote command from the tablefootnote package. Add the following to your preamble:

\usepackage{tablefootnote} 

It just works without the need of additional tricks.

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Francesquini Avatar answered Sep 28 '22 07:09

Francesquini