Troubleshooting Latex Table Errors: Tips from a Thesis Writer

[haseebmahmud]

Hi guys,
I need some help from you.

I was writing my thesis and I am having a problem in making a table.

I wrote the following,

\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Moody's and S\&P rating system with numerals}   
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l l}
\hline\hline
Moody's Rating & Definitions\\
%heading
\hline
Aaa & Obligations rated Aaa are judged to be of the highest quality, with minimal credit risk. \\ 
\hline
Aa & Obligations rated Aa are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk.\\ 
\hline
A &   Obligations rated A are considered upper-medium grade and are subject to low credit risk.\\
\hline
Baa & Obligations rated Baa are subject to moderate credit risk. They are considered medium-grade and as such may possesses certain speculative characteristics. \\
\hline
Ba & Obligations rated Ba are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk. \\
\hline
B & Obligations rated B are considered speculative and are subject to high credit risk.\\
\hline
Caa & Obligations rated Caa are judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.\\
\hline
Ca & Obligations rated Ca are highly speculative and are likely in, or very near, default, with some prospect of recovery of principal and interest.\\
\hline
C & Obligations rated C are the lowest rated class of bonds and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest.\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:ratingexplanations}
\end{table}

I have got the following output

The errors are as follows

[LaTeX] presentation.tex => presentation.dvi (latex)
/usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/generic/thumbpdf/thumbpdf.sty:0: You need pdfTeX in PDF mode for driver `pdftex'.
presentation.tex:0: Unused global option(s):[makeidx].
./presentation.aux:0: Label `eq:rwdd' multiply defined.
./presentation.aux:0: Label `eq:ma1' multiply defined.
./front.tex:15:Overfull \hbox (42.84467pt too wide) in paragraph
./front.tex:63: Font shape `OT1/cmss/m/it' in size not available(Font) Font shape `OT1/cmss/m/sl' tried instead on input line 63. Font shape `OT1/cmss/m/it' in size not available(Font) Font shape `OT1/cmss/m/sl' tried instead
./chap2/chap2.tex:0:Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active []
./chap2/chap2.tex:0:Underfull \vbox (badness 10000) has occurred while \output is active []
./chap2/chap2.tex:46:Overfull \hbox (457.57047pt too wide) in paragraph
./chap2/chap2.tex:42:Overfull \hbox (91.38274pt too wide) in paragraph

May be my post is kinda messy. But it would be nice if anyone help me out of this problem.

Thanks in advance.

- Haseeb

 

[temujin]

what exactly is the problem?

The table doesn´t appear as you want it to?

regards
t.

 

[malawi_glenn]

Try:

\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Moody's and S\&P rating system with numerals}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l l}
\hline\hline
Moody's Rating & Definitions\\
%heading
\hline
Aaa & Obligations rated Aaa are judged to be of the highest \\
& quality, with minimal credit risk. \\
\hline
Aa & Obligations rated Aa are judged to be of high quality and are \\
& subject to very low credit risk.\\
\hline
A & Obligations rated A are considered upper-medium \\
& grade and are subject to low credit risk.\\
\hline
Baa & Obligations rated Baa are subject to moderate credit risk.\\
& They are considered medium-grade and as \\
& such may possesses certain speculative characteristics. \\
\hline
Ba & Obligations rated Ba are judged to have speculative \\
& elements and are subject to substantial credit risk. \\
\hline
B & Obligations rated B are considered speculative \\
& and are subject to high credit risk.\\
\hline
Caa & Obligations rated Caa are judged to be of poor \\
& standing and are subject to very high credit risk.\\
\hline
Ca & Obligations rated Ca are highly speculative \\
& and are likely in, or very near, default, with some \\
& prospect of recovery of principal and interest.\\
\hline
C & Obligations rated C are the lowest rated class \\
& of bonds and are typically in default, with little \\
& prospect for recovery of principal or interest.\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:ratingexplanations}
\end{table}

Good luck!

 

[alphysicist]

Hi haseebmahmud,

You can set the width of the columns by changing your line:

\begin{tabular}{l l}

which right now just left justifies the columns. You can change this to, for example,

\begin{tabular}{l p{8cm}}

which left justifies the first column and sets the width of the second column. Making just that change in your latex code gives

\begin{table}[ht]
\caption{Moody's and S\&P rating system with numerals}   
\centering
\begin{tabular}{l p{8cm}}
\hline\hline
Moody's Rating & Definitions\\
%heading
\hline
Aaa & Obligations rated Aaa are judged to be of the highest quality, with minimal credit risk. \\ 
\hline
Aa & Obligations rated Aa are judged to be of high quality and are subject to very low credit risk.\\ 
\hline
A &   Obligations rated A are considered upper-medium grade and are subject to low credit risk.\\
\hline
Baa & Obligations rated Baa are subject to moderate credit risk. They are considered medium-grade and as such may possesses certain speculative characteristics. \\
\hline
Ba & Obligations rated Ba are judged to have speculative elements and are subject to substantial credit risk. \\
\hline
B & Obligations rated B are considered speculative and are subject to high credit risk.\\
\hline
Caa & Obligations rated Caa are judged to be of poor standing and are subject to very high credit risk.\\
\hline
Ca & Obligations rated Ca are highly speculative and are likely in, or very near, default, with some prospect of recovery of principal and interest.\\
\hline
C & Obligations rated C are the lowest rated class of bonds and are typically in default, with little prospect for recovery of principal or interest.\\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\label{table:ratingexplanations}
\end{table}

and a small screenshot of the result I get is

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3259/tablexb5.jpg