LaTeX table positioning

I have a LaTeX document that contains a paragraph followed by 4 tables followed by a second paragraph. I want the 4 tables to appear between the two paragraphs which from what I've read means I should use the [h] option after beginning the table environment (e.g. \begin{table}[h]).

Using this the first two tables appear after paragraph 1 as expected, however paragraph 2 is then displayed with the last two tables appearing on the following page. How can I get the tables to appear in the correct location?

I've tried various things to correct the positioning such as using [h!] however this doesn't seem to have any effect. Using \clearpage after the tables does have the desired effect of making the tables appear before the second paragraph but it then leaves the last two tables on their own page with loads of white-space, when I would prefer to have the second paragraph begin immediately after the tables.

Paragraph 1...

\begin{table}[h]
    table1...
\end{table}

\begin{table}[h]
   table2...
\end{table}[h]
...

Paragraph 2...

Solution 1:

After doing some more googling I came across the float package which lets you prevent LaTeX from repositioning the tables.

In the preamble:

\usepackage{float}

Then for each table you can use the H placement option (e.g. \begin{table}[H]) to make sure it doesn't get repositioned.

Solution 2:

At the beginning with the usepackage definitions include:

\usepackage{placeins}

And before and after add:

\FloatBarrier
\begin{table}[h]
    \begin{tabular}{llll}
      .... 
    \end{tabular}
\end{table}
\FloatBarrier

This places the table exactly where you want in the text.

Solution 3:

Table Positioning

Available Parameters

A table can easily be placed with the following parameters:

• h Place the float here, i.e., approximately at the same point it occurs in the source text (however, not exactly at the spot)
• t Position at the top of the page.
• b Position at the bottom of the page.
• p Put on a special page for floats only.
• ! Override internal parameters LaTeX uses for determining "good" float positions.
• H Places the float at precisely the location in the LATEX code. Requires the float package. This is somewhat equivalent to h!.

If you want to make use of H (or h!) for an exact positioning, make sure you got the float package correctly set up in the preamble:

\usepackage{float}
\restylefloat{table}

Example

If you want to place the table at the same page, either at the exact place or at least at the top of the page (what fits best for the latex engine), use the parameters h and t like this:

\begin{table}[ht]
    table content ...
\end{table}

Sources: Overleaf.com

Solution 4:

Here's an easy solution, from Wikibooks:

The placeins package provides the command \FloatBarrier, which can be used to prevent floats from being moved over it.

I just put \FloatBarrier before and after every table.

Solution 5:

What happens if the text plus tables plus text doesn't fit onto a single page? By trying to force the typesetting in this way, you are very likely to end up with pages that run too short; i.e., because a table cannot by default break over a page it will be pushed to the next, and leave a gap on the page before. You'll notice that you never see this in a published book.

The floating behaviour is a Good Thing! I recommend using [htbp] as the default setting for all tables and figures until your document is complete; only then should think about fine-tuning their precise placement.

P.S. Read the FAQ; most other answers here are partial combinations of advice given there.