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From: anita@brahms.udel.edu (Anita Marie Hoover)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Side by side figures in LaTeX
Message-ID: <21198@brahms.udel.edu>
Date: 8 May 91 13:51:10 GMT
References: <1991May6.033627.24887@cs.ubc.ca> <HANCHE.91May6155613@hufsa.imf.unit.no>
Organization: University of Delaware
Lines: 65

In article <HANCHE.91May6155613@hufsa.imf.unit.no> hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) writes:
=>In article <1991May6.033627.24887@cs.ubc.ca> scharein@cs.ubc.ca (Robert Scharein) writes:
=>
=>   Does anybody know of a way to place two figures (or tables) side by
=>   side in a LaTeX document?
=>
=>Yes, anybody knows :-)  No, seriously, ...
=>
=>   It seems that LaTeX puts the figures in 
=>   a \parbox of width \textwidth so it would not seem possible without
=>   changing \textwidth in the middle of the document.
=>
=>I believe that the figure and table environments are very badly named.
=>THE figure ENVIRONMENT DOES NOT MAKE A FIGURE!  What it makes is a
=>float: A box that can be moved to wherever the output routine feels
=>like putting it (subject to certain constraints).  Similarly for the
=>table environment: The only diffence between the two (I believe) is
=>how the \caption command works.  You see, the \caption command within
=>the figure environment is what really defines the figure!  Now, there
=>is nothing to stop you from having two or more \caption's (or none!)
=>inside your figure environment.  If the environment had been named
=>"figures" instead, I believe fewer people would be confused.
=>
=>So, the answer to your question is simple enough:  Put each of your
=>two figures including their \caption inside a \parbox, and set the two
=>boxes side by side inside the figure environment.  (The \parbox is so
=>the \caption command will know how wide it must be).  Warning:  I have
=>not tested this, and no doubt you will discover pitfalls.  But this is
=>at least in principle how I would do it.
=>

Here is an example:

\documentstyle [12pt] {article}
\begin{document}
Here are two tables that are side by side.  This is especially nice
when wanting to compare costs, usage or other types of data.

\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{center}
\begin{minipage}[t]{2.25in}
\caption{Usage Figures for Jan through Mar 1989}
\vspace*{.5\baselineskip}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|ccc|}\hline
Jan & Feb & Mar \\\hline
1 & 2 & 3\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{minipage}\hspace*{.375in}
\begin{minipage}[t]{2.25in}
\caption{Usage Figures for Apr through Jun 1989}
\vspace*{.5\baselineskip}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|ccc|}\hline
Apr & May & Jun \\\hline
4 & 5 & 6\\\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{minipage}
\end{center}
\end{table}

Now isn't this great!
\end{document}