How can I use the full page width (\textwidth) while importing a table with \includegraphics?

Question

I'm in a 2-column environment. I need to use the entire pagewidth (\textwidth) while importing a table with \includegraphics.

\begin{table}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./myfile.pdf}
\caption{Beautiful stuff here}
\label{tab:myfile}
\end{table}

(I have tried tabular* without success.)

Answer 1

I thought I'd tried this already -- but table* seems to be doing what I want:

\begin{table*}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./myfile.pdf}
\caption{Beautiful stuff here}
\label{tab:myfile}
\end{table*}

Other approaches?

Answer 2

The multicols environment doesn't completely support floats; you can

1. Use the starred version of floats (table* or figure*) but the float will appear on the top of the next page:

   \documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{multicol}
   \usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
   \usepackage{lipsum}
   
   \begin{document}
   
   \begin{multicols}{2}
   \lipsum[4]
   \begin{table*}
   \centering
   \setlength\fboxsep{0pt}
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./myfile.pdf}
   \caption{Beautiful stuff here}
   \label{tab:myfile}
   \end{table*}
   \lipsum[4]
   \end{multicols}
   
   \end{document}
   

2. End the multicols, typeset the table inside, for example, a minipage or a center environment (\captionof from the capt-of or caption packages can be used to provide a caption) and then start another multicols:

   \documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{multicol}
   \usepackage{caption}
   \usepackage[demo]{graphicx}
   \usepackage{lipsum}
   
   \begin{document}
   
   \begin{multicols}{2}
   \lipsum[4]
   \end{multicols}
   \begin{center}
   \setlength\fboxsep{0pt}
   \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./myfile.pdf}
   \captionof{table}{Beautiful stuff here}
   \label{tab:myfile}
   \end{center}
   \begin{multicols}{2}
   \lipsum[4]
   \end{multicols}
   
   \end{document}
   

Remark:

The demo option for graphicx simply replaces actual figures with black rectangles; do not use that option in your actual document.