# Longtabu table broken by another float table

I have come across a problem with using longtabu together with tables created in the table environment which makes them float. When a long table is broken across two pages with the longtabu environment, another floating table will treat the long table as a normal paragraph and insert itself at the top of the page, then let longtabu continue its course below. This is obviously suboptimal for the reader, how can I fix this?

A sample that will reproduce this is provided below.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{booktabs,longtable,tabu}

\begin{document}

\tabulinesep = 0.2cm

\begin{longtabu} to \textwidth {X[2,lp] X[cp] X[cp] X[cp]}
\caption{Model specification regressions} \\
\toprule
& \multicolumn{3}{c}{Regression} \\
\cmidrule(l){2-4}
Coefficient or statistic & Unrestricted & Intermediate & Final\\
\midrule
$\bar{R^2}$ & $0.7166$ & $0.7198$ & $0.7132$\\
SSE & $13.3967$ & $14.5750$ & $15.0457$\\
Constant & $4.3885$ $(0.5973)$ & $14.2384$ $(0.0000)$ & $12.9334$ $(0.0000)$\\
$\ln income$ & $-1.5138$ $(0.2602)$ & $-0.8366$ $(0.0147)$ & $-0.4696$ $(0.0980)$\\
$\ln ptea$ & $-0.7113$ $(0.0003)$ & $-0.7067$ $(0.0001)$ & $-0.9201$ $(0.0000)$\\
$\ln pcoff$ & $0.8773$ $(0.0003)$ & $0.8135$ $(0.0000)$ & $1.0268$ $(0.0000)$\\
$\ln pftvg$ & $-1.4448$ $(0.0386)$ & $-1.1288$ $(0.0037)$ & $-1.0836$ $(0.0056)$\\
$\ln pleis$ & $0.2368$ $(0.1881)$ & $0.2681$ $(0.0575)$ & ---\\
$\ln pmtfh$ & $-0.4448$ $(0.2207)$ & --- & --- \\
$\ln ptrav$ & $0.0548$ $(0.8075)$ & --- & --- \\
$\ln pbeer$ & $0.6850$ $(0.4659)$ & --- & --- \\
$\ln pwine$ & $0.0139$ $(0.0355)$ & --- & --- \\
$\ln palloth$ & $0.9735$ $(0.1132)$ & --- & --- \\
$\ln income\_1$ & $1.3850$ $(0.2786)$ & --- & --- \\
$time$ & $-0.0189$ $(0.4036)$ & --- & --- \\
$quarter1$ & $-0.0451$ $(0.6368)$ & --- & --- \\
$quarter2$ & $-0.1463$ $(0.1245)$ & --- & --- \\
$quarter3$ & $-0.0117$ $(0.9033)$ & --- & --- \\
\bottomrule
\end{longtabu}

\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Validity of Restrictions}
\begin{tabu} to \textwidth {X[lm] X[1.5,cm] X[lm] X[Lm]}
\toprule
Test & Formula & $H_0$ & $H_1$\\
\midrule
Significant residual difference & $F=\frac{SSR_R-SSE_U/J}{SSE_U/(N-K)}$ & Restrictions do not explain significant variation in model & Restrictions explain significant variation in model\\
\bottomrule
\end{tabu}
\end{table}

\end{document}


Note that in this specific example the problem only occurs when the tabulinesep option is included.

• put \clearpage before the longtable – David Carlisle Sep 19 '13 at 21:09
• it worked if \clearpage is put before the other table. thanks a lot david! – user36880 Sep 19 '13 at 21:23

You can put put \clearpage before the longtabu environment. This will flush any pending floats and prevent them floating into the table.