Table disappear when I use sideways command

Question

I want to rotate a table, When I use sideways table environment table disappears from the document and also disappear from list of tables. I tried a lot with different possible packages as below. I need the whole table environment(label, caption etc) to rotate.

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
   \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
   \usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1in, left=1.25in, right=0.75in]{geometry}
                 \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
                 \usepackage{amsmath}
                 \usepackage{csvsimple}
                 \usepackage{amssymb}
                 \usepackage{longtable}
                 \usepackage{booktabs}
                 \usepackage{adjustbox}
                 \usepackage{placeins}
                 \usepackage{float}
                 \usepackage{wrapfig}
                 \usepackage{array}
                 \usepackage{tabularx}
                 \usepackage{tabu}
                 \usepackage{setspace} 
                 \usepackage{multirow} 
                 \usepackage{rotating}
                 \usepackage{multirow}
                 \usepackage{longtable}

                 \usepackage{enumitem}
                 \usepackage{pifont}
                 \usepackage{natbib}
                 \usepackage{booktabs}
                 \usepackage{collcell}
                 \usepackage{datatool}
                 \usepackage{pdflscape}
                 \usepackage{graphics}
\begin{document}

\begin{sidewaystable}[H]
    \centering
    \caption{Set table like this}
    \vspace{2mm}
    \begin{tabular}{cccccccccc}\toprule
        &       & Data set 1 &       &       & Data set 2 &       &       & Data set 3 &  \\ \cmidrule(lr){2-4} \cmidrule(lr){5-7} \cmidrule(lr){8-10}
        Estimators & $ n=10 $  & $ n=15 $  & $ n=20 $  & n=10  & $ n=15 $  & $ n=20 $  & $ n=10 $  & $ n=15 $  & $ n=20 $\\ \midrule
        $ \hat{M}_{01} $   & 100.451 & 101.658 & 100.012 & 103.402 & 119.517 & 311.625 & 110.256 & 126.864 & 157.835 \\
        $ \hat{M}_{02} $   & 59.146 & 7407.001 & 1508.683 & 448.119 & 326.131 & 788.717 & 189.374 & 153.392 & 285.499 \\
        $ \hat{M}_{03} $   & 2896.694 & 2828.759 & 1154.403 & 974.536 & 1931.318 & 12350 & 1150.055 & 2778.052 & 1245.779 \\ \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}%
    \label{tex table}%
\end{sidewaystable}%

\end{document}

Answer 1

You don't show what you did so it is not possible to say what is wrong with that, but if you change \begin{table}[H] to \begin{sidewaystable} and change \end{table} to \end{sidewaystable} then you get

---

If you use [H] on sidewaystable without using the float package then you get an error

! LaTeX Error: Unknown float option `H'.

However when the float package is loaded H gets allowed in the optional argument but doesn't actually work for sidewaystable which causes the text to be silently dropped, which is not ideal.

One could argue whether this is a failing in the rotating or float package but since I only have write access to rotating I'll say it is an issue with float. I'll ping its maintainer....

Answer 2

What happens is roughly the following:

1. sidewaystable is essentially similar to table, with the difference that instead of executing \@float{table}[<pref>] it does

   \@float{table}[<pref>]\begin{lrbox}{\rot@float@box}
   

2. when \end{sidewaystable} is found, \end{lrbox} is done, followed by some maintenance jobs and eventually by \end@float.

In the above code, <pref> stands for the explicit positioning preferences or the default ones.

In the case of \begin{sidewaystable}[H], TeX will find

\@float{table}[H]\begin{lrbox}{\rot@float@box}

and now float kicks in. It changes \@float to examine the options; if H is found, it does

\@float@HH{sidewaystable}[H]

which gobbles [H], does some maintenance jobs among which redefining \endsidewaystable to be \float@endH and starts setting a \vbox in the register \@currbox.

At the moment \end{sidewaystable} is scanned, there are two boxes being formed: \rot@float@box and \@currbox. Since \begin{lrbox} does clever tricks with grouping, the box is finished up and after it also \@currbox. But the code of the standard \endsidewaystable that should rotate the box is never executed (and would have no effect anyway, because at the closure of \@currbox, the box saved in \rot@float@box is lost as the register's contents is restored to what it contained before the start of \vbox\@currbox (that is, empty).

Solution: it doesn't make sense to use [H] with sidewaystable.

I'd say even more: a sidewaystable should be avoided as long as possible and it should always be a page float. Setting it as a top float, for instance, would force the reader to do awkward movements for looking at the table; besides, if a sidewaystable fits as a top float, it would most likely fit as a standard (unrotated) table.

Answer 3

Works for me. I took the opportunity to use siunitx for an alignment of numeric volumns on the decimal dot, and load caption for a correct vertical spacing between caption and table without having to specify \vspace{2mm}, and corrected some errors/inconsistencies. In particular, as pointed by @David Carlisle, the [H] specifier should not be used with sidewaystable.

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5}
\usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1in, left=1.25in, right=0.75in]{geometry}
             \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
             \usepackage{amsmath}
             \usepackage{csvsimple}
             \usepackage{amssymb}
             \usepackage{longtable}
             \usepackage{booktabs}
             \usepackage{adjustbox}
             \usepackage{placeins}
             \usepackage{float}
             \usepackage{wrapfig}
             \usepackage{array}
             \usepackage{tabularx}
            \usepackage{tabu}
             \usepackage{setspace}
             \usepackage{multirow}
             \usepackage{rotating}
             \usepackage{longtable}

             \usepackage{enumitem}
             \usepackage{pifont}
             \usepackage{natbib}
             \usepackage{booktabs}
             \usepackage{collcell}
             \usepackage{datatool}
             \usepackage{pdflscape}
             \usepackage{graphicx}
            \usepackage{siunitx} %
            \usepackage{caption} %

\begin{document}

\begin{sidewaystable}%[H]
    \centering\sisetup{table-format =4.3, table-number-alignment=center}
    \caption{Set table like this}
    \begin{tabular}{c*{9}{S}}\toprule
        & & {Data set 1} & & & {Data set 2} & & & {Data set 3} & \\ %\cmidrule(lr){2-4} \cmidrule(lr){5-7} \cmidrule(lr){8-10}
        Estimators & {$n=10 $} & {$ n=15 $} & {$ n=20 $} & {n=10} & {$ n=15 $} & {$ n=20 $} & {$ n=10 $} & {$ n=15 $} & {$ n=20 $}\\ \midrule
        $ \hat{M}_{01} $ & 100.451 & 101.658 & 100.012 & 103.402 & 119.517 & 311.625 & 110.256 & 126.864 & 157.835 \\
        $ \hat{M}_{02} $ & 59.146 & 7407.001 & 1508.683 & 448.119 & 326.131 & 788.717 & 189.374 & 153.392 & 285.499 \\
        $ \hat{M}_{03} $ & 2896.694 & 2828.759 & 1154.403 & 974.536 & 1931.318 & 12350 & 1150.055 & 2778.052 & 1245.779 \\ \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}%
    \label{tex table}%
\end{sidewaystable}%

\end{document}