Working with long table in landscape orientation

Question

Admitted I handle thing poorly when it comes to working with table.

In my report I reached a point that I want to insert table (landscape) that would span multiple pages. So I used \longtable.

Formatting is the challenge:

1. columns containing list poorly displayed
2. had to use \multicolumn repeatedly to adjust cells on several rows
3. page number is poorly placed.

Below is a MWE of the problem I faced.

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{pdflscape}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{makecell}
\renewcommand{\theadfont}{\normalsize\bfseries}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{eso-pic,graphicx}
\usepackage{longtable}
\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}
\blindtext
\newpage
\begin{landscape}
\begin{longtable}{lclll }
\toprule
            \thead{Algorithm}  & \thead{Type of Problem} & \thead{Advantages}  & \thead{Disadvantages}  & \thead{Common Application areas} \\
            \midrule
 Decision Trees &  \multicolumn{1}{c}{supervised/unsupervised} & \multicolumn{1}{l}{
 \begin{itemize}
     \item robust to outliers and missing values
     \item item 2
     \item item 3
 \end{itemize}} &list advantages & some application areas\\
 \midrule
\end{longtable}
\end{landscape}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Here is a solution using longtable and enumitem. In addition, I have defined a column that get rid of the space above the itemise environment by injecting a \@minipagetrue and align the cells at the top base line by enclosing the itemize environment in a \parbox. As a bonus(?), I could remove the \thead-commands and all \multicolumns:

Example 1

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{pdflscape}

\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\makeatletter
\newcolumntype{P}{>{\raggedright\@minipagetrue}p{\dimexpr(3.2cm+2\tabcolsep)}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}
\blindtext
\newpage
\begin{landscape}
\begin{longtable}[c]{@{}lcPll@{}}
\toprule
   \bfseries Algorithm  & \bfseries Type of Problem & \bfseries Advantages  & \bfseries Disadvantages  & \bfseries Common Application areas \\
   \midrule
 Decision Trees &  supervised/unsupervised & \parbox[t]{3.2cm}{\begin{itemize}[itemsep=0pt,topsep=0pt, leftmargin=*]
     \item robust to outliers and missing values
     \item item 2
     \item item 3
 \end{itemize}} &list advantages & some application areas\\
 \midrule
\end{longtable}
\end{landscape}
\end{document}

Example 2

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{pdflscape}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\makeatletter
\newcolumntype{P}{>{\raggedright\arraybackslash\@minipagetrue}p{\dimexpr(4.5cm+2\tabcolsep)}}
\newcolumntype{O}{>{\centering\arraybackslash}p{3cm}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}
\blindtext
\newpage
\begin{landscape}
\begin{longtable}[c]{@{}lOPll@{}}
\toprule
   \bfseries Algorithm  & \bfseries Type of Problem & \bfseries Advantages  & \bfseries Disadvantages  & \bfseries Common Application areas \\
   \midrule
 Decision Trees &  supervised/ unsupervised & \parbox[t]{\linewidth}{\begin{itemize}[itemsep=0pt,topsep=0pt, leftmargin=*]

     \item robust to outliers and missing values
     \item item 2
     \item item 3
 \end{itemize}} &list advantages & some application areas\\
 \midrule
\end{longtable}
\end{landscape}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I propose this solution, based on a redefinition of tabularx, the xltabular package, which brings the functionalities of longtable totabularx, andenumitem`. It is far from perfect, athe first two column heads are not vertically aligned, for a reason I don't see.

\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{pdflscape}
\usepackage{afterpage}
\usepackage{makecell}
\renewcommand{\theadfont}{\normalsize\bfseries}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{eso-pic,graphicx}
\usepackage{longtable, xltabular}
\usepackage{ragged2e, enumitem}

\begin{document}

\section{Introduction}
\blindtext
\newpage
\begin{landscape}
\renewcommand{\tabularxcolumn}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\arraybackslash}m{#1}}
\setlist[itemize]{wide=0pt, leftmargin=*, nosep, before =\vspace*{-\baselineskip}, after=\vspace*{-\baselineskip}}
\begin{xltabular}{\linewidth}{@{}lc *{3}{X}@{}}
\toprule
            \thead{Algorithm} & \thead{Type of Problem} & \thead[l]{Advantages} & \thead[l]{Disadvantages}
             & \thead{Common Application\\ areas } \\
            \midrule
 Decision Trees & \multicolumn{1}{c}{supervised/unsupervised} &
 \begin{itemize}
     \item robust to outliers and missing values
     \item item 2
     \item item 3
 \end{itemize}
 &list advantages & some application areas\\
 \midrule
\end{xltabular}
\end{landscape}

\end{document}