How to fit a table with a very long column into a 2 column format?

Question

New to latex so apologies if this has been asked, I haven't found this specific question on SO.

I have a table that I'm trying to fit into a 2 column page format. The actual link for the full packages on overleaf from the publisher is here, though I believe I added all the packages and document type. I'm using this website to generate my table. I learned from this SO that I need to add * to the table to make it fit the 2 column, however, one of my columns in my table is very long:

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{times,latexsym}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{tacl2021v1}
% \setlength\titlebox{10cm} % <- for Option 2 below

%%%% Material in this block is specific to generating TACL instructions
\usepackage{xspace,mfirstuc,tabulary}
\newcommand{\dateOfLastUpdate}{Dec. 15, 2021}
\newcommand{\styleFileVersion}{tacl2021v1}

\newcommand{\ex}[1]{{\sf #1}}

\newif\iftaclinstructions
\taclinstructionsfalse % AUTHORS: do NOT set this to true
\iftaclinstructions
\renewcommand{\confidential}{}
\renewcommand{\anonsubtext}{(No author info supplied here, for consistency with
TACL-submission anonymization requirements)}
\newcommand{\instr}
\fi

%
\iftaclpubformat % this "if" is set by the choice of options
\newcommand{\taclpaper}{final version\xspace}
\newcommand{\taclpapers}{final versions\xspace}
\newcommand{\Taclpaper}{Final version\xspace}
\newcommand{\Taclpapers}{Final versions\xspace}
\newcommand{\TaclPapers}{Final Versions\xspace}
\else
\newcommand{\taclpaper}{submission\xspace}
\newcommand{\taclpapers}{{\taclpaper}s\xspace}
\newcommand{\Taclpaper}{Submission\xspace}
\newcommand{\Taclpapers}{{\Taclpaper}s\xspace}
\newcommand{\TaclPapers}{Submissions\xspace}
\fi

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
\small
\begin{tabular}{ll}
\textbf{Name} & \textbf{Method} \\
Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference,  & Some method     \\
Reference,Reference & \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\fi

\end{document}

Following this SO I tried using \small but it didn't make it much better. One possible solution that I see would be to change how the text in the row look (instead of one long row be in multiple rows under one row). But I'm not sure how to do that or if that's the best / neatest approach.

Answer 1

You can use tabularx.

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\begin{document}

\begin{table*}
\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{Xl}
\textbf{Name} & \textbf{Method} \\
Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference,  & Some method     \\
Reference,Reference & \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
& \\
\end{tabularx}
\end{table*}

\end{document}

This will make the table span the two columns. If you want the table to be in one column, use table instead of table*.

Answer 2

I take it that it may be necessary to allow automatic line breaking in both columns, and not just in the column that contains more material. Here's a suggestion: Load the tabularx and ragged2e packages and define a new column type called, say, L that makes it simple to define desired relative column widths. In the example below, we have

\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} L{1.6} L{0.4} @{}}

which means that (a) the tabular material spans the full width of the textblock and (b) the ratio of usable column widths is 1.6:0.4 = 4:1. The rule to observe is that the sum of the relative column widths (here: 1.6+0.4=2) must equal the number of columns of type L -- here: 2.

The following screenshot shows the resulting table, which is placed at the top of a page.

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{tabularx,ragged2e}
\newcolumntype{L}[1]{>{\RaggedRight\hsize=#1\hsize}X}
\usepackage{booktabs,lipsum}
\begin{document}

\lipsum[1] % a paragraph of filler text

\begin{table*}
\caption{A two-column table that spans the full width of the text block}
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} L{1.6} L{0.4} @{}}
\toprule
\textbf{Name} & \textbf{Method} \\
\midrule
Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference & Some method \\
\addlinespace
Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference, Reference & Some method \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabularx}
\end{table*}

\lipsum[2-11] % more filler text

\end{document}