UK TeX FAQ -- question label tocloftwrong

### Numbers too large in table of contents, etc.

LaTeX constructs the table of contents, list of figures, tables, and similar tables, on the basis of a layout specified in the class. As a result, they do not react to the sizes of things in them, as they would if a `tabular` environment (or something similar) was used.

This arrangement can provoke problems, most commonly with deep section nesting or very large page numbers: the numbers in question just don’t fit in the space allowed for them in the class.

A separate answer discusses re-designing the tables and those techniques can be employed to make the numbers fit.

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=tocloftwrong