mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Tables as Texts or Images: Evaluating the Table Reasoning Ability of LLMs and MLLMs

arXiv 2402.12424 ↗First posted 19 Feb 2024cs.LG cs.AI cs.CLcited by 40

On the map: LLM reasoning → Knowledge- and tool-augmented reasoning

Abstract (arXiv)

In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of various LLMs in interpreting tabular data through different prompting strategies and data formats. Our analyses extend across six benchmarks for table-related tasks such as question-answering and fact-checking. We introduce for the first time the assessment of LLMs' performance on image-based table representations. Specifically, we compare five text-based and three image-based table representations, demonstrating the role of representation and prompting on LLM performance. Our study provides insights into the effective use of LLMs on table-related tasks.

Key facts. Cited by 40 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Knowledge- and tool-augmented reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 20 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Feb 2024.

Builds on

20 of 49 references.

References · 20

  1. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
  2. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
  3. 2023Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early experiments with GPT-4cited by 2,579
  4. 2023Code Llama: Open Foundation Models for Codecited by 2,105
  5. 2023A Multitask, Multilingual, Multimodal Evaluation of ChatGPT on Reasoning, Hallucination, and Interactivitycited by 888
  6. 2023Gemini: A Family of Highly Capable Multimodal Modelscited by 810
  7. 2023The Dawn of LMMs: Preliminary Explorations with GPT-4V(ision)cited by 677
  8. 2024GPT-4V(ision) is a Generalist Web Agent, if Groundedcited by 547
  9. 2019TabFact: A Large-scale Dataset for Table-based Fact Verificationcited by 425
  10. 2022Exploring Visual Prompts for Adapting Large-Scale Modelscited by 271
  11. 2022Reasoning with Language Model Prompting: A Surveycited by 251
  12. 2021TAPEX: Table Pre-training via Learning a Neural SQL Executorcited by 233
8 more
  1. 2023What does CLIP know about a red circle? Visual prompt engineering for VLMscited by 215
  2. 2023ExpertPrompting: Instructing Large Language Models to be Distinguished Expertscited by 140
  3. 2023TableLlama: Towards Open Large Generalist Models for Tablescited by 136
  4. 2019A Comprehensive Exploration on WikiSQL with Table-Aware Word Contextualizationcited by 88
  5. 2023Lemur: Harmonizing Natural Language and Code for Language Agentscited by 71
  6. 2023TableGPT: Towards Unifying Tables, Nature Language and Commands into One GPTcited by 57
  7. 2023An In-depth Look at Gemini's Language Abilitiescited by 28
  8. 2023Observatory: Characterizing Embeddings of Relational Tablescited by 12

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 5; 2025: 25; 2026: 10.

40 papers.

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  1. 2025From Automation to Autonomy: A Survey on Large Language Models in Scientific Discoverycited by 86
  2. 2025A Survey on Knowledge-Oriented Retrieval-Augmented Generationcited by 34
  3. 2025Table-R1: Inference-Time Scaling for Table Reasoningcited by 23
  4. 2025SciVer: Evaluating Foundation Models for Multimodal Scientific Claim Verificationcited by 16
  5. 2025TableEval: A Real-World Benchmark for Complex, Multilingual, and Multi-Structured Table Question Answeringcited by 14
  6. 2025Multimodal Tabular Reasoning with Privileged Structured Informationcited by 14
  7. 2025ST-Raptor: LLM-Powered Semi-Structured Table Question Answeringcited by 11
  8. 2025Aurelia: Test-time Reasoning Distillation in Audio-Visual LLMscited by 9
  9. 2025MTabVQA: Evaluating Multi-Tabular Reasoning of Language Models in Visual Spacecited by 9
  10. 2025OWL: Geometry-Aware Spatial Reasoning for Audio Large Language Modelscited by 9
  11. 2025A Survey of AI Scientistscited by 9
  12. 2025HIPPO: Enhancing the Table Understanding Capability of LLMs through Hybrid-Modal Preference Optimizationcited by 5
28 more
  1. 2025Document Intelligence in the Era of Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 5
  2. 2024Vision Language Models for Spreadsheet Understanding: Challenges and Opportunitiescited by 4
  3. 2024ASCIIEval: Benchmarking Models' Visual Perception in Text Strings via ASCII Artcited by 4
  4. 2025Texts or Images? A Fine-grained Analysis on the Effectiveness of Input Representations and Models for Table Question Answeringcited by 4
  5. 2025TableDreamer: Progressive and Weakness-guided Data Synthesis from Scratch for Table Instruction Tuningcited by 4
  6. 2025Table Question Answering in the Era of Large Language Models: A Comprehensive Survey of Tasks, Methods, and Evaluationcited by 4
  7. 2024Reasoning Factual Knowledge in Structured Data with Large Language Modelscited by 3
  8. 2025TReB: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Table Reasoning Capabilities of Large Language Modelscited by 3
  9. 2025TableDART: Dynamic Adaptive Multi-Modal Routing for Table Understandingcited by 3
  10. 2025Visual Language Models show widespread visual deficits on neuropsychological testscited by 2
  11. 2025Toward Real-World Table Agents: Capabilities, Workflows, and Design Principles for LLM-based Table Intelligencecited by 2
  12. 2025AraTable: Benchmarking LLMs' Reasoning and Understanding of Arabic Tabular Datacited by 2
  13. 2025Mind the (Language) Gap: Towards Probing Numerical and Cross-Lingual Limits of LVLMscited by 2
  14. 2026CFMS: A Coarse-to-Fine Multimodal Synthesis Framework for Enhanced Tabular Reasoningcited by 2
  15. 2024Talking with Tables for Better LLM Factual Data Interactionscited by 1
  16. 2026TABVERSE: Benchmarking Cross-Format Table Understanding in LLMs and VLMscited by 1
  17. 2024Benchmarking Table Comprehension In The Wildcited by 0
  18. 2025GeoGrid-Bench: Can Foundation Models Understand Multimodal Gridded Geo-Spatial Data?cited by 0
  19. 2025Innovative tokenisation of structured data for LLM trainingcited by 0
  20. 2025Table Comprehension in Building Codes using Vision Language Models and Domain-Specific Fine-Tuningcited by 0
  21. 2026ViTaB-A: Evaluating Multimodal Large Language Models on Visual Table Attributioncited by 0
  22. 2026A Closer Look into LLMs for Table Understandingcited by 0
  23. 2026How to Utilize Complementary Vision-Text Information for 2D Structure Understandingcited by 0
  24. 2026Evaluating Prompting Strategies for Chart Question Answering with Large Language Modelscited by 0
  25. 2026The Power of Order: Fooling LLMs with Adversarial Table Permutationscited by 0
  26. 2026TableVista: Benchmarking Multimodal Table Reasoning under Visual and Structural Complexitycited by 0
  27. 2026Efficient Table QA via TableGrid Navigation and Progressive Inference Promptingcited by 0
  28. 2026A Table Is Worth 64 Tokens: Pixel-level Compression for Multi-Table Document Question Answeringcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024A Survey of Table Reasoning with Large Language Models
  2. 2025Tabular Data Understanding with LLMs: A Survey of Recent Advances and Challenges
  3. 2025Table Understanding and (Multimodal) LLMs: A Cross-Domain Case Study on Scientific vs. Non-Scientific Data
  4. 2023Rethinking Tabular Data Understanding with Large Language Models
  5. 2025How well do LLMs reason over tabular data, really?
  6. 2025Utilizing Training Data to Improve LLM Reasoning for Tabular Understanding
  7. 2025RealHiTBench: A Comprehensive Realistic Hierarchical Table Benchmark for Evaluating LLM-Based Table Analysis
  8. 2024Large Language Model for Table Processing: A Survey