The number one FAQ: Figures and tables are not placed where they are specified

Question

It is the most frequently asked question for LaTeX: figures and tables are not placed where they are specified.

Beginners have often problems understanding the concept of floats and the difference between figure and \includegraphics as well as tables and tabulars. At the moment we link most of these questions to Keeping tables/figures close to where they are mentioned which has some good answers, but the question also includes some listings stuff, which makes the question less useful as a general link target. Also the OP is not active anymore and did not accept any answer (to this or any other of his questions).

Therefore my suggestion:

We should have a good CW question for this kind of float placement. Then we can merge the existing answers to that and similar questions to it, so we have everything at one place. We should really have a good representative question plus at least one "official" and excellent answer to the Queen of the FAQs :-)

Answer 1

Good that you brought it up, each time I've seen the question I've been thinking similarly. I removed the listings stuff in this question. The OP never responded to the comment regarding the suggestion to post a separate question for this issue. Since nearly one year, 2 days after posting that question, the OP hasn't been seen here, so I guess nobody misses the listings part, also no answer is referring to that.

Now the question is clear and specific.

I usually prefer improving real, existing questions and answers over artificially producing nicely designed question/answer pairs. This is an option for a FAQ document though.