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That's actually a challange to me. You need the edges of each plank to be very straight, otherwise they won't fit tightly and the glue joint will not be strong. Sometimes you can get away with an edge left by a table saw or that is already on the board when you buy it, but often you have to plane one edge of each board until they are nice and straight. You can then just glue them together.
Or if you want the joint to be extra strong, you can cut a slot into each edge and fit a long thin strip of wood called a spline into that slot to support things a little more. And glue them together.
More common today is a specialty tool called a biscuit cutter. It cuts little slots in the edge and you stick a little football shaped disk into those slots when you glue it up. You have to make sure the slots line up. I don't have one of those, but most pros and factories do.
For me, the challange is when you are trying to put together a whole table top, because you have multiple pieces, and the glue starts to dry on you before you can get them all together properly.
Clamps hold the joint together, and aligned while you wait for the glue to dry.
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