textab

0. Installation

To install the package from CRAN:

install.packages("textab")

To install the package from Github:

devtools::install_github("setzler/textab")

To use the package after it is installed:

library(textab)

1. Character rows

Basic character row:

vec = c("hello", "world")
TexRow(vec)
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & world \\
#> \end{tabular}

Character row with LaTeX formatting:

vec = c('Hello','\\textbf{World}','$\\alpha$','$\\frac{1}{2}$')
TexRow(vec)
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrrr}
#> Hello & \textbf{World} & $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

Note: Double backslashes are required for LaTeX commands.

2. Numeric rows

Basic numeric row:

vec <- c(1.0, 1.01, 1.001)
TexRow(vec)
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrr}
#> 1.000 & 1.010 & 1.001 \\
#> \end{tabular}

Numeric row rounded to the second decimal place:

vec <- c(1.0, 1.01, 1.001)
TexRow(vec, dec = 2)
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrr}
#> 1.00 & 1.01 & 1.00 \\
#> \end{tabular}

There are four other arguments specific to numeric rows:

percentage: if TRUE, add a “%” sign after each number.
dollar: if TRUE, add a “$” sign before each number.
se: if TRUE, surround each number with parentheses.
pvalues: if provided, these numbers are used to add stars “*” after the numbers.

See this article about formatting numbers.

3. Custom Formatting using Surround

While many common formatting options are explicitly provided in TexRow, we also include the surround argument so that the user can specify custom formatting.

The surround argument allows you to provide raw LaTeX code. Place the %s symbol wherever your number or character should be placed.

Suppose you wish to make each number red. In LaTeX, you can make a number red using the code {\color{red} %s}, where %s indicates where the number should go. In order to make each number red, we would specify the following:

vec = c(5.081, 2.345, 6.789)
TexRow(vec, dec = 1, surround = "{\\color{red} %s}")
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrr}
#> {\color{red} 5.1} & {\color{red} 2.3} & {\color{red} 6.8} \\
#> \end{tabular}

Note: Double backslashes are required for LaTeX commands.

The surround argument works for character vectors as well, and we can apply different formatting to each value:

vec = c("hello", "world")
TexRow(vec, dec = 1, surround = c("{\\color{blue} %s}", "$\\frac{\\text{%s}}{2}$"))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> {\color{blue} hello} & $\frac{\text{world}}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

4. Multicolumn Rows

Merge and center the second and third rows using the cspan argument:

vec = c("hello", "world")
TexRow(vec, cspan = c(1,2))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & \multicolumn{2}{c}{world} \\
#> \end{tabular}

Merge and left-align the second and third rows using the position argument:

vec = c("hello", "world")
TexRow(vec, cspan = c(1,2), position = "l")
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & \multicolumn{2}{l}{world} \\
#> \end{tabular}

Two multi-column rows, where the first is two-column left-aligned and the second is three-column right-aligned:

vec = c("hello", "world")
TexRow(vec, cspan = c(2,3), position = c("l","r"))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> \multicolumn{2}{l}{hello} & \multicolumn{3}{r}{world} \\
#> \end{tabular}

5. Combine Rows

Combine Rows Side-by-side

The slash sign / combines rows side-by-side:

first_block = TexRow(c("hello", "world"))
second_block = TexRow(c("$\\alpha$","$\\frac{1}{2}$"))
combined_row = first_block / second_block
combined_row
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrrr}
#> hello & world & $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

Stack Rows Vertically

The plus sign + stacks rows vertically:

first_block = TexRow(c("hello", "world"))
second_block = TexRow(c("$\\alpha$","$\\frac{1}{2}$"))
combined_row = first_block + second_block
combined_row
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & world \\
#> $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

Order of Operations: Horizontal Comes First

When using both horizontal and vertical concatenation in the same line, horizontal concatenation will be performed first:

first_block = TexRow(c("hello", "world"))
second_block = TexRow(c("$\\alpha$"))
third_block = TexRow(c("$\\frac{1}{2}$"))
combined_row = first_block + second_block / third_block
combined_row
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & world \\
#> $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

6. Vertical Space between Rows

To add 3pt of space between two rows:

TexRow(c("hello", "world"), space=3) +
  TexRow(c('$\\alpha$','$\\frac{1}{2}$'))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rr}
#> hello & world \\[3pt]
#> $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

7. Midrule and Partial Midrules

Add a full midrule between two rows:

TexRow(c("hello", "world"), cspan=c(1,2)) + 
  TexMidrule() +
  TexRow(c('$\\alpha$','$\\frac{1}{2}$','$\\sqrt{\\frac{2}{3}}$'))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrr}
#> hello & \multicolumn{2}{c}{world} \\
#> \midrule 
#> $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ & $\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

Add two partial midrules:

TexRow(c("hello", "world"), cspan=c(1,2)) + 
  TexMidrule(list(c(1,1), c(2,3))) +
  TexRow(c('$\\alpha$','$\\frac{1}{2}$','$\\sqrt{\\frac{2}{3}}$'))
#> % created using textab on Tue Apr 25 07:41:52 2023
#> \begin{tabular}{rrr}
#> hello & \multicolumn{2}{c}{world} \\
#>  \cmidrule(lr){1-1} \cmidrule(lr){2-3} 
#> $\alpha$ & $\frac{1}{2}$ & $\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}}$ \\
#> \end{tabular}

8. Save a LaTeX table in .tex format

Let us work with the following table:

tt = TexRow(c("hello", "world"), cspan=c(1,2), surround = c("{\\color{red} %s}", "{\\color{blue} %s}")) + 
  TexMidrule(list(c(1,1), c(2,3))) +
  TexRow(c('$\\alpha$','$\\frac{1}{2}$','$\\sqrt{\\frac{2}{3}}$'))

Save a simple .tex document containing this table:

TexSave(tab = tt, positions = c("l","c","c"), 
        filename = "example1", output_path = tempdir())

Save a stand-alone .tex document that could be compiled, as it has begin-document and end-document statements as well as import statements for common LaTeX packages:

TexSave(tab = tt, positions = c("l","c","c"), 
        filename = "example2", output_path = tempdir(), 
        stand_alone = TRUE)

Note: these examples saved the table to a temporary directory, tempdir(). In practice, you will likely want to save the table to a permanent directory. If you do not provide an output_path, the table will be saved to your current working directory, getwd().

9. Save LaTeX Table and Compile to PDF

Produce and compile the stand-alone .tex document to .pdf:

TexSave(tab = tt, positions = c("l","c","c"), 
        filename = "example3", output_path = tempdir(), 
        stand_alone = TRUE, compile_tex = TRUE)

The final command will produce a PDF similar to this.