4  Formatting tables

5 Using {flextables} for pretty word tables

Output tables in word can be a little messy, because the default table format prints poorly to .docx formats.

starwars |> 
  select(1:7) |> 
  slice(1:10)

# A tibble: 10 × 7
   name               height  mass hair_color    skin_color eye_color birth_year
   <chr>               <int> <dbl> <chr>         <chr>      <chr>          <dbl>
 1 Luke Skywalker        172    77 blond         fair       blue            19  
 2 C-3PO                 167    75 <NA>          gold       yellow         112  
 3 R2-D2                  96    32 <NA>          white, bl… red             33  
 4 Darth Vader           202   136 none          white      yellow          41.9
 5 Leia Organa           150    49 brown         light      brown           19  
 6 Owen Lars             178   120 brown, grey   light      blue            52  
 7 Beru Whitesun Lars    165    75 brown         light      blue            47  
 8 R5-D4                  97    32 <NA>          white, red red             NA  
 9 Biggs Darklighter     183    84 black         light      brown           24  
10 Obi-Wan Kenobi        182    77 auburn, white fair       blue-gray       57  

Flex tables is a neat tool to get around this but requires a bit of setting up for specific formatting. A work around for this can be defining your own flextable themes for different formats and calling it depending on the table.

It is worthwhile to start with a base theme, which is applied to all tables.

flex_theme_base <- function(ft) {
  
  nr <- nrow_part(ft, part = "body")
  
  ft |>
    font(fontname = "Arial (Body)", part = "all") |>
    fontsize(size = 10, part = "all") |>
    align(align = "left", part = "all") |>
    valign(valign = "middle", part = "all") |>
    bold(part = "header") |>
    bold(i = seq_len(nr), j = 1, part = "body") |>
    bg(i = 1, bg = "#F0F0F0", part = "header") |>
    border_remove() |>
    border(border = officer::fp_border(color = "#CCCCCC"), part = "all") |>
    autofit()
}

Turning your ugly tables

starwars |> 
  select(1:7) |> 
  slice(1:10) |> 
  flextable() |>
  flex_theme_base() 

name	height	mass	hair_color	skin_color	eye_color	birth_year
Luke Skywalker	172	77	blond	fair	blue	19.0
C-3PO	167	75		gold	yellow	112.0
R2-D2	96	32		white, blue	red	33.0
Darth Vader	202	136	none	white	yellow	41.9
Leia Organa	150	49	brown	light	brown	19.0
Owen Lars	178	120	brown, grey	light	blue	52.0
Beru Whitesun Lars	165	75	brown	light	blue	47.0
R5-D4	97	32		white, red	red
Biggs Darklighter	183	84	black	light	brown	24.0
Obi-Wan Kenobi	182	77	auburn, white	fair	blue-gray	57.0

And then making more custom formats which override this

flex_theme_summary_column <- function(ft) {
  
  nr <- nrow_part(ft, part = "body")
  nc <- length(ft$col_keys)
  
  ft |>
    bg(
      i = seq_len(nr),
      j = nc,
      bg = "#a2c6f5",
      part = "body"
    )
}

And can be applied to relevant tables

starwars |> 
  select(1:7) |> 
  slice(1:10) |> 
  mutate(
    bmi = mass / ((height / 100) ^ 2)
  ) |>
  flextable() |>
  flex_theme_base() |> 
  flex_theme_summary_column()

name	height	mass	hair_color	skin_color	eye_color	birth_year	bmi
Luke Skywalker	172	77	blond	fair	blue	19.0	26.02758
C-3PO	167	75		gold	yellow	112.0	26.89232
R2-D2	96	32		white, blue	red	33.0	34.72222
Darth Vader	202	136	none	white	yellow	41.9	33.33007
Leia Organa	150	49	brown	light	brown	19.0	21.77778
Owen Lars	178	120	brown, grey	light	blue	52.0	37.87401
Beru Whitesun Lars	165	75	brown	light	blue	47.0	27.54821
R5-D4	97	32		white, red	red		34.00999
Biggs Darklighter	183	84	black	light	brown	24.0	25.08286
Obi-Wan Kenobi	182	77	auburn, white	fair	blue-gray	57.0	23.24598