Author: Chris Bailiss
Date: 2025-04-21

# 03. Outputs

#### Chris Bailiss

#### 2025-04-21

## In This Vignette

- Overview
- Example Table
- Output as Plain Text
- Output as HTML
- Output in Excel
- Output as FlexTable
- Output in Word
- Output in PowerPoint
- Output as an R Matrix
- Output as an R Data Frame
- Further Reading

## Overview

The `basictabler` package supports outputting a table in a number of different forms:

- A htmlwidget for R-Studio - using `tbl$renderTable()` to render the table into the “Viewer” tab in R-Studio,
- A htmlwidget for Shiny applications - using `basictabler(tbl)` to render the table into the Shiny app,
- As HTML - using either:
  - `tbl$getHtml()` to retrieve a character variable containing HTML, or
  - `tbl$saveHtml()` to save the HTML to a file.
- As plain text - using `tbl` to output to the console or `tbl$asCharacter` to retrieve as a character value.
- Into an Excel Worksheet.

Sometimes it is desirable to retrieve the table as a more standard data type that is easier to work with in R code. A table can be converted to either a matrix or a data frame. Often neither data type is a perfect representation of your table - which option is better will depend upon your use case.

## Example Table

The following table is used as the basis of the examples in the rest of this vignette:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))
    tbl$renderTable()

## Output as Plain Text

A table is outputted to the console as plain text simply by using `tbl`:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # output table
    tbl

    Sale ID    Item  Quantity  Price
       5334   Apple         5   0.34
       5336  Orange         8   0.47
       5338  Banana         6   1.34

Alternatively, the plain text representation of the table can be retrieved as a character value using `tbl$asCharacter`.

## Output as HTML

### Rendering a htmlwidget

A table is outputted as a htmlwidget simply by calling `tbl$renderTable()`. There are numerous examples throughout these vignettes, including the example directly above.

For outputting as a htmlwidget in a Shiny application, use `basictabler(tbl)`.

### Retrieving HTML

To retrieve the HTML of a table, use `tbl$getHtml()`. This returns a list of html tag objects built using the htmltools package. This object can be converted to a simple character variable using `as.character()` or as illustrated below. The CSS declarations for a table can be retrieved using `tbl$getCss()` - also illustrated below.

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    #out the HTML and CSS
    cat(paste(tbl$getHtml(), sep="", collapse="\n"))

    <table class="Table">
      <tr>
        <th class="ColumnHeader">Sale ID</th>
        <th class="ColumnHeader">Item</th>
        <th class="ColumnHeader">Quantity</th>
        <th class="ColumnHeader">Price</th>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <th class="RowHeader">5334</th>
        <td class="Cell">Apple</td>
        <td class="Cell">5</td>
        <td class="Cell">0.34</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <th class="RowHeader">5336</th>
        <td class="Cell">Orange</td>
        <td class="Cell">8</td>
        <td class="Cell">0.47</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <th class="RowHeader">5338</th>
        <td class="Cell">Banana</td>
        <td class="Cell">6</td>
        <td class="Cell">1.34</td>
      </tr>
    </table>

    cat(tbl$getCss())

    .Table {display: table; border-collapse: collapse; }
    .ColumnHeader {font-family: Arial; font-size: 0.75em; padding: 2px; border: 1px solid lightgray; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; background-color: #F2F2F2; }
    .RowHeader {font-family: Arial; font-size: 0.75em; padding: 2px 8px 2px 2px; border: 1px solid lightgray; vertical-align: middle; text-align: left; font-weight: bold; background-color: #F2F2F2; }
    .Cell {font-family: Arial; font-size: 0.75em; padding: 2px 2px 2px 8px; border: 1px solid lightgray; vertical-align: middle; text-align: right; }
    .Total {font-family: Arial; font-size: 0.75em; padding: 2px 2px 2px 8px; border: 1px solid lightgray; vertical-align: middle; text-align: right; font-weight: bold; }

## Output in Excel

Please see the Excel Export vignette.

## Output as FlexTable

Converting a table from the `basictabler` package to a table from the `flextabler` package is possible:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # convert to flextable
    library(flextable)
    ft <- tbl$asFlexTable()
    ft

Sale ID | Item | Quantity | Price
5334 | Apple | 5 | 0.34
5336 | Orange | 8 | 0.47
5338 | Banana | 6 | 1.34

When converting to a flextable, the styles used in the basictabler table are converted to their flextable equivalents where possible. If you specify both a CSS and ft value, then the CSS value will be used when rendering to HTML and the ft value will be used when converting the table to a flex table. The table below shows how the CSS style values are mapped to the equivalent style settings in the flextable package.

CSS Property | FT Property | FT Example | Notes
--- | --- | --- | ---
font-family | ft-font-name | Arial | Only the first CSS font is used in Excel.
font-size | ft-font-size | 12 | In Points (4-72). See below for CSS units.
font-weight | ft-bold | normal or bold | XL bold is CSS font-weight >= 600.
font-style | ft-italic | normal or italic | italic and oblique map to italic.
background-color | ft-bg-color | #FF0000 | See below for supported CSS colours.
color | ft-text-color | #00FF00 | See below for supported CSS colours.
text-align | ft-h-align | left or center or right |
vertical-align | ft-v-align | top or middle or bottom |
| ft-text-rotation | lrtb tblr btlr number | One of the constant values or 0 to 359.
padding | ft-padding | number (in px, pt, etc) | See below for supported padding values.
padding-left | ft-padding-left | number (in px, pt, etc) | See below for supported padding values.
padding-right | ft-padding-right | number (in px, pt, etc) | See below for supported padding values.
padding-top | ft-padding-top | number (in px, pt, etc) | See below for supported padding values.
padding-bottom | ft-padding-bottom | number (in px, pt, etc) | See below for supported padding values.
border | ft-border | thin black | See below for supported CSS border values.
border-left | ft-border-left | thin black | See below for supported CSS border values.
border-right | ft-border-right | thin black | See below for supported CSS border values.
border-top | ft-border-top | thin black | See below for supported CSS border values.
border-bottom | ft-border-bottom | thin black | See below for supported CSS border values.

Notes:

- For CSS font-size, only the following units are supported: in, cm, mm, pt, pc, px, em, %.
- For CSS background-color, CSS color and border colours, only hex colours, named colours, RGB() and RGBA() values are supported. HLS() and HLSA() values are not supported. Examples of supported CSS values: #0080FF, rgb(0, 128, 255), rgba(0, 128, 255, 0.5), red, black, darkolivegreen, etc.
- For padding, either use CSS padding / ft-padding to specify the same padding on all four sides of each cell. Or use the side-specific versions, e.g. CSS padding-left / ft-padding-left.
- For borders, either use CSS border / xl-border to specify the same border on all four sides of each cell. Or use the side-specific versions, e.g. CSS border-left / xl-border-left.

Examples of valid ft border values:

- thin solid #FF00BB
- 2px dotted red
- medium dashed rgb(0, 255, 0)

Note that the following CSS properties are NOT supported for automatic mapping to flextable values:

- font - use font-family, font-size, etc. instead
- Border side specific properties, e.g. border-left-style, border-top-color, etc.

## Output in Word

Converting a table to a Word document is possible using the `flextabler` package:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # convert to flextable
    library(flextable)
    ft <- tbl$asFlexTable()

    # save word document
    library(officer)
    docx <- read_docx()
    docx <- body_add_par(docx, "Example Table")
    docx <- body_add_flextable(docx, value = ft)
    print(docx, target = "example_table_word.docx")

## Output in PowerPoint

Converting a table to a PowerPoint document is possible using the `flextabler` package:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # convert to flextable
    library(flextable)
    ft <- tbl$asFlexTable()

    # save PowerPoint document
    library(officer)
    ppt <- read_pptx()
    ppt <- add_slide(ppt, layout = "Title and Content", master = "Office Theme")
    ppt <- ph_with(ppt, value = ft, location = ph_location_left())
    print(ppt, target = "example_table_powerpoint.pptx")

## Output as an R Matrix

Converting a table to a matrix can be accomplished as follows:

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # output as matrix
    tbl$asMatrix()

         [,1]      [,2]     [,3]       [,4]
    [1,] "Sale ID" "Item"   "Quantity" "Price"
    [2,] "5334"    "Apple"  "5"        "0.34"
    [3,] "5336"    "Orange" "8"        "0.47"
    [4,] "5338"    "Banana" "6"        "1.34"

The `firstRowAsColumnNames` and `firstColumnAsRowNames` parameters control how the names in the matrix are set. The `rawValue` parameter specifies whether the matrix should contain the raw values or the formatted values.

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # output as matrix
    tbl$asMatrix(firstRowAsColumnNames=TRUE, firstColumnAsRowNames=TRUE, rawValue=TRUE)

         Item     Quantity Price
    5334 "Apple"  "5"      "0.34452354"
    5336 "Orange" "8"      "0.4732543"
    5338 "Banana" "6"      "1.3443243"

## Output as an R Data Frame

The `asDataFrame()` function returns a data frame with the same layout as the table, e.g. a table with a body consisting of 10 rows and 2 columns will result in a data frame also containing 10 rows and 2 columns.

Again, the `firstRowAsColumnNames` and `firstColumnAsRowNames` parameters control how the names in the data frame are set and the `rawValue` parameter specifies whether the matrix should contain the raw values or the formatted values.

    # data for the table
    saleIds <- c(5334, 5336, 5338)
    items <- c("Apple", "Orange", "Banana")
    quantities <- c(5, 8, 6)
    prices <- c(0.34452354, 0.4732543, 1.3443243)

    # construct the table
    library(basictabler)
    tbl <- BasicTable$new()
    tbl$addData(data.frame(saleIds, items, quantities, prices),
                firstColumnAsRowHeaders=TRUE,
                explicitColumnHeaders=c("Sale ID", "Item", "Quantity", "Price"),
                columnFormats=list(NULL, NULL, NULL, "%.2f"))

    # output as data frame
    df <- tbl$asDataFrame(firstRowAsColumnNames=TRUE, rawValue=TRUE)
    df

      Sale.ID   Item Quantity     Price
    1    5334  Apple        5 0.3445235
    2    5336 Orange        8 0.4732543
    3    5338 Banana        6 1.3443243

    str(df)

    'data.frame':   3 obs. of  4 variables:
     $ Sale.ID : num  5334 5336 5338
     $ Item    : chr  "Apple" "Orange" "Banana"
     $ Quantity: num  5 8 6
     $ Price   : num  0.345 0.473 1.344

## Further Reading

The full set of vignettes is:

1. Introduction
2. Working with Cells
3. Outputs
4. Styling
5. Finding and Formatting
6. Shiny
7. Excel Export