Date: 2026-03-15

# Convenience Functions

#### 2026-03-15

## Convenience Functions

### The `formats()` function

The formats associated with a data frame can be easily extracted or assigned with the `formats()` function. This function returns or accepts a named list of formatting objects. The names of the list items correspond to the names of the columns in the data frame. This function is useful when you want to assign formats to many columns.

### The `fattr()` function

The `fattr()` function helps assign formatting attributes to a vector or data frame column. The `fattr()` function can assign the format, label, description, width, and justify attributes all at once. These attributes are passed in as arguments to the `fattr()` function, instead of as properties on a call to `attr()`.

### Other convenience functions

The `fmtr` package contains several other functions for setting attributes easily. These include the `descriptions()`, `widths()` and `justification()` functions to set columns descriptions, column widths, and column justification on an entire data frame. The package also includes class testing functions like `is.format()` and `is.flist()`.

NOTE: In version 1.5.8 of fmtr the `labels()` function was moved to the common package. If you wish to use this function, please include the common package instead.

Next: Helper Functions