Author: Max Gordon
Date: 2026-04-21

# Text formatters

#### Max Gordon

#### 2026-04-21

# Text formatters

Bundled with this package are some text formatting functions. The purpose of these is to convert numeric values into character/text that is more pleasent in publication tables.

## txtRound

While `base::round()` is an excellent function in most cases we often want a table to retain trailing 0:s. E.g.

    library(htmlTable)
    library(dplyr)
    library(magrittr)
    data("mtcars")

    mtcars %<>%
      mutate(am = factor(am, levels = 0:1, labels = c("Automatic", "Manual")),
             vs = factor(vs, levels = 0:1, labels = c("V-shaped", "straight")))

    mtcars %>%
      head(3) %>%
      select(Transmission = am, Gas = mpg, Weight = wt) %>%
      htmlTable()

| Transmission | Gas | Weight
--- | --- | --- | ---
Mazda RX4 | Manual | 21 | 2.62
Mazda RX4 Wag | Manual | 21 | 2.875
Datsun 710 | Manual | 22.8 | 2.32

doesn’t look visually that great, instead we would prefer to have something like this:

    mtcars %>%
      head(3) %>%
      select(Transmission = am, Gas = mpg, Weight = wt) %>%
      txtRound(digits = 1) %>%
      htmlTable()

| Transmission | Gas | Weight
--- | --- | --- | ---
Mazda RX4 | Manual | 21.0 | 2.6
Mazda RX4 Wag | Manual | 21.0 | 2.9
Datsun 710 | Manual | 22.8 | 2.3

### Single/vector values

At the core of the `txtRound` is the single/vector value conversion:

    txtRound(c(1, 1.1034), digits = 2)

    ## [1] "1.00" "1.10"

    # Use a character to convert
    txtRound("1.2333", digits = 2)

    ## [1] "1.23"

If you have some values that need thousand separation you can also add `txtInt_args`.

    # Large numbers can be combined with the txtInt option
    txtRound(12345.12, digits = 1, txtInt_args = TRUE)

    ## [1] "12,345.1"

    txtRound(12345.12, digits = 1, txtInt_args = list(language = "se", html = FALSE))

    ## [1] "12 345.1"

### Data frames

As seen in the introduction we can use data frames for input. We can here rename the converted columns:

    mtcars %>%
      head(3) %>%
      select(mpg, wt) %>%
      txtRound(mpg, wt_txt = wt, digits = 1)

    ##                mpg    wt wt_txt
    ## Mazda RX4     21.0 2.620    2.6
    ## Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 2.875    2.9
    ## Datsun 710    22.8 2.320    2.3

And we can specify the number of decimals that we’re interested in per column:

    mtcars %>%
      head(3) %>%
      select(mpg, qsec, wt) %>%
      txtRound(digits = list(wt = 2, .default = 1))

    ##                mpg qsec   wt
    ## Mazda RX4     21.0 16.5 2.62
    ## Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 17.0 2.88
    ## Datsun 710    22.8 18.6 2.32

### Matrix

We can also feed a matrix into the `txtRound`:

    mtcars_matrix <- mtcars %>%
      select(mpg, qsec, wt) %>%
      head(3) %>%
      as.matrix()

    mtcars_matrix %>%
      txtRound(digits = 1)

    ##               mpg    qsec   wt
    ## Mazda RX4     "21.0" "16.5" "2.6"
    ## Mazda RX4 Wag "21.0" "17.0" "2.9"
    ## Datsun 710    "22.8" "18.6" "2.3"

Here we have some options of excluding columns/rows using regular expressions:

    mtcars_matrix %>%
      txtRound(excl.cols = "^wt$",
               excl.rows = "^Mazda RX4$",
               digits = 1)

    ##               mpg    qsec    wt
    ## Mazda RX4     "21"   "16.46" "2.62"
    ## Mazda RX4 Wag "21.0" "17.0"  "2.875"
    ## Datsun 710    "22.8" "18.6"  "2.32"

Similarly to the data.frame we can use the same syntax to pick column specific digits:

    mtcars_matrix %>%
      txtRound(digits = list(mpg = 0, wt = 2, .default = 1))

    ##               mpg  qsec   wt
    ## Mazda RX4     "21" "16.5" "2.62"
    ## Mazda RX4 Wag "21" "17.0" "2.88"
    ## Datsun 710    "23" "18.6" "2.32"

## txtInt

While scientific format is useful if familiar with the syntax it can be difficult to grasp for scholars with a less mathematical background. Therefore the thousand separator style can be quite useful, also known as digital grouping:

    txtInt(1e7)

    ## [1] "10,000,000"

As Swedish and many other languages rely on space (SI-standard) we can specify language as a parameter. Note that as we don’t want to have line breaks within a digit we can use non-breaking space for keeping the number intact (the html-code is `&nbsp;`):

    txtInt(1e7, language = "SI", html = FALSE)

    ## [1] "10 000 000"

    txtInt(1e7, language = "SI", html = TRUE)

    ## [1] "10&nbsp;000&nbsp;000"

Note that there are the option `htmlTable.language` and `htmlTable.html` that you can use for the input of these parameters.

## txtPval

The p-value is perhaps the most controversial of statistical output, nevertheless it is still needed and used correctly it has it’s use. P-values are frequently rounded as the decimals are not as important. The `txtPval` is a convenient function with some defaults that correspond to typical uses in medical publications.

    txtPval(c(0.1233213, 0.035, 0.001, 0.000001), html = FALSE)

    ## [1] "0.12"     "0.035"    "0.001"    "< 0.0001"

    # The < sign is less-than in html code '&lt;'
    txtPval(c(0.05, 0.001, 0.000001), html = TRUE)

    ## [1] "0.050"       "0.001"       "&lt; 0.0001"

## txtMergeLines

In html we indicate new line using <br /> while the latex style uses hbox. To help with these two there is the `txtMergeLines` that merges lines into one properly formatted unit:

    txtMergeLines("Line 1",
                  "Line 2",
                  "Line 3")

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

Note that you can also use a single multi-line string:

    txtMergeLines("Line 1
                   Line 2
                   Line 3")

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

    txtMergeLines("Line 1
                   Line 2
                   Line 3",
                  html = FALSE)

    ## [1] "\\vbox{\\hbox{\\strut Line 1}\\hbox{\\strut Line 2}\\hbox{\\strut Line 3}}"