huxtable-FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, including how to get help

In huxtable: Easily Create and Style Tables for LaTeX, HTML and Other Formats

Frequently Asked Questions, including how to get help

Description

A FAQ of common issues.

Details

• I get a LaTeX error when I try to compile my document!

  Have you installed the LaTeX packages you need? LaTeX packages are different from R packages. Run check_latex_dependencies() to find out if you are missing any. Then install them using your system's LaTeX management application. Or you can try install_latex_dependencies().

  In some rmarkdown and LaTeX formats, you also need to add LaTeX dependencies manually. Run report_latex_dependencies() and add the output to your LaTeX preamble, or in Rmarkdown formats, add it to the rmarkdown header like this:

  header-includes:
    - \usepackage{array}
    - \usepackage{caption}
    ... et cetera
  

• Huxtable isn't working in my Rmarkdown beamer_presentation slides.

  You may need to set the beamer "fragile" option, like this:

  # Slide title {.fragile}
  

• Numbers in my cells look weird!

  You can change numeric formatting using number_format(). Base R options like scipen usually have no effect.

• How can I use HTML, TeX etc. in my table?

  Use escape_contents():

  jams |>
       add_footnote("These jams are <i>tasty</i>!") |>
       set_escape_contents(final(1), everywhere, FALSE) |>
       quick_html()
  

  Alternatively you might consider using markdown in cells, with set_markdown_contents().

• I ran caption(ht) <- "Something" and got an error message:

  Error in UseMethod("caption<-") :
  no applicable method for 'caption<-' applied to an object of class "c('huxtable',   'data.frame')"
  

  You may have loaded another package with a caption method, e.g. "xtable". Try loading huxtable after xtable.

• How can I get line breaks in my cells?

  Just insert a line break "\n" in the cell contents. Then make sure that width() is set and wrap() is TRUE (it is by default).

• How can I change the font size, font etc. of captions?

  There are no direct commands for this. You have to use raw HTML/TeX/other commands within the caption itself. For example to have a bold caption in HTML, you might do something like:

  set_caption(jams, "<b>Jam Prices</b>")
  

• How do I refer to tables in bookdown?

  As of version 4.3.0, this is handled automatically for you. Just set the label using label(), then in markdown text do e.g.:

  \@ref(tab:my-table-label).
  

• How do I refer to tables in quarto?

  In quarto versions up to 1.3, or when compiling to HTML and other formats, simply use quarto cell labels like label: tbl-foo and refer to them via ⁠@tbl-foo⁠.

  In quarto versions 1.4 and above, when compiling to PDF, quarto cross-referencing no longer works. Instead, set labels within huxtable using label() or set_label() and refer to them with TeX-only referencing using ⁠\ref{label}⁠. You must also set a caption.

  Here's an example:

  A reference to Table \ref{tbl-jams}.
  
  ```{r}
  label(jams) <- "tbl-jams"
  caption(jams) <- "Some jams"
  jams
  ```
  

If you really need cross-referencing for both PDF and other output formats, either downgrade to quarto 1.3, use a different package, or write code to emit appropriate references.

• I called library(huxtable) and now my data.table objects are getting printed!

  Set options(huxtable.knit_print_df = FALSE).

• How can I set a property on an arbitrary group of cells?

  If you can't use the mapping-functions interface, and you want to set a property for multiple cells that aren't all in the same rows and/or columns, you could use a little-known fact about R subsetting. If you subset ht[x] where x is two-column numeric matrix, then each row of x indexes a single ⁠(row, column)⁠ cell. So, for example, here's how to set the background color of cells ⁠(2,1)⁠, ⁠(1, 3)⁠ and ⁠(4, 2)⁠ of a huxtable:

  indices <- matrix(c(2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 2), ncol = 2, byrow = TRUE)
  background_color(jams)[indices] <- "orange"
  

  Another useful trick sets properties on the diagonal, using diag():

  diag(background_color(jams)) <- "grey"
  

• I have another problem.

  If you have a bug - i.e. there is something wrong with the software - or a feature request, please report it to https://github.com/hughjonesd/huxtable/issues. Otherwise, ask a question on StackOverflow or https://forum.posit.co. That way, other people will benefit from the answers you get.

• Can I email you directly?

  I'd rather you asked on a public website. If you then email me a link, I may be able to help.

Author(s)

Maintainer: David Hugh-Jones [e-mail]

See Also

Useful links:

• https://hughjonesd.github.io/huxtable/

• Report bugs at https://github.com/hughjonesd/huxtable/issues

huxtable documentation built on Aug. 19, 2025, 1:12 a.m.