autotable: Export Table with Automatic Format Detection

In summata: Publication-Ready Summary Tables and Forest Plots

Export Table with Automatic Format Detection

Description

Automatically detects the output format based on file extension and exports the table using the appropriate specialized function. Provides a unified interface for table export across all supported formats.

Usage

autotable(table, file, ...)

Arguments

table	Data frame, data.table, or matrix to export. Can be output from desctable(), survtable(), fit(), uniscreen(), fullfit(), compfit(), multifit(), or any tabular data structure.
file	Character string specifying the output filename. The file extension determines the export format: .pdf - PDF via LaTeX (uses table2pdf()) .docx - Microsoft Word (uses table2docx()) .html or .htm - HTML (uses table2html()) .pptx - Microsoft PowerPoint (uses table2pptx()) .tex - LaTeX source (uses table2tex()) .rtf - Rich Text Format (uses table2rtf())
...	Additional arguments passed to the format-specific function. See the documentation for individual functions for available parameters: PDF table2pdf() - orientation, paper, margins, fit_to_page, etc. DOCX table2docx() - font_size, font_family, caption, etc. HTML table2html() - format_headers, zebra_stripes, etc. PPTX table2pptx() - font_size, font_family, caption, etc. TEX table2tex() - caption, format_headers, align, etc. RTF table2rtf() - font_size, font_family, caption, etc. Common parameters across formats include: caption Table caption (supported by most formats) font_size Base font size in points (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, RTF) format_headers Format column headers (all formats) bold_significant Bold significant p-values (all formats) p_threshold Threshold for p-value bolding (all formats) indent_groups Indent factor levels (all formats) condense_table Condense to essential rows (all formats) zebra_stripes Alternating background colors (most formats)

Details

This function provides a convenient wrapper around format-specific export functions, automatically routing to the appropriate function based on the file extension. All parameters are passed through to the underlying function, so the full range of format-specific options remains available.

For format-specific advanced features, you may prefer to use the individual export functions directly:

• PDF exports support orientation, paper size, margins, and auto-sizing

• DOCX/PPTX/RTF support font customization and flextable formatting

• HTML supports CSS styling, responsive design, and custom themes

• TeX generates standalone LaTeX source with booktabs styling

Value

Invisibly returns the file path. Called primarily for its side effect of creating the output file.

See Also

table2pdf, table2docx, table2pptx, table2html, table2rtf, table2tex

Other export functions: table2docx(), table2html(), table2pdf(), table2pptx(), table2rtf(), table2tex()

Examples

# Create example data
data(clintrial)
data(clintrial_labels)
tbl <- desctable(clintrial, by = "treatment",
    variables = c("age", "sex"), labels = clintrial_labels)

# Auto-detect format from extension
if (requireNamespace("xtable", quietly = TRUE)) {
  autotable(tbl, file.path(tempdir(), "example.html"))
}


# Load example data
data(clintrial)
data(clintrial_labels)

# Create a regression table
results <- fit(
    data = clintrial,
    outcome = "os_status",
    predictors = c("age", "sex", "treatment"),
    labels = clintrial_labels
)

# Test that LaTeX can actually compile (needed for PDF export)
has_latex <- local({
  if (!nzchar(Sys.which("pdflatex"))) return(FALSE)
  test_tex <- file.path(tempdir(), "summata_latex_test.tex")
  writeLines(c("\\documentclass{article}",
               "\\usepackage{booktabs}",
               "\\begin{document}", "test",
               "\\end{document}"), test_tex)
  result <- tryCatch(
    system2("pdflatex", c("-interaction=nonstopmode",
            paste0("-output-directory=", tempdir()), test_tex),
            stdout = FALSE, stderr = FALSE),
    error = function(e) 1L)
  result == 0L
})

# Export automatically detects format from extension
autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.html"))  # Creates HTML file
autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.docx"))  # Creates Word document
autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.pptx"))  # Creates PowerPoint slide
autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.tex"))   # Creates LaTeX source
autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.rtf"))   # Creates RTF document
if (has_latex) {
  autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.pdf")) # Creates PDF
}

# Pass format-specific parameters
if (has_latex) {
  autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.pdf"), 
             orientation = "landscape",
             paper = "a4",
             font_size = 10)
}

autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.docx"),
           caption = "Table 1: Logistic Regression Results",
           font_family = "Times New Roman",
           condense_table = TRUE)

autotable(results, file.path(tempdir(), "results.html"),
           zebra_stripes = TRUE,
           dark_header = TRUE,
           bold_significant = TRUE)

# Works with any summata table output
desc <- desctable(clintrial,
                  by = "treatment",
                  variables = c("age", "sex", "bmi"))
if (has_latex) {
  autotable(desc, file.path(tempdir(), "demographics.pdf"))
}

comparison <- compfit(
    data = clintrial,
    outcome = "os_status",
    model_list = list(
        base = c("age", "sex"),
        full = c("age", "sex", "treatment", "stage")
    )
)
autotable(comparison, file.path(tempdir(), "model_comparison.docx"))

summata documentation built on May 7, 2026, 5:07 p.m.