README.md

In metrumresearchgroup/texblocks: Simple language to build TeX tables

texblocks

Lets be frank, it is not fun to create TeX tables from scratch.

In R there are a few ways to get around this task by converting a data.frame into latex tables via huxtable, pixiedust and knitr.

But many times you either don’t have or don’t want to go through a data.frame to get to your table. {texblocks} is an attempt to create a natural language with simple operators to quickly create reproducible TeX tables.

Idea

Assemble LaTeX tabular environments using simple operations.

This would enable us to create any table layout with a consistent user API.

Proposed Syntax

For a rendered vingette see basics

Defining a new class of R element tb that is the basic structure of the language.

Joining elements

Let t1 and t2 be two objects of class tb.

| | | | :-------: | :-: | | t1 + t2 | ⬛ ⬛ |

| | | | :-------: | :-: | | | ⬛ | | t1 / t2 | | | | ⬛ |

Using this language creating a table can be broken down to cell level

t1 =(⬛+⬛+⬛) / (⬛+⬛+⬛)

would be translated to

1 & 2 & 3 \\
4 & 5 & 6

making their combination a natural extension

t1 + t1

would translate to

1 & 2 & 3 & 1 & 2 & 3 \\
4 & 5 & 6 & 1 & 2 & 3

Recasting

Converting to tb class

• numeric
• character
• matrix
• sparse matrix
• data.frame/tibble

texblocks can also be converted back into tibbles and matrices for further data manipulation.

Vectorizing

texblocks can also be replicated and used as a list with purrr verbs and base R *apply functions.

Mutations & Aesthetics

For a rendered vingette see aesthetics

• multirow/multicolumn
• hline
• cline

TODO

A set of elements can be defined to control the table and cell level attributes, eg

• font: colour, size, face
• background colour

metrumresearchgroup/texblocks documentation built on July 18, 2020, 1:45 a.m.