Generating LaTeX Tables in R

Generating LATEXTables in R

jbytecode

August 18, 2013

Many R users prepare reports, documents or research papers using LATEXtype-setting system. Since typing tabular data structures in LATEXby hand consumes too much construction time, some packages were developed for automatic creation or conversion of R datasets. In this short entry, we show the usage and output of xtable function in xtable package. First install the package if it is not already installed:

> install.packages(”xtable”)

After installation, the package is loaded once in the current session:

> require(”xtable”)

Now, suppose that we have a data frame and we want to export it as a LATEXtable. Let’s create a random dataset with three variables, x,y and z.

> x<-round(runif(10,0,100)) 
> y<-round(runif(10,0,100)) 
> z<-round(runif(10,0,100)) 
> data <- as.data.frame ( cbind(x,y,z) ) 
> data 
    x   y  z 
1  26  86 44 
2  81  13 22 
3  39  27 57 
4  32  57 56 
5  50  15 31 
6  34 100 98 
7  54  46 24 
8  42  55 42 
9  62  91 77 
10  5  73 25

Calling the function xtable simply on the data that we have just created produces some output:

> xtable(data)

% latex table generated in R 2.15.3 by xtable 1.7-1 package  
% Sun Aug 18 23:40:23 2013  
\begin{table}[ht]  
\centering  
\begin{tabular}{rrrr}  
  \hline  
 & x & y & z \\  
  \hline  
1 & 26.00 & 86.00 & 44.00 \\  
  2 & 81.00 & 13.00 & 22.00 \\  
  3 & 39.00 & 27.00 & 57.00 \\  
  4 & 32.00 & 57.00 & 56.00 \\  
  5 & 50.00 & 15.00 & 31.00 \\  
  6 & 34.00 & 100.00 & 98.00 \\  
  7 & 54.00 & 46.00 & 24.00 \\  
  8 & 42.00 & 55.00 & 42.00 \\  
  9 & 62.00 & 91.00 & 77.00 \\  
  10 & 5.00 & 73.00 & 25.00 \\  
   \hline  
\end{tabular}  
\end{table}

The generated output can easly be integrated with an LATEXfile. This table is shown as

---

	x	y	z
1	26.00	86.00	44.00
2	81.00	13.00	22.00
3	39.00	27.00	57.00
4	32.00	57.00	56.00
5	50.00	15.00	31.00
6	34.00	100.00	98.00
7	54.00	46.00	24.00
8	42.00	55.00	42.00
9	62.00	91.00	77.00
10	5.00	73.00	25.00

---

This is an example of xtable function call with default parameters. In the next example, we put a caption.

> xtable(data,caption=”Our random dataset”)

---

	x	y	z
1	26.00	86.00	44.00
2	81.00	13.00	22.00
3	39.00	27.00	57.00
4	32.00	57.00	56.00
5	50.00	15.00	31.00
6	34.00	100.00	98.00
7	54.00	46.00	24.00
8	42.00	55.00	42.00
9	62.00	91.00	77.00
10	5.00	73.00	25.00

Table 1: Our random dataset

---

Let’s put a label on it:

> xtable(data,caption=”Our random dataset”, 
                          label=”This is a label”)

---

	x	y	z
1	26.00	86.00	44.00
2	81.00	13.00	22.00
3	39.00	27.00	57.00
4	32.00	57.00	56.00
5	50.00	15.00	31.00
6	34.00	100.00	98.00
7	54.00	46.00	24.00
8	42.00	55.00	42.00
9	62.00	91.00	77.00
10	5.00	73.00	25.00

Table 2: Our random dataset

---

And this function call shows the numbers with three fractional digits.

> xtable(data,caption=”Our random dataset”, 
                label=”This is a label”, 
                digits=3)

---

	x	y	z
1	26.000	86.000	44.000
2	81.000	13.000	22.000
3	39.000	27.000	57.000
4	32.000	57.000	56.000
5	50.000	15.000	31.000
6	34.000	100.000	98.000
7	54.000	46.000	24.000
8	42.000	55.000	42.000
9	62.000	91.000	77.000
10	5.000	73.000	25.000

Table 3: Our random dataset

---