CODEWITHSUNDEEP
r
matandked
matandked

Reputation: 1565

Copy and paste data frame - from R! to Writer/Word

Suppose I have some analysis results in data frame/table. I wish to embed them in text document.

In case of LaTeX, I can use miscFuncs package:

library('miscFuncs')
latextable(myDataFrame)

and simply copy output displayed in R console and paste it to LaTeX document.

What if I wish to copy from R! output and paste to LibreOffice Writer or MS Word documents?

I think that most (?) convenient way is to generate output as tab-delimited text. After pasting text, just convert them to table.

I know that there are functions which writes output to tab-delimited files: http://www.instantr.com/2012/12/11/exporting-a-dataset-from-r/

so I guess there must be function/package which simply generate tab-delimited content?

Note - there was similar question: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/90184/can-i-copy-output-from-r-to-word-or-excel

but answers suggest to export content to delimited file. I wish to avoid this step.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3248

Answers (4)

NCC1701
NCC1701

Reputation: 149

If you want to copy an R data frame to Writer or Word, you can follow these steps:

  1. Convert the data frame to a data.

    data_df <- as.data.frame(data)

  2. Save the data as a CSV file:

    write.csv(data_df[,6:7], "clipboard", row.names = FALSE, quote = FALSE)

This here selected column 6 and 7.

  1. Paste the data into Excel. In Excel, paste the data with the option "Paste as values".
  2. Select the first column and click on "Data" tab, then select "Text to Columns". Following these steps, and select table and copy. After you can smoothly transfer your data from Excel to Word.

Upvotes: 0

Paul
Paul

Reputation: 2977

If you do not mind using a intermediate file to save your table, you could use functions from the package flextable (https://davidgohel.github.io/flextable/index.html).

Repex:

library(flextable)
# create a flextable object
ft <- flextable::flextable(data = head(iris))
# save it as a .docx file on your disk
flextable::save_as_docx(ft, path = "./test.docx")
# or pop-up a word window with your table
print(ft, preview ="docx") # from https://github.com/davidgohel/flextable/issues/117#issuecomment-487126438

Output:

view of the table inside the test.docx file

Now you can copy/paste this table inside your main document. Note that you can do a lot of customization with flextable and save your table in different output format like HTML or even .pptx.

Upvotes: 0

Miguel Men&#233;ndez
Miguel Men&#233;ndez

Reputation: 120

If it is a data.frame, to me the easiest way is using kable() in knitr package, then copy-paste from console to spreadsheet

library(dplyr) # just to use the handy %>%
matrix(c(1:20), 5) %>% # some data
  as.data.frame() %>% # as it is a matrix, I need it as data.frame
  knitr::kable() # It is now tabulated, you can use in your Office software "convert text to table"

I you don't like the %>%,

knitr::kable(
  as.data.frame(
    matrix(c(1:20), 5)
))

Upvotes: 1

Glen_b
Glen_b

Reputation: 8252

One very simple way is to simply use a monospace font, such a Courier New or Lucida Console (for a couple of examples) in your word processor -- if it looks okay on screen in your R session, it will look very similar in Libre Office's Writer or Word. A straight copy-paste from the R console to the document works fine once it's in a suitable font.

If you're trying to "reproduce the look" of the R session, this works quite well; if you're trying to format output for a paper or some-such it may be less suitable, depending on your preferences.

Upvotes: 0

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