CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rr-markdown
user10917479
user10917479

Reputation:

Grid Layout in an R Markdown

Is there a clean way to "tile" or create some sort of table-like layout in rmarkdown? For example, in RShiny you can setup a grid of sorts and then place elements (e.g., text, tables, plots, etc...) in these slots to really control your look. I am open to the output being in HTML, Word, or PDF if markdown is not the best way. As an example, consider this file:

---
title: "Test File"
output: html_document
---

## R Markdown

How do put these side-by-side?

```{r text, echo=FALSE}
summary(cars)
```

```{r plot, echo=FALSE}
plot(speed ~ dist, cars)
```

Can I place the summary() output next to the plot() output? What if I wanted to go three wide: plot() | summary() | summary?

I'd be open to another format / construct as well. I have tried officer but struggle to get this type of alignment in Word to work.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 4430

Answers (2)

Martin Schmelzer
Martin Schmelzer

Reputation: 23919

Here is a workaround for HTML output that automatically decides how many columns are needed. This approach is based on tweaking the chunk hook to alter the markdown output. We basically just perform string operations (search and replace). I hope the comments in the code are clean enough:

MRE:

---
title: "Test File"
output: html_document
---

## R Markdown

```{r, include = F}
library(stringi)
defChunkHook <- knitr::knit_hooks$get("chunk")
knitr::knit_hooks$set(chunk = function(x, options) {
  x <- defChunkHook(x, options)
  if(!is.null(options$multi.col)) {
    x    <- gsub("(\n\`\`\`\n##.*?\`\`\`)", "<div>\\1\n</div>", x)  # wrap div around output chunks
    x    <- gsub("(<img.*?>)", "<div>\\1\n</div>", x)               # wrap div around plots
    ncol <- nrow(stri_locate_all(x, regex = "<div.*?>")[[1]])       # get the number of div elements created
    x    <- gsub("<div>", paste0("<div style=\"width:", 100/ncol,"%;\">"), x)  # add the width to the divs
    x    <- paste0("<div class=\"multi-col\" style=\"display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center;\">\n", x, "</div>")  # wrap the mother div around all of the output
  }
  x
})
```

```{r, echo = F, multi.col=T}
summary(cars)
plot(speed ~ dist, cars)
```

```{r, echo = F, multi.col=T}
summary(cars)
plot(speed ~ dist, cars)
plot(mpg ~ hp, mtcars)
```

enter image description here

Upvotes: 4

user10917479
user10917479

Reputation:

Another way to go about this that I have just found is to use gridExtra. You can create your graphics, text objects, tables, etc. and then very cleanly define their structure and relative locations.

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/gridExtra/

Pros: Easy to use with a ton of control of a grid. Works great with ggplot2.

Cons: Everything is now an image (including text). Less flexibility in terms of what objects you put into it. No interactivity as far as I can tell.

As a result, I would not want to use this for an HTML object. There are better ways. For a fairly simple, highly controlled use of white space in Word or PDF, this may be a viable approach.

Upvotes: 1

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