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flextable() creates a flextable object from a data frame. flextable objects support rich text formatting, cell merging, custom headers and footers, and export to Word, PowerPoint, HTML, PDF, and other formats. A flextable is composed of three parts: header, body, and footer. Most formatting functions accept a part argument to target one or all parts.

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Function signature

flextable(
  data,
  col_keys = names(data),
  cwidth = 0.75,
  cheight = 0.25,
  defaults = list(),
  theme_fun = theme_booktabs,
  use_labels = TRUE
)

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Parameters

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data
data.frame
required
A data frame. Also accepts data.table and tibble objects, which are coerced to data.frame internally.
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col_keys
character
default:"names(data)"
Column names or keys to display. Names not present in data are added as blank columns.
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cwidth
numeric
default:"0.75"
Initial cell width in inches.
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cheight
numeric
default:"0.25"
Initial cell height in inches.
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defaults
list
deprecated
Deprecated. Use set_flextable_defaults() instead.
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theme_fun
function
deprecated
Deprecated. Use set_flextable_defaults() instead.
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use_labels
logical
default:"TRUE"
If TRUE, column labels and value labels present in the dataset (e.g., from haven or labelled packages) are used as display headers.

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Return value

An object of class flextable.

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Special characters

flextable translates \n into a soft return (a line break within the same paragraph, not a new paragraph) and \t into a tab character. Tab rendering varies by output format:
  • HTML — em space entity
  • Word — native Word tab element
  • PowerPoint — native PowerPoint tab element
  • LaTeX — \quad

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Default formatting

Formatting defaults are applied automatically to every new flextable. Use set_flextable_defaults() to change them globally, init_flextable_defaults() to reset them, and get_flextable_defaults() to inspect the current values.

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Examples

ft <- flextable(head(mtcars))
ft
Display only selected columns: 
ft <- flextable(
  data = head(iris),
  col_keys = c("Species", "Sepal.Length", "Sepal.Width")
)
ft
Add a blank spacer column: 
ft <- flextable(
  data = head(iris),
  col_keys = c("Species", "blank_col", "Sepal.Length")
)
ft

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See also