Perform data cell colorization

It's possible to add color to data cells according to their values with data_color(). There is a multitude of ways to perform data cell colorizing here:

• targeting: we can constrain which columns and rows should receive the colorization treatment (through the columns and rows arguments)

• direction: ordinarily we perform coloring in a column-wise fashion but there is the option to color data cells in a row-wise manner (this is controlled by the direction argument)

• coloring method: data_color() automatically computes colors based on the column type but you can choose a specific methodology (e.g., with bins or quantiles) and the function will generate colors accordingly; the method argument controls this through keywords and other arguments act as inputs to specific methods

• coloring function: a custom function can be supplied to the fn argument for finer control over color evaluation with data; the scales::col_*() color mapping functions can be used here or any function you might want to define

• color palettes: with palette we could supply a vector of colors, a viridis or RColorBrewer palette name, or, a palette from the paletteer package

• value domain: we can either opt to have the range of values define the domain, or, specify one explicitly with the domain argument

• indirect color application: it's possible to compute colors from one column and apply them to one or more different columns; we can even perform a color mapping from multiple source columns to the same multiple of target columns

• color application: with the apply_to argument, there's an option for whether to apply the cell-specific colors to the cell background or the cell text

• text autocoloring: if colorizing the cell background, data_color() will automatically recolor the foreground text to provide the best contrast (can be deactivated with autocolor_text = FALSE)

data_color() won't fail with the default options used, but that won't typically provide you the type of colorization you really need. You can however safely iterate through a collection of different options without running into too many errors.

Usage

data_color(
  data,
  columns = everything(),
  rows = everything(),
  direction = c("column", "row"),
  target_columns = NULL,
  method = c("auto", "numeric", "bin", "quantile", "factor"),
  palette = NULL,
  domain = NULL,
  bins = 8,
  quantiles = 4,
  levels = NULL,
  ordered = FALSE,
  na_color = NULL,
  alpha = NULL,
  reverse = FALSE,
  fn = NULL,
  apply_to = c("fill", "text"),
  autocolor_text = TRUE,
  contrast_algo = c("apca", "wcag"),
  colors = NULL
)

Arguments

data

The gt table data object

obj:<gt_tbl> // required

This is the gt table object that is commonly created through use of the gt() function.

columns

Columns to target

<column-targeting expression> // default: everything()

The columns to which cell data color operations are constrained. Can either be a series of column names provided in c(), a vector of column indices, or a select helper function (e.g. starts_with(), ends_with(), contains(), matches(), num_range(), and everything()).

rows

Rows to target

<row-targeting expression> // default: everything()

In conjunction with columns, we can specify which of their rows should form a constraint for cell data color operations. The default everything() results in all rows in columns being formatted. Alternatively, we can supply a vector of row IDs within c(), a vector of row indices, or a select helper function (e.g. starts_with(), ends_with(), contains(), matches(), num_range(), and everything()). We can also use expressions to filter down to the rows we need (e.g., [colname_1] > 100 & [colname_2] < 50).

direction

Color computation direction

singl-kw:[column|row] // default: "column"

Should the color computations be performed column-wise or row-wise? By default this is set with the "column" keyword and colors will be applied down columns. The alternative option with the "row" keyword ensures that the color mapping works across rows.

target_columns

Indirect columns to target

<row-targeting expression> // default: NULL optional

For indirect column coloring treatments, we can supply the columns that will receive the styling. The necessary precondition is that we must use direction = "column". If columns resolves to a single column then we may use one or more columns in target_columns. If on the other hand columns resolves to multiple columns, then target_columns must resolve to the same multiple.

method

Color computation method

singl-kw:[auto|numeric|bin|quantile|factor] // default: "auto"

A method for computing color based on the data within body cells. Can be "auto" (the default), "numeric", "bin", "quantile", or "factor". The "auto" method will automatically choose the "numeric" method for numerical input data or the "factor" method for any non-numeric inputs.

palette

Color palette

vector<character> // default: NULL (optional)

A vector of color names, a color class that can be cast to a vector of color names, the name of an RColorBrewer palette, the name of a viridis palette, or a discrete palette accessible from the paletteer package using the <package>::<palette> syntax (e.g., "wesanderson::IsleofDogs1"). If providing a vector of colors as a palette, each color value provided must either be a color name (Only R/X11 color names or CSS 3.0 color names) or a hexadecimal string in the form of "#RRGGBB" or "#RRGGBBAA". If nothing is provided here, the default R color palette is used (i.e., the colors from palette()).

domain

Value domain

vector<numeric|integer|character> // default: NULL (optional)

The possible values that can be mapped. For the "numeric" and "bin" methods, this can be a numeric range specified with a length of two vector. Representative numeric data is needed for the "quantile" method and categorical data must be used for the "factor" method. If NULL (the default value), the values in each column or row (depending on direction) value will represent the domain.

bins

Specification of bin number

scalar<numeric|integer> // default: 8

For method = "bin" this can either be a numeric vector of two or more unique cut points, or, a single numeric value (greater than or equal to 2) giving the number of intervals into which the domain values are to be cut. By default, this is 8.

quantiles

Specification of quantile number

scalar<numeric|integer> // default: 4

For method = "quantile" this is the number of equal-size quantiles to use. By default, this is set to 4.

levels

Specification of factor levels

vector<character> // default: NULL (optional)

For method = "factor" this allows for an alternate way of specifying levels. If anything is provided here then any value supplied to domain will be ignored. This should be a character vector of unique values.

ordered

Use an ordered factor

scalar<logical> // default: FALSE

For method = "factor", setting this to TRUE means that the vector supplied to domain will be treated as being in the correct order if that vector needs to be coerced to a factor. By default, this is FALSE.

na_color

Default color for NA values

scalar<character> // default: NULL (optional)

The color to use for missing values. By default (with na_color = NULL), the color gray ("#808080") will be used. This option has no effect if providing a color-mapping function to fn.

alpha

Transparency value

scalar<numeric|integer>(0>=val>=1) // default: NULL (optional)

An optional, fixed alpha transparency value that will be applied to all color palette values (regardless of whether a color palette was directly supplied in palette or generated through a color mapping function via fn).

reverse

Reverse order of computed colors

scalar<logical> // default: FALSE

Should the colors computed operate in the reverse order? If TRUE then colors that normally change from red to blue will change in the opposite direction.

fn

Color-mapping function

function // default: NULL (optional)

A color-mapping function. The function should be able to take a vector of data values as input and return an equal-length vector of color values. The scales::col_*() functions (i.e.,scales::col_numeric(), scales::col_bin(), and scales::col_factor()) can be invoked here with options, as those functions themselves return a color-mapping function.

apply_to

How to apply color

singl-kw:[fill|text] // default: "fill"

Which style element should the colors be applied to? Options include the cell background (the default, given as "fill") or the cell text ("text").

autocolor_text

Automatically recolor text

scalar<logical> // default: TRUE

An option to let gt modify the coloring of text within cells undergoing background coloring. This will result in better text-to-background color contrast. By default, this is set to TRUE.

contrast_algo

Color contrast algorithm choice

singl-kw:[apca|wcag] // default: "apca"

The color contrast algorithm to use when autocolor_text = TRUE. By default this is "apca" (Accessible Perceptual Contrast Algorithm) and the alternative to this is "wcag" (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

colors

Deprecated Color mapping function

function // default: NULL (optional)

This argument is deprecated. Use the fn argument instead to provide a scales-based color-mapping function. If providing a palette, use the palette argument.

Value

An object of class gt_tbl.

Color computation methods

data_color() offers four distinct methods for computing color based on cell data values. They are set by the method argument and the options go by the keywords "numeric", "bin", "quantile", and "factor". There are other arguments in data_color() that variously support these methods (e.g., bins for the "bin" method, etc.). Here we'll go through each method, providing a short explanation of what each one does and which options are available.

"numeric"

The "numeric" method provides a simple linear mapping from continuous numeric data to an interpolated palette. Internally, this uses scales::col_numeric(). This method is suited for numeric data cell values and can make use of a supplied domain value, in the form of a two-element numeric vector describing the range of values, if provided.

"bin"

The "bin" method provides a mapping of continuous numeric data to value-based bins. Internally, this uses scales::col_bin() which itself uses base::cut(). As with the "numeric" method, "bin" is meant for numeric data cell values. The use of a domain value is supported with this method. The bins argument in data_color() is specific to this method, offering the ability to: (1) specify the number of bins, or (2) provide a vector of cut points.

"quantile"

The "quantile" method provides a mapping of continuous numeric data to quantiles. Internally, this uses scales::col_quantile() which itself uses stats::quantile(). Input data cell values should be numeric, as with the "numeric" and "bin" methods. A numeric domain value is supported with this method. The quantiles argument in data_color() controls the number of equal-size quantiles to use.

"factor"

The "factor" method provides a mapping of factors to colors. With discrete palettes, color interpolation is used when the number of factors does not match the number of colors in the palette. Internally, this uses scales::col_factor(). Input data cell values can be of any type (i.e., factor, character, numeric values, and more are supported). The optional input to domain should take the form of categorical data. The levels and ordered arguments in data_color() support this method.

Color palette access from RColorBrewer and viridis

All palettes from the RColorBrewer package and select palettes from viridis can be accessed by providing the palette name in palette. RColorBrewer has 35 available palettes:

	Palette Name	Colors	Category	Colorblind Friendly
1	"BrBG"	11	Diverging	Yes
2	"PiYG"	11	Diverging	Yes
3	"PRGn"	11	Diverging	Yes
4	"PuOr"	11	Diverging	Yes
5	"RdBu"	11	Diverging	Yes
6	"RdYlBu"	11	Diverging	Yes
7	"RdGy"	11	Diverging	No
8	"RdYlGn"	11	Diverging	No
9	"Spectral"	11	Diverging	No
10	"Dark2"	8	Qualitative	Yes
11	"Paired"	12	Qualitative	Yes
12	"Set1"	9	Qualitative	No
13	"Set2"	8	Qualitative	Yes
14	"Set3"	12	Qualitative	No
15	"Accent"	8	Qualitative	No
16	"Pastel1"	9	Qualitative	No
17	"Pastel2"	8	Qualitative	No
18	"Blues"	9	Sequential	Yes
19	"BuGn"	9	Sequential	Yes
20	"BuPu"	9	Sequential	Yes
21	"GnBu"	9	Sequential	Yes
22	"Greens"	9	Sequential	Yes
23	"Greys"	9	Sequential	Yes
24	"Oranges"	9	Sequential	Yes
25	"OrRd"	9	Sequential	Yes
26	"PuBu"	9	Sequential	Yes
27	"PuBuGn"	9	Sequential	Yes
28	"PuRd"	9	Sequential	Yes
29	"Purples"	9	Sequential	Yes
30	"RdPu"	9	Sequential	Yes
31	"Reds"	9	Sequential	Yes
32	"YlGn"	9	Sequential	Yes
33	"YlGnBu"	9	Sequential	Yes
34	"YlOrBr"	9	Sequential	Yes
35	"YlOrRd"	9	Sequential	Yes

We can access four colorblind-friendly palettes from viridis: "viridis", "magma", "plasma", and "inferno". Simply provide any one of those names to palette.

Color palette access from paletteer

Choosing the right color palette can often be difficult because it's both hard to discover suitable palettes and then obtain the vector of colors. To make this process easier we can elect to use the paletteer package, which makes a wide range of palettes from various R packages readily available. The info_paletteer() information table allows us to easily inspect all of the discrete color palettes available in paletteer. We only then need to specify the palette and associated package using the <package>::<palette> syntax (e.g., "tvthemes::Stannis") for the palette argument.

A requirement for using paletteer in this way is that the package must be installed (gt doesn't import paletteer currently). This can be easily done with install.packages("paletteer"). Not having this package installed with result in an error when using the <package>::<palette> syntax in palette.

Foreground text and background fill

By default, gt will choose the ideal text color (for maximal contrast) when colorizing the background of data cells. This option can be disabled by setting autocolor_text to FALSE. The contrast_algo argument lets us choose between two color contrast algorithms: "apca" (Accessible Perceptual Contrast Algorithm, the default algo) and "wcag" (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

Examples

data_color() can be used without any supplied arguments to colorize a gt table. Let's do this with the exibble dataset:

exibble |>
  gt() |>
  data_color()

What's happened is that data_color() applies background colors to all cells of every column with the default palette in R (accessed through palette()). The default method for applying color is "auto", where numeric values will use the "numeric" method and character or factor values will use the "factor" method. The text color undergoes an automatic modification that maximizes contrast (since autocolor_text is TRUE by default).

You can use any of the available method keywords and gt will only apply color to the compatible values. Let's use the "numeric" method and supply palette values of "red" and "green".

exibble |>
  gt() |>
  data_color(
    method = "numeric",
    palette = c("red", "green")
  )

With those options in place we see that only the numeric columns num and currency received color treatments. Moreover, the palette colors were mapped to the lower and upper limits of the data in each column; interpolated colors were used for the values in between the numeric limits of the two columns.

We can constrain the cells to which coloring will be applied with the columns and rows arguments. Further to this, we can manually set the limits of the data with the domain argument (which is preferable in most cases). Here, the domain will be set as domain = c(0, 50).

exibble |>
  gt() |>
  data_color(
    columns = currency,
    rows = currency < 50,
    method = "numeric",
    palette = c("red", "green"),
    domain = c(0, 50)
  )

We can use any of the palettes available in the RColorBrewer and viridis packages. Let's make a new gt table from a subset of the countrypops dataset. Then, through data_color(), we'll apply coloring to the population column with the "numeric" method, use a domain between 2.5 and 3.4 million, and specify palette = "viridis".

countrypops |>
  dplyr::select(-contains("code")) |>
  dplyr::filter(
    country_name == "Bangladesh",
    year %in% 2012:2021
  ) |>
  gt() |>
  data_color(
    columns = population,
    method = "numeric",
    palette = "viridis",
    domain = c(150E6, 170E6),
    reverse = TRUE
  )

We can alternatively use the fn argument for supplying the scales-based function scales::col_numeric(). That function call will itself return a function (which is what the fn argument actually requires) that takes a vector of numeric values and returns color values. Here is an alternate version of the code that returns the same table as in the previous example.

countrypops |>
  dplyr::select(-contains("code")) |>
  dplyr::filter(
    country_name == "Bangladesh",
    year %in% 2012:2021
  ) |>
  gt() |>
  data_color(
    columns = population,
    fn = scales::col_numeric(
      palette = "viridis",
      domain = c(150E6, 170E6),
      reverse = TRUE
    )
  )

Using your own function in fn can be very useful if you want to make use of specialized arguments in the scales::col_*() functions. You could even supply your own specialized function for performing complex colorizing treatments!

data_color() has a way to apply colorization indirectly to other columns. That is, you can apply colors to a column different from the one used to generate those specific colors. The trick is to use the target_columns argument. Let's do this with a more complete countrypops-based table example.

countrypops |>
  dplyr::filter(country_code_3 %in% c("FRA", "GBR")) |>
  dplyr::filter(year %% 10 == 0) |>
  dplyr::select(-contains("code")) |>
  dplyr::mutate(color = "") |>
  gt(groupname_col = "country_name") |>
  fmt_integer(columns = population) |>
  data_color(
    columns = population,
    target_columns = color,
    method = "numeric",
    palette = "viridis",
    domain = c(4E7, 7E7)
  ) |>
  cols_label(
    year = "",
    population = "Population",
    color = ""
  ) |>
  opt_vertical_padding(scale = 0.65)

When specifying a single column in columns we can use as many target_columns values as we want. Let's make another countrypops-based table where we map the generated colors from the year column to all columns in the table. This time, the palette used is "inferno" (also from the viridis package).

countrypops |>
  dplyr::filter(country_code_3 %in% c("FRA", "GBR", "ITA")) |>
  dplyr::select(-contains("code")) |>
  dplyr::filter(year %% 5 == 0) |>
  tidyr::pivot_wider(
    names_from = "country_name",
    values_from = "population"
  ) |>
  gt() |>
  fmt_integer(columns = c(everything(), -year)) |>
  cols_width(
    year ~ px(80),
    everything() ~ px(160)
  ) |>
  opt_all_caps() |>
  opt_vertical_padding(scale = 0.75) |>
  opt_horizontal_padding(scale = 3) |>
  data_color(
    columns = year,
    target_columns = everything(),
    palette = "inferno"
  ) |>
  tab_options(
    table_body.hlines.style = "none",
    column_labels.border.top.color = "black",
    column_labels.border.bottom.color = "black",
    table_body.border.bottom.color = "black"
  )

Now, it's time to use pizzaplace to create a gt table. The color palette to be used is the "ggsci::red_material" one (it's in the ggsci R package but also obtainable from the paletteer package). Colorization will be applied to the to the sold and income columns. We don't have to specify those in columns because those are the only columns in the table. Also, the domain is not set here. We'll use the bounds of the available data in each column.

pizzaplace |>
  dplyr::group_by(type, size) |>
  dplyr::summarize(
    sold = dplyr::n(),
    income = sum(price),
    .groups = "drop_last"
  ) |>
  dplyr::group_by(type) |>
  dplyr::mutate(f_sold = sold / sum(sold)) |>
  dplyr::mutate(size = factor(
    size, levels = c("S", "M", "L", "XL", "XXL"))
  ) |>
  dplyr::arrange(type, size) |>
  gt(
    rowname_col = "size",
    groupname_col = "type"
  ) |>
  fmt_percent(
    columns = f_sold,
    decimals = 1
  ) |>
  cols_merge(
    columns = c(size, f_sold),
    pattern = "{1} ({2})"
  ) |>
  cols_align(align = "left", columns = stub()) |>
  data_color(
    method = "numeric",
    palette = "ggsci::red_material"
  )

Colorization can occur in a row-wise manner. The key to making that happen is by using direction = "row". Let's use the sza dataset to make a gt table. Then, color will be applied to values across each 'month' of data in that table. This is useful when not setting a domain as the bounds of each row will be captured, coloring each cell with values relative to the range. The palette is "PuOr" from the RColorBrewer package (only the name here is required).

sza |>
  dplyr::filter(latitude == 20 & tst <= "1200") |>
  dplyr::select(-latitude) |>
  dplyr::filter(!is.na(sza)) |>
  tidyr::spread(key = "tst", value = sza) |>
  gt(rowname_col = "month") |>
  sub_missing(missing_text = "") |>
  data_color(
    direction = "row",
    palette = "PuOr",
    na_color = "white"
  )

Notice that na_color = "white" was used, and this avoids the appearance of gray cells for the missing values (we also removed the "NA" text with sub_missing(), opting for empty strings).

Function ID

3-36

Function Introduced

v0.2.0.5 (March 31, 2020)

See also

Other data formatting functions: fmt(), fmt_auto(), fmt_bins(), fmt_bytes(), fmt_chem(), fmt_country(), fmt_currency(), fmt_date(), fmt_datetime(), fmt_duration(), fmt_email(), fmt_engineering(), fmt_flag(), fmt_fraction(), fmt_icon(), fmt_image(), fmt_index(), fmt_integer(), fmt_markdown(), fmt_number(), fmt_partsper(), fmt_passthrough(), fmt_percent(), fmt_roman(), fmt_scientific(), fmt_spelled_num(), fmt_tf(), fmt_time(), fmt_units(), fmt_url(), sub_large_vals(), sub_missing(), sub_small_vals(), sub_values(), sub_zero()