Automatically format column data according to their values

fmt_auto() will automatically apply formatting of various types in a way that best suits the data table provided. The function will attempt to format numbers such that they are condensed to an optimal width, either with scientific notation or large-number suffixing. Currency values are detected by currency codes embedded in the column name and formatted in the correct way. Although the functionality here is comprehensive it's still possible to reduce the scope of automatic formatting with the scope argument and also by choosing a subset of columns and rows to which the formatting will be applied.

Usage

fmt_auto(
  data,
  columns = everything(),
  rows = everything(),
  scope = c("numbers", "currency"),
  lg_num_pref = c("sci", "suf"),
  locale = 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()

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 undergo formatting. The default everything() results in all rows in columns being formatted. Alternatively, we can supply a vector of row captions 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).

scope

Scope of automatic formatting

mult-kw:[numbers|currency] // default: c("numbers", "currency")

By default, the function will format both "numbers"-type values and "currency"-type values though the scope can be reduced to a single type of value to format.

lg_num_pref

Large-number preference

singl-kw:[sci|suf] // default: "sci"

When large numbers are present, there can be a fixed preference toward how they are formatted. Choices are scientific notation for very small and very large values ("sci"), or, the use of suffixed numbers ("suf", for large values only).

locale

Locale identifier

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

An optional locale identifier that can be used for formatting values according the locale's rules. Examples include "en" for English (United States) and "fr" for French (France). We can call info_locales() for a useful reference for all of the locales that are supported. A locale ID can be also set in the initial gt() function call (where it would be used automatically by any function with a locale argument) but a locale value provided here will override that global locale.

Value

An object of class gt_tbl.

Examples

Use the exibble dataset to create a gt table. Format all of the columns automatically with the fmt_auto() function.

exibble |>
  gt() |>
  fmt_auto()

This image of a table was generated from the first code example in the `fmt_auto()` help file.

Let's now use the countrypops dataset to create another gt table. We'll again use fmt_auto() to automatically format all columns but this time the choice will be made to opt for large-number suffixing instead of scientific notation. This is done by using the lg_num_pref = "suf" option.

countrypops |>
  dplyr::select(country_code_3, year, population) |>
  dplyr::filter(country_code_3 %in% c("CHN", "IND", "USA", "PAK", "IDN")) |>
  dplyr::filter(year > 1975 & year %% 5 == 0) |>
  tidyr::spread(year, population) |>
  dplyr::arrange(desc(`2020`)) |>
  gt(rowname_col = "country_code_3") |>
  fmt_auto(lg_num_pref = "suf")

This image of a table was generated from the second code example in the `fmt_auto()` help file.

Function ID

3-29

Function Introduced

v0.9.0 (Mar 31, 2023)