R Package Exploration 2

Introduction In this exercise, we will explore the functionality of the datatable package, create interactive tables using its features, and extend its functionality with a custom function.

Step 1: Package Discovery and Installation Installing and Loading the Package

# Install DT (if not already installed)
if (!requireNamespace("DT", quietly = TRUE)) {
  install.packages("DT")
}
library(DT)

## Warning: package 'DT' was built under R version 4.4.2

Exploring the Package Documentation

# Display package documentation
?datatable

## starting httpd help server ... done

# List vignettes for the package
browseVignettes("DT")

Step 2: Creating an Interactive Table We will use the built-in mtcars dataset to create a basic interactive table.

# Basic interactive table
datatable(mtcars)

Step 3: Customizing the Table You can add options like pagination, searching, and styling.

# Customizing the datatable
datatable(
  mtcars,
  options = list(
    pageLength = 5,
    searching = TRUE,
    autoWidth = TRUE
  ),
  caption = "Table 1: Custom Interactive Table of mtcars"
)

Step 4: Extending the Functionality Creating a Custom Function Define a function to add custom styles and features to a table.

customize_table <- function(data, title) {
  datatable(
    data,
    options = list(
      pageLength = 10,
      dom = 'Bfrtip',
      buttons = c('copy', 'csv', 'excel', 'pdf', 'print'),
      scrollX = TRUE
    ),
    extensions = 'Buttons',
    caption = title
  )
}

# Applying the custom function
custom_table <- customize_table(mtcars, "Table 2: Extended Interactive Table")
custom_table

Step 5: Exploring Additional Features The DT package provides more functionalities, like formatting numbers and conditional styling.

# Conditional styling and formatting
datatable(
  mtcars,
  options = list(pageLength = 5),
  caption = "Table 3: Styled Table"
) %>%
  formatStyle(
    'mpg',
    backgroundColor = styleInterval(c(20, 30), c('red', 'yellow', 'green'))
  )

Conclusion In this exercise, we:

Explored the datatable package and its documentation. Created interactive tables with DT. Customized and extended table functionalities using a custom function. This showcases the power of DT for creating highly customizable and interactive data tables in R.