The kable() function, “a very simple table generator,” is defined by the “knitr” package. The documentation page is retrievable via the Console - ?kable() or help(kable) - if the “knitr” package is attached.

The following example should output a table of the first six (6) rows of the “airquality” dataset.

# attaches the "knitr" package
library(knitr)

# loads the "airquality" dataset from the datasets package
data(airquality)

# creates a table of the first six (6) rows of "airquality"
kable(head(airquality), format = "markdown", digits = 2)
Ozone Solar.R Wind Temp Month Day
41 190 7.4 67 5 1
36 118 8.0 72 5 2
12 149 12.6 74 5 3
18 313 11.5 62 5 4
NA NA 14.3 56 5 5
28 NA 14.9 66 5 6

Please note that in the above, I specified format = “markdown”. This was unnecessary. If called within a .Rmd code chunk, and no format is specified, “markdown” will be defaulted to.

An additional package, “kableExtra,” enables straightforward formatting options (and provides a very friendly introduction to the pipe operator, %>%, if you haven’t yet come across it).The linked-to “kableExtra” CRAN page gives much greater coverage of the available formatting options.

library(kableExtra)

# For "kableExtra," we need to specify "html" format:
kable(head(airquality), digits = 2, format = "html", row.names = TRUE) %>%
  kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("striped", "hover"),
                full_width = F,
                font_size = 12,
                position = "left")
Ozone Solar.R Wind Temp Month Day
1 41 190 7.4 67 5 1
2 36 118 8.0 72 5 2
3 12 149 12.6 74 5 3
4 18 313 11.5 62 5 4
5 NA NA 14.3 56 5 5
6 28 NA 14.9 66 5 6

We can also apply formatting to specific columns or rows.

kable(head(airquality), digits = 2, format = "html", row.names = TRUE) %>%
  kable_styling(full_width = T,
                font_size = 15) %>%
  column_spec(column = 2, bold = TRUE) %>%  # columns must be specified by number
  column_spec(column = 5, width = "5cm") %>%
  row_spec(row = 0, color = "#660033") %>%  # row = 0 allows us to format the header
  row_spec(row = 2, italic = TRUE) %>%
  row_spec(row = 3, color = "#104e8b", background = "#d3d3d3") %>%
  row_spec(row = 4, monospace = TRUE) %>%
  row_spec(row = 5, underline = TRUE) %>%
  row_spec(row = 6, strikeout = TRUE)
Ozone Solar.R Wind Temp Month Day
1 41 190 7.4 67 5 1
2 36 118 8.0 72 5 2
3 12 149 12.6 74 5 3
4 18 313 11.5 62 5 4
5 NA NA 14.3 56 5 5
6 28 NA 14.9 66 5 6

Additionally, for larger data objects, we can create scrollable fixed-height or -width boxes.

kable(airquality, digits = 2, format = "html", row.names = TRUE) %>%
  kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("striped"),
                full_width = T,
                font_size = 15) %>%
   scroll_box(height = "300px")
Ozone Solar.R Wind Temp Month Day
1 41 190 7.4 67 5 1
2 36 118 8.0 72 5 2
3 12 149 12.6 74 5 3
4 18 313 11.5 62 5 4
5 NA NA 14.3 56 5 5
6 28 NA 14.9 66 5 6
7 23 299 8.6 65 5 7
8 19 99 13.8 59 5 8
9 8 19 20.1 61 5 9
10 NA 194 8.6 69 5 10
11 7 NA 6.9 74 5 11
12 16 256 9.7 69 5 12
13 11 290 9.2 66 5 13
14 14 274 10.9 68 5 14
15 18 65 13.2 58 5 15
16 14 334 11.5 64 5 16
17 34 307 12.0 66 5 17
18 6 78 18.4 57 5 18
19 30 322 11.5 68 5 19
20 11 44 9.7 62 5 20
21 1 8 9.7 59 5 21
22 11 320 16.6 73 5 22
23 4 25 9.7 61 5 23
24 32 92 12.0 61 5 24
25 NA 66 16.6 57 5 25
26 NA 266 14.9 58 5 26
27 NA NA 8.0 57 5 27
28 23 13 12.0 67 5 28
29 45 252 14.9 81 5 29
30 115 223 5.7 79 5 30
31 37 279 7.4 76 5 31
32 NA 286 8.6 78 6 1
33 NA 287 9.7 74 6 2
34 NA 242 16.1 67 6 3
35 NA 186 9.2 84 6 4
36 NA 220 8.6 85 6 5
37 NA 264 14.3 79 6 6
38 29 127 9.7 82 6 7
39 NA 273 6.9 87 6 8
40 71 291 13.8 90 6 9
41 39 323 11.5 87 6 10
42 NA 259 10.9 93 6 11
43 NA 250 9.2 92 6 12
44 23 148 8.0 82 6 13
45 NA 332 13.8 80 6 14
46 NA 322 11.5 79 6 15
47 21 191 14.9 77 6 16
48 37 284 20.7 72 6 17
49 20 37 9.2 65 6 18
50 12 120 11.5 73 6 19
51 13 137 10.3 76 6 20
52 NA 150 6.3 77 6 21
53 NA 59 1.7 76 6 22
54 NA 91 4.6 76 6 23
55 NA 250 6.3 76 6 24
56 NA 135 8.0 75 6 25
57 NA 127 8.0 78 6 26
58 NA 47 10.3 73 6 27
59 NA 98 11.5 80 6 28
60 NA 31 14.9 77 6 29
61 NA 138 8.0 83 6 30
62 135 269 4.1 84 7 1
63 49 248 9.2 85 7 2
64 32 236 9.2 81 7 3
65 NA 101 10.9 84 7 4
66 64 175 4.6 83 7 5
67 40 314 10.9 83 7 6
68 77 276 5.1 88 7 7
69 97 267 6.3 92 7 8
70 97 272 5.7 92 7 9
71 85 175 7.4 89 7 10
72 NA 139 8.6 82 7 11
73 10 264 14.3 73 7 12
74 27 175 14.9 81 7 13
75 NA 291 14.9 91 7 14
76 7 48 14.3 80 7 15
77 48 260 6.9 81 7 16
78 35 274 10.3 82 7 17
79 61 285 6.3 84 7 18
80 79 187 5.1 87 7 19
81 63 220 11.5 85 7 20
82 16 7 6.9 74 7 21
83 NA 258 9.7 81 7 22
84 NA 295 11.5 82 7 23
85 80 294 8.6 86 7 24
86 108 223 8.0 85 7 25
87 20 81 8.6 82 7 26
88 52 82 12.0 86 7 27
89 82 213 7.4 88 7 28
90 50 275 7.4 86 7 29
91 64 253 7.4 83 7 30
92 59 254 9.2 81 7 31
93 39 83 6.9 81 8 1
94 9 24 13.8 81 8 2
95 16 77 7.4 82 8 3
96 78 NA 6.9 86 8 4
97 35 NA 7.4 85 8 5
98 66 NA 4.6 87 8 6
99 122 255 4.0 89 8 7
100 89 229 10.3 90 8 8
101 110 207 8.0 90 8 9
102 NA 222 8.6 92 8 10
103 NA 137 11.5 86 8 11
104 44 192 11.5 86 8 12
105 28 273 11.5 82 8 13
106 65 157 9.7 80 8 14
107 NA 64 11.5 79 8 15
108 22 71 10.3 77 8 16
109 59 51 6.3 79 8 17
110 23 115 7.4 76 8 18
111 31 244 10.9 78 8 19
112 44 190 10.3 78 8 20
113 21 259 15.5 77 8 21
114 9 36 14.3 72 8 22
115 NA 255 12.6 75 8 23
116 45 212 9.7 79 8 24
117 168 238 3.4 81 8 25
118 73 215 8.0 86 8 26
119 NA 153 5.7 88 8 27
120 76 203 9.7 97 8 28
121 118 225 2.3 94 8 29
122 84 237 6.3 96 8 30
123 85 188 6.3 94 8 31
124 96 167 6.9 91 9 1
125 78 197 5.1 92 9 2
126 73 183 2.8 93 9 3
127 91 189 4.6 93 9 4
128 47 95 7.4 87 9 5
129 32 92 15.5 84 9 6
130 20 252 10.9 80 9 7
131 23 220 10.3 78 9 8
132 21 230 10.9 75 9 9
133 24 259 9.7 73 9 10
134 44 236 14.9 81 9 11
135 21 259 15.5 76 9 12
136 28 238 6.3 77 9 13
137 9 24 10.9 71 9 14
138 13 112 11.5 71 9 15
139 46 237 6.9 78 9 16
140 18 224 13.8 67 9 17
141 13 27 10.3 76 9 18
142 24 238 10.3 68 9 19
143 16 201 8.0 82 9 20
144 13 238 12.6 64 9 21
145 23 14 9.2 71 9 22
146 36 139 10.3 81 9 23
147 7 49 10.3 69 9 24
148 14 20 16.6 63 9 25
149 30 193 6.9 70 9 26
150 NA 145 13.2 77 9 27
151 14 191 14.3 75 9 28
152 18 131 8.0 76 9 29
153 20 223 11.5 68 9 30