Hiding NA's when printing a dataframe in knitr

Question

I'm trying to print a table in knitr from a data frame using xtable . The table in the example below has the dimensions 3x7 but the third row only has one value, in the second column. The rest of the cells in the third row are 'NA'.

When I compile the document, is there a way to prevent knitr from printing the NA's in the third row, so instead of NA I just have blank space?

It feels like this should be a simple solution but I can't work out where/how to hide the NA's. Is it a change I need to make to the data frame or is it an xtable or knitr option I need to change?

Sample knitr code:

\documentclass{article}

<< data1, echo=FALSE,  warning=FALSE, message=FALSE >>=

require(xtable)

  FY.2014 <- 0.019
  FY.2015 <- ((7000)  - (6925.9)) / (6925.9)
  FY.2016 <- ((8000)  - (7000))   / (7000)
  FY.2017 <- ((9000)  - (8000))   / (8000)
  FY.2018 <- ((10000) - (9000))   / (9000)
  FY.2019 <- ((11000) - (10000))  / (10000)

  PC      <- data.frame(FY.2014, FY.2015, FY.2016, FY.2017, FY.2018, FY.2019)
  PC.1    <- paste(round(PC*100, digits=1), "%", sep="")


 FY.2014 <- 130.1
 FY.2015 <- 7000  - 6925.9
 FY.2016 <- 8000  - 7000
 FY.2017 <- 9000  - 8000
 FY.2018 <- 10000 - 9000
 FY.2019 <- 11000 - 10000

 AB      <- data.frame(FY.2014, FY.2015, FY.2016, FY.2017, FY.2018, FY.2019)
 AB.1    <- paste(round(AB , digits = 2))


    FY.2014 <- as.numeric(c(""))
    FY.2015 <- 7242.9
    FY.2016 <- as.numeric(c(""))
    FY.2017 <- as.numeric(c(""))
    FY.2018 <- as.numeric(c(""))
    FY.2019 <- as.numeric(c(""))

    PF      <- data.frame(FY.2014, FY.2015, FY.2016, FY.2017, FY.2018, FY.2019)
    PF.1    <- paste(round(PF , digits = 2))

     FTable  <- rbind( PC.1, AB.1, PF.1)

      rownames(FTable) <- c( 'Percent Change from the Previous Year', 
                             'Absolute Change from Previous Year', 
                             'December CY13 Forecast')
      colnames(FTable) <- c( 'FY 2014', 'FY 2015', 'FY 2016', 'FY 2017', 'FY 2018',    'FY 2019')

@ 

\begin{document}
<<Table 1 , echo=FALSE, eval=TRUE, results='asis', fig.width = 5, fig.height = 2,     message=FALSE, fig.align='center', warning=FALSE>>=

          xFTable  <- xtable(FTable, big.mark=",")

          print(xFTable) 
@
\end{document}

You could try `print(xFTable, na.print = "")` You may have to use `print.default` or a different print method to print the doc. But `na.print` appears in quite a few print methods — Rich Scriven, Dec 23 '14 at 19:12
Or if you are happy with `markdown` tables instead of LaTeX, then you could use [`pander`](http://rapporter.github.io/pander/#markdown-tables) where you can specify how to print `NA`s with the `missing` argument or [global option](http://rapporter.github.io/pander/#general-options). — daroczig, Dec 23 '14 at 20:44
Thanks for the suggestion but I tried print(xFTable, na.print="") without any success. I didn't find na.print in the xtable documentation. — Matt, Dec 24 '14 at 15:35

svannoy · Answer 1 · 2016-11-25T19:05:21.783

103

You can set the knitr option knitr.kable.na = '' '' for blanks, or whatever character you want.

```{r echo=FALSE, results='asis'}
    options(knitr.kable.NA = '')
    knitr::kable(lowerTri, digits=2)
```

edited Nov 25 '16 at 19:05

answered Nov 24 '16 at 23:04

svannoy

1,935
2
14
14

1

Where do you set it ? It doesn't work for me. Is it `knitr.kable.na` or `knitr.kable.NA` ? Do you use simple or double quotes ? – Costin Nov 25 '16 at 11:33
3

@Costin, I've added context, I place it in a code chunk. – svannoy Nov 25 '16 at 19:06
2

You need to use `knitr` version 1.15 or above: https://github.com/yihui/knitr/releases/tag/v1.15. – Matt Dec 01 '16 at 18:47
1

This solution also works for `papaja`s `apa_table` function (adding the comment to help internet search engines) – Mikko Jun 20 '18 at 12:32
@svannoy is it possible to give a formatted string e.g. 'null' but so it prints in italics? – Ryan Hill Dec 17 '18 at 19:38
For `kableExtra` users, make sure to load `kable` as well! I just figured. – Matthew Son Jun 13 '23 at 16:15

r2evans · Answer 2 · 2016-06-23T23:07:16.260

5

The trick I use is a bit brute-force, but it appears to work (in my use-cases, that is):

out <- knitr::kable(...)
cat(gsub('\\bNA\\b', '  ', out), sep='\n')

edited Jun 23 '16 at 23:07

answered Apr 29 '15 at 20:24

r2evans

141,215
6
77
149

I guess `'\\bNA\\n'` should be `'\\bNA\\b'`? – YvanR Jun 23 '16 at 22:57
This answer should not longer be relevant given recent changes to `knitr`. I suggest using @svannoy's answer instead. – r2evans May 24 '17 at 18:48
In my case (Knit to pdf) it turned out to very useful, since the "newer" solution didn't work -- thanks! – Will Jan 28 '18 at 23:59

Hiding NA's when printing a dataframe in knitr

2 Answers2

Linked

Related