How to embed escape characters ("\n", "\t") into dataframe?

Question

How to insert escape characters into dataframe?

It will be useful for the formatting of text data into table packages.

We could be use one universal solution for every table package (my hope).

But now we should employ a lot of approaches for the every case (depends on libraries and output formates: pdf, html).

It is really uncomfortable!

For example, we have next data

df <- data.frame("names" = c("a long long long long long ... pretty long name of the our story","Here is also long, but a little shorter"))

We see a normal output

                                                             names
1 a long long long long long ... pretty long name of the our story
2                          Here is also long, but a little shorter

But how we can achieve this output ("\n")?

                                                             names
1                                       a long long long long long 
                             ... pretty long name of the our story
2                          Here is also long, but a little shorter

---

I promised to add a simple example:

knit to HTML, in PDF doesn't work

```{r warning = FALSE, echo = FALSE, message=FALSE, include=FALSE,}
library(flextable)
library(gt)

#data
df <- data.frame("names" = c("a long long long \n long long ... <br> pretty long name of the our story","Here is also long, but a little shorter"))
#table one
table3 <- flextable(df)
table3 <- set_table_properties(table3, layout = "autofit", width = .5)
table3

#table two
table4 <- gt(df) %>% fmt_markdown(columns = everything())
table4
```

<center>
<caption>Table in flextable </caption>
</center>
`r table3`

<center>
<caption>Table in gt </caption>
</center>
`r table4`

In the first case - works \n, in the second - /br/ and there are only two packages!

Answer 1

Don't add any line breaks to your text!! This is absolutely unnecessary. All you need is the skillful use of the kableExtra package. Note the code below is the content from the RMarkdown. The document created with it can be found here.

Add everything from ## RMarkdown Start to ## RMarkdown End to RMarkdown Of course, don't forget to remove the comment characters before the code blocks (#```)!!

## RMarkdown Start
---
title: "LongText"
author: "Marek Fiołka"
date: "30 11 2021"
output:
  html_document: default
  pdf_document: default
---

#```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE)
#```

Prepare data frame with long text

#```{r echo=TRUE, message=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(stringi)
library(tidyverse)
library(kableExtra)

n=50
df = tibble(
  id = 1:n,
  txt = stri_rand_lipsum(n)
)
#```

See the data frame in a typical display

#```{r}
print(df)
#```

View data frame formatted with Kable Extra for HTML

#```{r}
df %>% kbl() %>%
  kable_styling()
#```

View data frame formatted with Kable Extra for PDF

#```{r}
df %>% kbl() %>%
  kable_paper(full_width = F) %>%
  column_spec(1, bold = T, border_right = T) %>%
  column_spec(2, width = "30em")

## RMarkdown End

This way you can create not only html documents but also corresponding pdf documents. Below is a fragment of a document created in this format. Note that in this case you have to use kable_paper with column_spec instead of kable_styling.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Update

## RMarkdown Start
---
title: "LongText"
author: "Marek Fiołka"
date: "30 11 2021"
output:
  pdf_document: default
  html_document: default
---

#```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE)
#```

Prepare data frame with long text

#```{r echo=TRUE, message=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(stringi)
library(tidyverse)
library(kableExtra)

n=10
df = tibble(
  id = 1:n,
  txt = stri_rand_lipsum(n)
)
#```

See the data frame in a typical display

#```{r echo=TRUE}
print(df)
#```

View data frame formatted with [kableExtra](http://haozhu233.github.io/kableExtra/) for HTML

#```{r}
df %>% kbl() %>%
  kable_styling()
#```

View data frame formatted with [kableExtra](http://haozhu233.github.io/kableExtra/) for PDF

#```{r}
df %>% kbl() %>%
  kable_paper(full_width = F) %>%
  column_spec(1, bold = T, border_right = T) %>%
  column_spec(2, width = "30em")

#```

View data frame formatted with [gt](https://gt.rstudio.com/index.html) (only for HTML)

#```{r}
library(gt)
df %>% gt %>% 
  fmt_markdown(columns = everything()) %>%
    tab_options(table.width = px(400))
#```

View data frame formatted with [flextable](https://davidgohel.github.io/flextable/articles/overview.html) HTML & PDF

#```{r message=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(flextable)

df %>% flextable %>% width(2, width = 6, unit = "in")
#```

View data frame formatted with [huxtable](https://hughjonesd.github.io/huxtable/) HTML & PDF

#```{r message=FALSE, warning=FALSE}
library(huxtable)

df %>% as_hux %>% 
  set_width(1) %>% 
  set_right_border(everywhere, 1, brdr(3, "double", "grey"))
#```
## RMarkdown End