Add options for specialized environments before and after LaTeX table code

[rich-iannone]

This new issue is based on a comment from @kuriwaki from the closed issue https://github.com/rstudio/gt/issues/114.

xtable::print.xtable has an argument floating that either generates .tex with a float environment with captions \begin{table}... (the default), or without the floating environment and starts directly with \begin{tabular} (if set to FALSE). Both options would be great to have with the file export argument.

library(xtable)
library(ggplot2)

tab <- xtabs(~ cyl + drv, data = mpg)
xtbl <- xtable(tab)

print.xtable(xtbl, floating = TRUE)
#> % latex table generated in R 3.5.1 by xtable 1.8-3 package
#> % Sun Jan 13 15:28:24 2019
#> \begin{table}[ht]
#> \centering
#> \begin{tabular}{rrrr}
#>   \hline
#>  & 4 & f & r \\ 
#>   \hline
#> 4 &  23 &  58 &   0 \\ 
#>   5 &   0 &   4 &   0 \\ 
#>   6 &  32 &  43 &   4 \\ 
#>   8 &  48 &   1 &  21 \\ 
#>    \hline
#> \end{tabular}
#> \end{table}
print.xtable(xtbl, floating = FALSE)
#> % latex table generated in R 3.5.1 by xtable 1.8-3 package
#> % Sun Jan 13 15:28:24 2019
#> \begin{tabular}{rrrr}
#>   \hline
#>  & 4 & f & r \\ 
#>   \hline
#> 4 &  23 &  58 &   0 \\ 
#>   5 &   0 &   4 &   0 \\ 
#>   6 &  32 &  43 &   4 \\ 
#>   8 &  48 &   1 &  21 \\ 
#>    \hline
#> \end{tabular}

^{Created on 2019-01-13 by the reprex package (v0.2.1)}

[benediktclaus]

It would be great to control the floating of a table (as in LaTeX like \begin{table}[htbp]) and not just automatically break it. Or at least control the floating environment (table instead of lontable).

[AaronGullickson]

I want to second this suggestion. I am in the process of switching over to gt from kableExtra and this is the one thing making that transition difficult. IMO, a floating environment should be the default for any latex output.

[andrewheiss]

Hi! Just checking in on this, given advancements in Quarto. With Quarto it's possible to control figure position in PDF/LaTeX documents (see https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/figures.html#figure-position), with options like b, h, t, etc.

With {gt} tables, though, it isn't possible yet, leading to tables that span multiple pages and the general inability to position tables as floats, like this issue/discussion here: https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/discussions/7171