reviewTable() summarizes a single column as a formatted
table listing each category, its contributing studies, frequency, and
percentage. It returns a gt object that renders
inline in HTML and can be exported to LaTeX. This article walks through
every argument of
reviewTable(data, col, sep = "\r\n", study_id = StudyID, latex = FALSE,
cite = FALSE, na.rm = TRUE, na_label = "Not reported",
na_in_percent = TRUE, na_last = FALSE)Default
Pass the data frame and a column. Column names may be bare or quoted. Each row is a distinct category, with its contributing study IDs, count, and percentage.
reviewTable(studies, Design)| Design | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCT | S06, S17, S20, S21, S22, S24, S28, S32, S37, S39, S45 | 11 | 22% |
| Qualitative | S01, S03, S08, S18, S33, S35, S38, S43, S49 | 9 | 18% |
| Mixed methods | S05, S50 | 2 | 4% |
| Cross-sectional | S04, S07, S09, S10, S11, S14, S19, S30, S34, S42, S44, S48 | 12 | 24% |
| Cohort | S02, S12, S15, S16, S25, S26, S29, S31, S40, S41, S46, S47 | 12 | 24% |
| Case-control | S13, S23, S27, S36 | 4 | 8% |
col: the column to summarize
Any categorical column works. Multi-value columns (cells holding
several values) are split first — see sep below.
Outcome stores several outcomes per study, so each value is
counted independently and its study list is the union of studies
reporting it:
reviewTable(studies, Outcome)| Outcome | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of life | S02, S03, S04, S06, S07, S10, S11, S13, S15, S16, S18, S19, S21, S22, S23, S25, S26, S27, S28, S31, S34, S35, S38, S39, S41, S43, S44, S48, S49, S50 | 30 | 60% |
| Pain | S04, S05, S07, S08, S09, S10, S13, S14, S16, S17, S18, S20, S22, S23, S25, S26, S27, S28, S29, S31, S32, S38, S39, S40, S42, S43, S47, S48, S49 | 29 | 58% |
| Function | S01, S04, S06, S07, S08, S09, S10, S12, S13, S14, S17, S18, S23, S24, S25, S28, S29, S30, S31, S33, S36, S37, S38, S40, S42, S44, S45, S46, S49 | 29 | 58% |
sep: multi-value separator
Multi-value cells are split on sep before counting. In
studies, Outcome uses newline separators
("\r\n", the default). If your data uses a different
delimiter, set sep. Here we rebuild a semicolon-separated
column to demonstrate:
studies_semi <- studies
studies_semi$Outcome <- gsub("\r\n", "; ", studies_semi$Outcome)
reviewTable(studies_semi, Outcome, sep = "; ")| Outcome | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality of life | S02, S03, S11, S15, S19, S21, S34, S35, S41, S50 | 10 | 20% |
| Pain Quality of life | S16, S22, S26, S27, S39, S43, S48 | 7 | 14% |
| Pain Function Quality of life | S04, S07, S10, S13, S18, S23, S25, S28, S31, S38, S49 | 11 | 22% |
| Pain Function | S08, S09, S14, S17, S29, S40, S42 | 7 | 14% |
| Pain | S05, S20, S32, S47 | 4 | 8% |
| Function Quality of life | S06, S44 | 2 | 4% |
| Function | S01, S12, S24, S30, S33, S36, S37, S45, S46 | 9 | 18% |
study_id: which column lists the contributing
studies
By default the studies column is filled from StudyID.
Point study_id at any other identifier column to list
studies differently — here, by author:
reviewTable(studies, Design, study_id = Author)| Design | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCT | Kim et al., Brown et al., Johansson et al., Santos et al., Park et al., Dubois et al., Tanaka et al., Nguyen et al., Takahashi et al., Reyes et al., Larsen et al. | 11 | 22% |
| Qualitative | Garcia et al., Mueller et al., Novak et al., Petrov et al., Schmidt et al., Eriksson et al., Popov et al., Torres et al., Sato et al. | 9 | 18% |
| Mixed methods | Johnson et al., Berg et al. | 2 | 4% |
| Cross-sectional | Patel et al., Silva et al., Ahmed et al., Taylor et al., Rossi et al., Okafor et al., Hassan et al., Olsen et al., Khan et al., Fischer et al., Nakamura et al., Kowalski et al. | 12 | 24% |
| Cohort | Chen et al., Yamamoto et al., Martinez et al., Li et al., Gupta et al., OBrien et al., Ivanov et al., Costa et al., Muller et al., Ali et al., Diaz et al., Suzuki et al. | 12 | 24% |
| Case-control | Andersen et al., Williams et al., Fernandez et al., Morales et al. | 4 | 8% |
latex: emit LaTeX instead of a gt table
With latex = TRUE, reviewTable() returns a
LaTeX representation of the table (via gt::as_latex())
rather than an HTML gt object. The result is a character
string of class litreview_latex; in a knitted document it
is emitted verbatim. Below we show the generated LaTeX source as text so
it is visible in this HTML article:
tex <- reviewTable(studies, Design, latex = TRUE)
cat("```latex", tex, "```", sep = "\n")\begin{table}[t]
\fontsize{12.0pt}{14.0pt}\selectfont
\begin{tabular*}{\linewidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}llrr}
\toprule
Design & Studies & Frequency & Percent \\
\midrule\addlinespace[2.5pt]
RCT & S06, S17, S20, S21, S22, S24, S28, S32, S37, S39, S45 & 11 & 22\% \\
Qualitative & S01, S03, S08, S18, S33, S35, S38, S43, S49 & 9 & 18\% \\
Mixed methods & S05, S50 & 2 & 4\% \\
Cross-sectional & S04, S07, S09, S10, S11, S14, S19, S30, S34, S42, S44, S48 & 12 & 24\% \\
Cohort & S02, S12, S15, S16, S25, S26, S29, S31, S40, S41, S46, S47 & 12 & 24\% \\
Case-control & S13, S23, S27, S36 & 4 & 8\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular*}
\end{table}Drop that block into a .tex document (it requires the
booktabs package) to typeset the table.
cite: render studies as \cite{} keys
cite = TRUE treats the study_id values as
BibTeX citation keys and wraps each row’s study list in a single
\cite{...} command — ideal for a manuscript. It is most
useful with study_id = bibKey (the dataset’s BibTeX keys)
and latex = TRUE:
tex <- reviewTable(studies, Design, study_id = bibKey,
latex = TRUE, cite = TRUE)
cat("```latex", tex, "```", sep = "\n")\begin{table}[t]
\fontsize{12.0pt}{14.0pt}\selectfont
\begin{tabular*}{\linewidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}llrr}
\toprule
Design & Studies & Frequency & Percent \\
\midrule\addlinespace[2.5pt]
RCT & \cite{author6_2021,author17_2019,author20_2020,author21_2018,author22_2018,author24_2021,author28_2022,author32_2020,author37_2020,author39_2023,author45_2022} & 11 & 22\% \\
Qualitative & \cite{author1_2018,author3_2018,author8_2019,author18_2019,author33_2019,author35_2019,author38_2024,author43_2023,author49_2019} & 9 & 18\% \\
Mixed methods & \cite{author5_2019,author50_2019} & 2 & 4\% \\
Cross-sectional & \cite{author4_2018,author7_2019,author9_2018,author10_2024,author11_2024,author14_2022,author19_2024,author30_2019,author34_2018,author42_2021,author44_2019,author48_2021} & 12 & 24\% \\
Cohort & \cite{author2_2022,author12_2021,author15_2023,author16_2021,author25_2022,author26_2024,author29_2021,author31_2021,author40_2019,author41_2021,author46_2021,author47_2022} & 12 & 24\% \\
Case-control & \cite{author13_2018,author23_2020,author27_2022,author36_2023} & 4 & 8\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular*}
\end{table}Each Studies cell now holds
\cite{author6_2021,author17_2019,...}, which resolves
against your .bib file at compile time.
Embedding in a LaTeX or R Markdown document
When your document compiles to PDF — an .Rnw (Sweave)
file, or an R Markdown document with a LaTeX/PDF output format — call
reviewTable(..., latex = TRUE) in a chunk and the table
typesets in place. The returned object carries a knit_print
method that emits the LaTeX verbatim, so no extra chunk options are
needed; in Sweave, the chunk option results = "asis"
achieves the same.
reviewTable(studies, Design, study_id = bibKey, latex = TRUE, cite = TRUE)That call expands to a complete table environment
(\begin{table} … \end{table}) — the same
source shown under latex
and cite
above. Two preamble requirements:
- The rules use booktabs (
\toprule,\midrule,\bottomrule), so load\usepackage{booktabs}. - With
cite = TRUE, load a citation package (\usepackage{natbib}or\usepackage{biblatex}) and make sure the keys in yourstudy_idcolumn exist in the bibliography, so each\cite{...}resolves at compile time.
If your citation keys live in a column other than
StudyID, point study_id at it — for example
study_id = bibKey above, or any custom key column:
refs <- data.frame(
RefKey = c("smith2020", "doe2019", "lee2021", "smith2020"),
Design = c("RCT", "Cohort", "RCT", "Case-control"),
stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)
tex <- reviewTable(refs, Design, study_id = RefKey, latex = TRUE, cite = TRUE)
cat("```latex", tex, "```", sep = "\n")\begin{table}[t]
\fontsize{12.0pt}{14.0pt}\selectfont
\begin{tabular*}{\linewidth}{@{\extracolsep{\fill}}llrr}
\toprule
Design & Studies & Frequency & Percent \\
\midrule\addlinespace[2.5pt]
RCT & \cite{smith2020,lee2021} & 2 & 50\% \\
Cohort & \cite{doe2019} & 1 & 25\% \\
Case-control & \cite{smith2020} & 1 & 25\% \\
\bottomrule
\end{tabular*}
\end{table}Missing data: na.rm, na_label,
na_in_percent, na_last
These four arguments control how NA (and empty) cells
are treated. We use a column that actually has missing values —
FundingSource.
na.rm
By default na.rm = TRUE drops missing rows, but the
percentage denominator is still the full sample, so the shown
percentages need not sum to 100%:
reviewTable(studies, FundingSource)| FundingSource | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| University | S03, S12, S16, S20, S23, S29 | 6 | 12% |
| None | S02, S05, S15, S19, S25, S34, S35, S40, S43, S45 | 10 | 20% |
| Industry | S06, S09, S14, S17, S27, S31, S38, S48, S49 | 9 | 18% |
| Government | S07, S13, S24, S28, S32, S36, S37, S42, S47, S50 | 10 | 20% |
| Foundation | S04, S10, S11, S18 | 4 | 8% |
Set na.rm = FALSE to keep the missing rows as their own
category:
reviewTable(studies, FundingSource, na.rm = FALSE)| FundingSource | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| University | S03, S12, S16, S20, S23, S29 | 6 | 12% |
| Not reported | S01, S08, S21, S22, S26, S30, S33, S39, S41, S44, S46 | 11 | 22% |
| None | S02, S05, S15, S19, S25, S34, S35, S40, S43, S45 | 10 | 20% |
| Industry | S06, S09, S14, S17, S27, S31, S38, S48, S49 | 9 | 18% |
| Government | S07, S13, S24, S28, S32, S36, S37, S42, S47, S50 | 10 | 20% |
| Foundation | S04, S10, S11, S18 | 4 | 8% |
na_label
When missing rows are kept, na_label names that category
(default "Not reported"):
reviewTable(studies, FundingSource, na.rm = FALSE, na_label = "Unspecified")| FundingSource | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unspecified | S01, S08, S21, S22, S26, S30, S33, S39, S41, S44, S46 | 11 | 22% |
| University | S03, S12, S16, S20, S23, S29 | 6 | 12% |
| None | S02, S05, S15, S19, S25, S34, S35, S40, S43, S45 | 10 | 20% |
| Industry | S06, S09, S14, S17, S27, S31, S38, S48, S49 | 9 | 18% |
| Government | S07, S13, S24, S28, S32, S36, S37, S42, S47, S50 | 10 | 20% |
| Foundation | S04, S10, S11, S18 | 4 | 8% |
na_in_percent
With na_in_percent = FALSE the denominator excludes
missing rows, so the reported categories sum to 100%:
reviewTable(studies, FundingSource, na.rm = FALSE, na_in_percent = FALSE)| FundingSource | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| University | S03, S12, S16, S20, S23, S29 | 6 | 15.4% |
| Not reported | S01, S08, S21, S22, S26, S30, S33, S39, S41, S44, S46 | 11 | 28.2% |
| None | S02, S05, S15, S19, S25, S34, S35, S40, S43, S45 | 10 | 25.6% |
| Industry | S06, S09, S14, S17, S27, S31, S38, S48, S49 | 9 | 23.1% |
| Government | S07, S13, S24, S28, S32, S36, S37, S42, S47, S50 | 10 | 25.6% |
| Foundation | S04, S10, S11, S18 | 4 | 10.3% |
na_last
na_last = TRUE forces the missing-value row to the end
of the table regardless of its frequency:
reviewTable(studies, FundingSource, na.rm = FALSE, na_last = TRUE)| FundingSource | Studies | Frequency | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| University | S03, S12, S16, S20, S23, S29 | 6 | 12% |
| Not reported | S01, S08, S21, S22, S26, S30, S33, S39, S41, S44, S46 | 11 | 22% |
| None | S02, S05, S15, S19, S25, S34, S35, S40, S43, S45 | 10 | 20% |
| Industry | S06, S09, S14, S17, S27, S31, S38, S48, S49 | 9 | 18% |
| Government | S07, S13, S24, S28, S32, S36, S37, S42, S47, S50 | 10 | 20% |
| Foundation | S04, S10, S11, S18 | 4 | 8% |
Notes
reviewTable() returns a gt object (or, with
latex = TRUE, a LaTeX character string). Because the
default result is a plain gt table, you can pipe it into
any gt styling verb — gt::tab_header(),
gt::cols_label(), gt::opt_stylize(), and so on
— before printing, or export it with gt::gtsave() and
gt::as_latex().