Write a kable object to a file — write

A wrapper around kableExtra::save_kable that facilitates saving kable objects within knitr documents. Automatically handles file naming, directory creation, and supports multiple output formats with Bootstrap theming options.

Usage

write_kbl(
  kbl_obj,
  file = NULL,
  target_dir = NULL,
  device = "pdf",
  bs_theme = "bootstrap",
  ...
)

Arguments

kbl_obj: The knitr_kable object to be written.
file: The name of the file to be written. If not specified, the name will be based on the current knitr code block label.
target_dir: The directory where the file will be written. If not specified, the current working directory will be used.
device: The device to be used for saving the file. Options include "pdf" (default), "html", "latex", "png", and "jpeg". Note that a Chromium-based browser (e.g., Google Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge or Brave) is required on your system for all options except "latex'. If a suitable browser is not available, the function will stop and return an error message.
bs_theme: The Bootstrap theme to be applied to the kable object (only applicable for HTML output). Default is "bootstrap".
...: Additional arguments to be passed to the save_kable function from the kableExtra package.

Value

The path of the written file.

Details

The function extends save_kable functionality by:

Using knitr code block labels for automatic file naming
Creating target directories if they don't exist
Supporting multiple output formats (PDF, HTML, LaTeX, PNG, JPEG)
Applying Bootstrap themes for HTML output
Preserving table styling and formatting

For HTML output, the function supports all Bootstrap themes available in kableExtra. The default theme is "bootstrap".

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
library(knitr)

table_dir <- file.path(tempdir(), "table")

mtcars_kbl <- kable(
  x = mtcars[1:5, ],
  format = "html"
)

# Write a kable object as a PDF file
write_kbl(
  kbl_obj = mtcars_kbl,
  file = "kable_pdf",
  target_dir = table_dir,
  device = "pdf"
)

# Write a kable as an HTML file with a custom Bootstrap theme
write_kbl(
  kbl_obj = mtcars_kbl,
  file = "kable_html",
  target_dir = table_dir,
  device = "html",
  bs_theme = "flatly"
)

unlink(table_dir)
} # }