Add footnotes to flextable

The function let add footnotes to a flextable object by adding some symbols in the flextable and associated notes in the footer of the flextable.

Symbols are added to the cells designated by the selection i and j. If you use i = c(1,3) and j = c(2,5), then you will add the symbols (or the repeated symbol) to cells [1,2] and [3,5].

See https://www.ardata.fr/en/flextable-gallery/2022-06-23-separate-headers/ for the example shown

footnote(
  x,
  i = NULL,
  j = NULL,
  value,
  ref_symbols = NULL,
  part = "body",
  inline = FALSE,
  sep = "; "
)

Arguments

x

a flextable object

i, j

cellwise rows and columns selection

value

a call to function as_paragraph().

ref_symbols

character value, symbols to append that will be used as references to notes.

part

partname of the table (one of 'body', 'header', 'footer')

inline

whether to add footnote on same line as previous footnote or not

sep

used only when inline = TRUE, character string to use as a separator between footnotes.

Examples

ft_1 <- flextable(head(iris))
ft_1 <- footnote(ft_1,
  i = 1, j = 1:3,
  value = as_paragraph(
    c(
      "This is footnote one",
      "This is footnote two",
      "This is footnote three"
    )
  ),
  ref_symbols = c("a", "b", "c"),
  part = "header"
)
ft_1 <- valign(ft_1, valign = "bottom", part = "header")
ft_1 <- autofit(ft_1)

ft_2 <- flextable(head(iris))
ft_2 <- autofit(ft_2)
ft_2 <- footnote(ft_2,
  i = 1, j = 1:2,
  value = as_paragraph(
    c(
      "This is footnote one",
      "This is footnote two"
    )
  ),
  ref_symbols = c("a", "b"),
  part = "header", inline = TRUE
)
ft_2 <- footnote(ft_2,
  i = 1, j = 3:4,
  value = as_paragraph(
    c(
      "This is footnote three",
      "This is footnote four"
    )
  ),
  ref_symbols = c("c", "d"),
  part = "header", inline = TRUE
)
ft_2
Sepal.Lengtha
Sepal.Widthb
Petal.Lengthc
Petal.Widthd
Species
5.1
3.5
1.4
0.2
setosa
4.9
3.0
1.4
0.2
setosa
4.7
3.2
1.3
0.2
setosa
4.6
3.1
1.5
0.2
setosa
5.0
3.6
1.4
0.2
setosa
5.4
3.9
1.7
0.4
setosa
aThis is footnote one; bThis is footnote two; cThis is footnote three; dThis is footnote four; 

ft_3 <- flextable(head(iris))
ft_3 <- autofit(ft_3)
ft_3 <- footnote(
  x = ft_3, i = 1:3, j = 1:3,
  ref_symbols = "a",
  value = as_paragraph("This is footnote one")
)
ft_3
Sepal.Length
Sepal.Width
Petal.Length
Petal.Width
Species
5.1a
3.5
1.4
0.2
setosa
4.9
3.0a
1.4
0.2
setosa
4.7
3.2
1.3a
0.2
setosa
4.6
3.1
1.5
0.2
setosa
5.0
3.6
1.4
0.2
setosa
5.4
3.9
1.7
0.4
setosa
aThis is footnote one