Tibbles print numbers with three significant digits by default, switching to scientific notation if the available space is too small. Underlines are used to highlight groups of three digits. The display differs from the default display for data frames, see vignette("digits")
for an overview over the differences. This display works for many, but not for all use cases.
library(tibble)
The easiest way to customize the display of numbers and other data in a tibble is to define options. See ?pillar::pillar_options
for a comprehensive overview.
tibble(x = 123.4567)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 1
#> x
#> <dbl>
#> 1 123.4567
<- options(pillar.sigfig = 7)
old tibble(x = 123.4567)
#> # A tibble: 1 × 1
#> x
#> <dbl>
#> 1 123.4567
# Restore old options, see also rlang::local_options() for a more elegant way
options(old)
This changes the display of all columns. Read on to see how too specify display options on a column-by-column basis.
The new num()
constructor allows creating vectors that behave like numbers but allow customizing their display. Below a few examples are shown, see ?num
for a comprehensive overview. Similarly, char()
allows customizing the display of character columns.
num(-1:3, notation = "sci")
#> <pillar_num(sci)[5]>
#> [1] -1e0 0 1e0 2e0 3e0
tibble(
x4 = num(8:12 * 100 + 0.5, digits = 4),
x1 = num(8:12 * 100 + 0.5, digits = -1),
usd = num(8:12 * 100 + 0.5, digits = 2, label = "USD"),
percent = num(8:12 / 100 + 0.0005, label = "%", scale = 100),
eng = num(10^(-3:1), notation = "eng", fixed_exponent = -Inf),
si = num(10^(-3:1) * 123, notation = "si"),
char = char(paste(LETTERS, collapse = " "), shorten = "mid")
)
#> # A tibble: 5 × 7
#> x4 x1 usd percent eng si char
#> <num:.4!> <num:.1> USD % <eng> <si> <char>
#> 1 800.5000 800.5 800.50 8.05 1e-3 123 m A B C D E F …T U V W X Y Z
#> 2 900.5000 900.5 900.50 9.05 10e-3 1.23 A B C D E F …T U V W X Y Z
#> 3 1000.5000 1000.5 1000.50 10.05 100e-3 12.3 A B C D E F …T U V W X Y Z
#> 4 1100.5000 1100.5 1100.50 11.05 1000e-3 123 A B C D E F …T U V W X Y Z
#> 5 1200.5000 1200.5 1200.50 12.05 10000e-3 1.23k A B C D E F …T U V W X Y Z
The pillar package that is responsible for the display of tibbles tries hard to get the number display right, however it is impossible to accommodate all use cases. Whenever the default formatting does not suit the application, num()
or char()
allow redefining the formatting for individual columns. The formatting survives most data transformations.
num
Formatting numbers is useful for presentation of results. If defined early on in the analysis, the formatting options survive most operations. It is worth defining output options that suit your data once early on in the process, to benefit from the formatting throughout the analysis. We are working on seamlessly applying this formatting to the final presentation (plots, tables, …).
When applying arithmetic operations on numbers created by num()
, the result inherits the formatting of the first num
object.
num(1) + 2
#> <pillar_num[1]>
#> [1] 3
1 + num(2)
#> <pillar_num[1]>
#> [1] 3
+ num(2) 1L
#> <pillar_num[1]>
#> [1] 3
num(3.23456, sigfig = 4) - num(2)
#> <pillar_num:4[1]>
#> [1] 1.235
num(4, sigfig = 2) * num(3, digits = 2)
#> <pillar_num:2[1]>
#> [1] 12
num(3, digits = 2) * num(4, sigfig = 2)
#> <pillar_num:.2![1]>
#> [1] 12.00
-num(2)
#> <pillar_num[1]>
#> [1] -2
Similarly, for mathematical operations, the formatting is inherited.
min(num(1:3, label = "$"))
#> <pillar_num{$}[1]>
#> [1] 1
mean(num(1:3, notation = "eng"))
#> <pillar_num(eng)[1]>
#> [1] 2e0
sin(num(1:3, label = "%", scale = 100))
#> <pillar_num{%}*100[3]>
#> [1] 84.14710 90.92974 14.11200
In some cases, the ideal formatting changes after a transformation. num()
can be applied repeatedly, the last setting wins.
num(1:3 + 0.125, digits = 4)
#> <pillar_num:.4![3]>
#> [1] 1.1250 2.1250 3.1250
<- 10 ^ num(1:3 + 0.125, digits = 4)
transf transf
#> <pillar_num:.4![3]>
#> [1] 13.3352 133.3521 1333.5214
num(transf, sigfig = 3)
#> <pillar_num:3[3]>
#> [1] 13.3 133. 1334.
The var()
function is one of the examples where the formatting is lost:
<- num(c(1, 2, 4), notation = "eng")
x var(x)
#> [1] 2.333333
One way to recover is to apply num()
to the result:
num(var(x), notation = "eng")
#> <pillar_num(eng)[1]>
#> [1] 2.333333e0
For automatic recovery, we can also define our version of var()
, or even overwrite the base implementation. Note that this pattern is still experimental and may be subject to change:
<- function(x, ...) {
var_ <- var(vctrs::vec_proxy(x), ...)
out ::vec_restore(out, x)
vctrs
}var_(x)
#> <pillar_num(eng)[1]>
#> [1] 2.333333e0
This pattern can be applied to all functions that lose the formatting. The make_restore()
function defined below is a function factory that consumes a function and returns a derived function:
<- function(fun) {
make_restore force(fun)
function(x, ...) {
<- fun(vctrs::vec_proxy(x), ...)
out ::vec_restore(out, x)
vctrs
}
}
<- make_restore(var)
var_ <- make_restore(sd)
sd_
var_(x)
#> <pillar_num(eng)[1]>
#> [1] 2.333333e0
sd_(x)
#> <pillar_num(eng)[1]>
#> [1] 1.527525e0