Conditionally fill cells in specific columns with colour based on value in another column

Question

I have the following data frame:

col1 <- rep(c("A","B","C","D"),10)
col2 <- rep(c(1,0),10)
col3 <- rep(c(0,1),10)
col4 <- rep(c(1,0),10)
col5 <- rep(c(0,1),10)

test_df <- data.frame(col1, col2, col3, col4, col5, stringsAsFactors = F)

I would like to color specific row cells across multiple columns based on the values in col1, and also add a vertical line (indicating a limit) between two columns in the table (based on the same value in col1)

For example, if col1 == "A", then i want to color the cells in col2 and col5 grey, in the same row as col1 == A.

In dummy code:

if col1 == A: color columns(col2, col5), vert.line between col3 and col4
if col1 == B: color columns(col2, col3, col5), vert.line between col4 and col5
if col1 == C: color columns(col2, col4, col5), vert.line between col3 and col4
if col1 == D: color columns(col2, col5), vert.line between col2 and col3

I would like to specify these rules so they can easily be changed if necessary.

I want to end up with something like this (asterisks indicate cell coloring):

col1   col2   col3   col4   col5
A      *1*     0   | 1      *0*
B      *0*    *1*    0    | *1*
C      *1*    *0*  | 1      *0*
D      *0*  |  1     0      *1*
A      *1*     0   | 1      *0*
B      *0*    *1*    0    | *1*
C      *1*    *0*  | 1      *0*
D      *0*  |  1     0      *1*

I am presenting this in a table in a shiny app and markdown document. Is there any way to do this with f. ex xtable or dplyr?

Answer 1

There is a solution using tableHTML in combination with 2 functions to replicate the logic.

First, you need to create css for each column that provides the styling information that should be applied to the table. I have split it into 2 functions, one for the background, and one for the line between columns.

library(tableHTML)

The first function changes the colour of cells based on the value in col1 . You can change them by providing different colours in the arguments of the function.

get_background_column_css <- function(col1,
                                   a_col = "lightgray",
                                   b_col = "steelblue",
                                   c_col = "lightgreen",
                                   d_col = "indianred",
                                   default = "white") {
  # create css for col2
  background_color_col2 <- ifelse(col1 == "A", a_col, 
                      ifelse(col1 == "B", b_col,
                      ifelse(col1 == "C", c_col,
                      ifelse(col1 == "D", d_col, default
                             ))))
  css_col2 <- setNames(list(list(c("background-color"),
                     list(background_color_col2))), "col2")

  # create css for col3
  background_color_col3 <- ifelse(col1 == "B", b_col,
                                  ifelse(col1 == "C", c_col, default))
  css_col3 <- setNames(list(list(c("background-color"),
                                 list(background_color_col3))), "col3")
  # create css for col4
  background_color_col4 <- rep("", length(col1))
  css_col4 <- setNames(list(list(c("background-color"),
                                 list(background_color_col4))), "col4")
  # create css for col5
  background_color_col5 <- ifelse(col1 == "A", a_col, 
                                  ifelse(col1 == "B", b_col,
                                         ifelse(col1 == "C", c_col,
                                                ifelse(col1 == "D", d_col, default
                                                ))))
  css_col5 <- setNames(list(list(c("background-color"),
                                 list(background_color_col5))), "col5")

  list(css_col2, css_col3, css_col4, css_col5)
}

The second function adds a border between columns.

get_border_column_css <- function(col1) {
  # create css for col2
  border_col2 <- ifelse(col1 == "D", "1px solid black", "0px")
  css_col2 <- setNames(list(list(c("border-right"),
                                 list(border_col2))), "col2")
  # create css for col3
  border_col3 <- ifelse(col1 == "C", "1px solid black", "0px")
  css_col3 <- setNames(list(list(c("border-right"),
                                 list(border_col3))), "col3")
  # create css for col4
  border_col4 <- ifelse(col1 == "B", "1px solid black", "0px")
  css_col4 <- setNames(list(list(c("border-right"),
                                 list(border_col4))), "col4")
  # create css for col5
  border_col5 <- rep("0px", length(col1))
  css_col5 <- setNames(list(list(c("border-right"),
                                 list(border_col5))), "col5")

  list(css_col2, css_col3, css_col4, css_col5)
}

In order to test the function, I only use the first 4 rows (since they have all the combinations of possibilities):

test_df <- head(test_df, 4)

Next, I create 1 css list for the background-color and 1 css list for the border that can be supplied to add_css_conditional_column()

css_background = get_background_column_css(test_df$col1)
css_border = get_border_column_css(test_df$col1)

Next, I create a tableHTML object.

tableHTML <- tableHTML(test_df,
                       rownames = FALSE,
                       border = 0) 

Next, I add the background css in a loop to each column:

for (i in 1:4) {
  tableHTML <- tableHTML %>%
    add_css_conditional_column(conditional = "colour_rank",
                               colour_rank_css = css_background[[i]],
                               columns = names(test_df)[i + 1])
}

And the border css:

for (i in 1:4) {
  tableHTML <- tableHTML %>%
    add_css_conditional_column(conditional = "colour_rank",
                               colour_rank_css = css_border[[i]],
                               columns = names(test_df)[i + 1])
}

This is the result:

tableHTML

Answer 2

Here is a partial (doesn't do the custom line separation between columns) solution.

For the following, I leverage the package formattable .

The dataframe used is df as defined in your question.

library(formattable)
library(dplyr)

## Function that create the formula for the coloring of each row
## You could also personalize the color
color_row <- function(r,
                      c,
                      color = 'gray') {

  return(area(row = r, col = c) ~ color_tile(color, color))
}

## Create database that containes info on coloring pattern
df_color <- data_frame(col1 = c('A', 'B', 'C', 'D'),
                       limits = list(c(2,5), c(2,3,5), c(2,4,5), c(2,5)))


## Join it to original data.frame
df_join <- df %>% left_join(df_color) 

## Create list with all the appropriate formulas to color data frame
format_list <- mapply(color_row, r = 1:nrow(df), c = df_join$limits, color = 'gray')

## Pass it to formattable
df_final <- formattable(df,format_list) 

The result looks like this:

This can be easily used in RNotebook and Shiny. Following example codes for each (for the code below to work, you need the result of the previous code df_final to be in your environment):

---
title: "R Notebook"
output: html_notebook
---

```{r}
library(dplyr)
library(formattable)
format_table(df_final)
```

Shiny:

library(shiny)
library(formattable)
  # table example
  shinyApp(
    ui = fluidPage(
      fluidRow(
        column(12,
               formattableOutput('table')
        )
      )
    ),

    server = function(input, output) {


      output$table <- renderFormattable(df_final)
    }
  )