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I cannot right-align the data in a column in a table (in the fifth column). When I print as txt, the figures in the column are not aligned because of the minus signs. (in the fifth column)

WINGEN01    20001   1.02000   0.09000   -1.37000   0.25000   0.19000   0.09000
WINGEN01    20002   1.07000   0.10000   -2.02000   0.25000   0.25000   0.09000
WINGEN01    20003   0.53000   0.09000   0.33000   0.45000   0.23000   0.09000
WINGEN01    20004   1.32000   0.19000   1.23000   0.09000   0.23000   0.03000
WINGEN01    20005   1.16000   0.16000   0.62000   0.14000   0.26000   0.04000
WINGEN01    20006   1.28000   0.15000   0.51000   0.11000   0.20000   0.04000
WINGEN01    20007   0.98000   0.13000   0.64000   0.15000   0.14000   0.05000
WINGEN01    20008   1.17000   0.15000   0.88000   0.10000   0.20000   0.03000
WINGEN01    20009   0.42000   0.06000   -1.43000   0.60000   0.19000   0.10000
WINGEN01    20010   1.06000   0.40000   3.18000   0.52000   0.22000   0.02000
WINGEN01    20011   1.28000   0.15000   0.76000   0.10000   0.21000   0.03000
WINGEN01    20012   0.47000   0.06000   -1.30000   0.57000   0.22000   0.10000
WINGEN01    20013   1.14000   0.14000   0.97000   0.10000   0.16000   0.03000




write.table(Y_14_PAR, paste("Y_14_PAR.PAR"),  quote = F, row.names = F, col.names =F,sep = "   ")
A. Suliman
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Kumlu Gökhan
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2 Answers2

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sprintf may be the command you need. It is a C-style string formatting command that belongs to base R. Example below.

data.frame(a = sprintf("%-1.5f", pi*-3:3))

# output NOT RUN

         a
1 -9.42478
2 -6.28319
3 -3.14159
4  0.00000
5  3.14159
6  6.28319
7  9.42478

# NOT RUN

Note that it is the minus sign after the % that left justifies the numbers. There's no right justify that I can tell but I think it will do the job. Otherwise, replace with + in order to force the sign for both +/-.

Also make sure that you wrap the function in an as.numeric() so you don't accidentally coerce the data type.

RDavey
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  • thank you for your answer. however, I am trying to prepare a syntax file. but I need to apply it to a column in "Y_14_PAR" that I print. there was no change when I ran the code. write.table(sprintf("%-1.5f",Y_14_PAR), paste("Y_14_PAR.PAR"), quote = F, row.names = F, col.names =F,sep = " "). In this section we have the title sentences along with numbers. it only needs to correct in the fifth column. but there was no change after running write.table. – Kumlu Gökhan Mar 27 '19 at 10:37
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If all you are interested in is aligning columns for visualisation purposes then consider one of the following packages.

knitr

library(knitr)
kable(data.frame(a = pi * -3:3))

# Results NOT RUN

|         a|
|---------:|
| -9.424778|
| -6.283185|
| -3.141593|
|  0.000000|
|  3.141593|
|  6.283185|
|  9.424778|

DT

library(DT)
datatable(data.frame(a = pi * -3:3),
   caption = "My nicely formatted table") %>% 
   formatRound(~a)

They do work in the console but work best in a markdown document (.RmD), notebook or shiny app, etc.

RDavey
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