Manually use R Knit/Markdown to produce plots for HTML - r

I am using knit()and markdownToHTML() to automatically generate reports.
The issue is that I am not outputting plots when using these commands. However, when I use RStudio's Knit HTML button, the plots get generated. When I then use my own knit/markdown function, it suddenly outputs the plot. When I switch to another document and knit that one, the old plot appears.
Example:
```{r figA, result='asis', echo=TRUE, dpi=300, out.width="600px",
fig=TRUE, fig.align='center', fig.path="figure/"}
plot(1:10)
```
Using commands:
knit(rmd, md, quiet=TRUE)
markdownToHTML(md, html, stylesheet=style)
So I guess there are 2 questions, depending on how you want to approach it:
What magic is going on in Rstudio's Knit HTML?
How can I produce/include without depending on RStudio's Knit HTML button?

The only issue I see here is that this doesn't work when you have the chunk options {...} spanning two lines. If it's all on one line, it works fine. Am I missing something?
See how this is not allowed under knitr in the documentation:
Chunk options must be written in one line; no line breaks are allowed inside chunk options;
RStudio must handle linebreaks in a non-standard way.

This is really embarrassing, I really thought I read the documentation carefully:
include: (TRUE; logical) whether to include the chunk output in the
final output document; if include=FALSE, nothing will be written into
the output document, but the code is still evaluated and plot files
are generated if there are any plots in the chunk, so you can manually
insert figures; note this is the only chunk option that is not cached,
i.e., changing it will not invalidate the cache
Simply adding {..., include=TRUE} did the trick. I would say it would be a pretty sensible default though.

Related

Saving AND showing plots in rmd file

I'm working on a rather long code using R markdown, divided into chunks. Plot appear under the appropriate chunk. I'd like to keep this behaviour, but additionally I want to save them to a specified folder. I've tried different methods listed here How to save a plot as image on the disk? (and elsewhere on the Internet), but nothing seems to work.
My reproducible example:
png('cars_plot.png')
plot(cars)
dev.off()
This code saves the plot, but doesn't show it (it only returns "null device 1"). I've also tried dev.print and dev.copy, with the same result.
Thank you in advance!
Clarification: I run my chunks one by one, I don't want to convert my results to pdf/html yet. So knitr: include figures in report *and* output figures to separate files or change where rmarkdown saves images generated by r code don't answer my question.
You can always graph it twice in the same markdown chunk, like this:
plot(cars)
png('cars_plot.png')
plot(cars)
dev.off()

R markdown: can I insert a pdf to the r markdown file as an image?

I am trying to insert a pdf image into an r markdown file. I know it is possible to insert jpg or png images. I was just wondering if it is also possible to insert a pdf image. Thanks very much!
If you are just trying to insert an image that has been exported from, for example, some R analysis into a pdf image, you can also use the standard image options from the knitr engine.
With something like:
```{r, out.width="0.3\\linewidth", include=TRUE, fig.align="center", fig.cap=c("your caption"), echo=FALSE}
knitr::include_graphics("./images/imagename.pdf")
```
Unfortunately you can't specify the initial dimensions of your image output (fig.width and fig.height), which you would need to pre-define in your initial output, but you can specify the ultimate size of the image in your document (out.width). As noted below, however, this is limited to scaling down.
You could also of course leave out the initial directory specification if your files are in the same working directory. Just be aware of operating system differences in specifying the path to the image.
An alternative method is to use Markdown syntax noted by #hermestrismegistus on this post:
![Image Title](./path/to/image.pdf){width=65%}
This can also be collected for multiple images side-by side:
![Image Title](./path/to/image.pdf){width=33%}![Image2 Title](./path/to/image2.pdf){width=33%}![Image3 Title](./path/to/image3.pdf){width=33%}
Edit:
After working more extensively with in-text referencing, I have found that using r chunks and the include_graphics option to be most useful. Also because of the flexibility in terms of image alignment (justification).
As an example:
```{r image-ref-for-in-text, echo = FALSE, message=FALSE, fig.align='center', fig.cap='Some cool caption', out.width='0.75\\linewidth', fig.pos='H'}
knitr::include_graphics("./folder/folder/plot_file_name.pdf")
```
The reference can later be used in-text, for example, Figure \#ref(fig:image-ref-for-in-text) illustrates blah blah.
Some important things to note using this format:
You can only expand PDF images via a code chunk up to the out.width and out.height conditions set in the original .pdf file. So I would recommend setting them slightly on the larger side in your original image (just note that any chart text will scale accordingly).
The in-text reference code (in this case image-ref-for-in-text) CANNOT contain any underscores (_) but can contain dashes (-). You will know if you get this wrong by an error message stating ! Package caption Error: \caption outside float.
To stop your plots drifting to the wrong sections of your document, but in a way that unfortunately will generate some white space, the above example includes fig.pos='H'. Where H refers to "hold" position. The same can be achieved for the former Markdown option by placing a full-stop (period .) immediately after the last curly bracket.
Example:
![Image Title](./path/to/image.pdf){width=75%}.
Unfortunately, this latter option results in some unsightly full-stops. Another reason I prefer the include_graphics option.
Sorry, I found that there is a similar post before:
Add pdf file in Rmarkdown file
Basically, I can use something like below works well for the html output:
<img src="myFirstAlignment2.pdf" alt="some text" width="4200" height="4200">
And something like below works well for the pdf output:
(1)possible solution
\begin{center} <br>
\includegraphics[width=8in]{myFirstAlignment2.pdf} <br>
\end{center}
(2)possible solution
![Alt](myFirstAlignment2.pdf)
The myFirstAlignment2.pdf should be replaced with path\myFirstAlignment2.pdf if the pdf file is not in your working directory.
In relation to the comment of the best answer, there is a way to use the second option, and the output not come out tiny.
Use the following syntax below with the height being a large number. Having text in the brackets is necessary for it to work.
![Alt](./file.pdf){width=100% height=400}
None of the answers outlined worked well for me in terms of sizing the pdf, so adding another answer using the code chunk options for out.height and out.width to control the size:
```{r out.height = "460px", out.width='800px', echo=F}
knitr::include_graphics("./images/imagename.pdf")
```

R Markdown – a concise way to print all code snippets used in the document

I'm writing a report in R Markdown in which I don't want to print any of my R code in the main body of the report – I just want to show plots, calculate variables that I substitute into the text inline, and sometimes show a small amount of raw R output. Therefore, I write something like this:
In the following plot, we see that blah blah blah:
```{r snippetName, echo=F}
plot(df$x, df$y)
```
Now...
That's all well and good. But I would also like to provide the R code at the end of the document for anybody curious to see how it was produced. Right now I have to manually write something like this:
Here is snippet 1, and a description of what section of the report
this belongs to and how it's used:
```{r snippetName, eval=F}
```
Here is snippet 2:
```{r snippetTwoName, eval=F}
```
<!-- and so on for 20+ snippets -->
This gets rather tedious and error-prone once there are more than a few code snippets. Is there any way I could loop over the snippets and print them out automatically? I'm hoping I could do something like:
```{r snippetName, echo=F, comment="This is snippet 1:"}
# the code for this snippet
```
and somehow substitute the following result into the document at a specified point when it's knitted:
This is snippet 1:
```{r snippetName, eval=F}
```
I suppose I could write some post-processing code to scan through the .Rmd file, find all the snippets, and pull out the code with a regex or something (I seem to remember there's some kind of options file you can use to inject commands into the pandoc process?), but I'm hoping there might be something simpler.
Edit: This is definitely not a duplicate – if you read my question thoroughly, the last code block shows me doing exactly what the answer to the linked question suggests (with a slight difference in syntax, which could have been the source of the confusion?). I'm looking for a way to not have to write out that last code block manually for all 20+ snippets in the document.
This is do-able within knitr, no need to use pandoc. Based on an example posted by Yihui at https://github.com/yihui/knitr-examples/blob/master/073-code-appendix.Rnw
Set echo=FALSE throughout your document: opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE)
Then put this chunk at the end to print all code:
```{r show-code, ref.label=all_labels(), echo = TRUE, eval=FALSE}
```
This will print code for all chunks. Currently they all show up in a single block; I'd love to figure out how to put in the chunk label or some other header... For now I start my chunks with comments (probably not a bad idea in any case).
Updated: to show only the chunks that were evaluated, use:
ref.label = all_labels(!exists('engine')) - see question 40919201
Since this is quite difficult if not impossible to do with knitr, we can take advantage of the next step, the pandoc compilation, and of pandoc's ability to manipulate content with filters. So we write a normal Rmd document with echo=TRUE and the code chunks are printed as usual when they are called.
Then, we write a filter that finds every codeblock of language R (this is how a code chunk will be coded in pandoc), removes it from the document (replacing it, here, with an empty paragraph) and storing it in a list. We then add the list of all codeblocks at the end of the document. For this last step, the problem is that there really is no way to tell a python filter to add content at the end of a document (there might be a way in haskell, but I don't know it). So we need to add a placeholder at the end of the Rmd document to tell the filter to add the R code at this point. Here, I consider that the placeholder will be a CodeBlock with code lastchunk.
Here is the filter, which we could save as postpone_chunks.py.
#!/usr/bin/env python
from pandocfilters import toJSONFilter, Str, Para, CodeBlock
chunks = []
def postpone_chunks(key, value, format, meta):
if key == 'CodeBlock':
[[ident, classes, keyvals], code] = value
if "r" in classes:
chunks.append(CodeBlock([ident, classes, keyvals], code))
return Para([Str("")])
elif code == 'lastchunk':
return chunks
if __name__ == "__main__":
toJSONFilter(postpone_chunks)
Now, we can ask knitr to execute it with pandoc_args. Note that we need to remember to add the placeholder at the end of the document.
---
title: A test
output:
html_document:
pandoc_args: ["--filter", "postpone_chunks.py"]
---
Here is a plot.
```{r}
plot(iris)
```
Here is a table.
```{r}
table(iris$Species)
```
And here are the code chunks used to make them:
lastchunk
There is probably a better way to write this in haskell, where you won't need the placeholder. One could also customize the way the code chunks are returned at the end to add a title before each one for instance.

Include code that does not run in Rpresentation Markdown

I have a .Rpres file in RStudio. I would like to include code, but not have it run (I am only showing the code to explain how it works). Is it possible to accomplish this (and ensure that it will not produce errors, because it is not running)?
Have you tried eval=FALSE in the knitr code chunk options? e.g.:
```{r eval=FALSE}
print("Don't run me")
```
{r, eval=F, echo=T} will include the R source code in the output file while it is not evaluated
Posting for anyone who may come across this like I have. I've found that for small examples (if you don't want to use chunks), you can also just use back ticks like you would with regular markdown inline, but just don't add the "r" at the beginning:
`plot(cars)`
Will print the code itself, but will not print the plot.

figure* environment in twocolumn knitr/Sweave document

Sounds like it should be a common problem, but I didn't find an obvious trick.
Consider the knitr Rnw file below,
\documentclass[twocolumn, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
%\SweaveOpts{dev=pdf, fig.align=center}
\begin{figure*}
<<aaa, fig.width=8, fig.height=5, fig.show=hold>>=
plot(1,1)
#
\end{figure*}
\end{document}
I would like this wide figure to span two columns, using a {figure*} LaTeX environment. Is there a hook for that?
EDIT: wrapping the chunk in figure* gives the following output.
Two facts:
knitr makes everything accessible for you, so LaTeX tricks are often unnecessary;
there is a chunk hook with which you can wrap your chunk results;
A simple-minded solutions is:
knit_hooks$set(chunk = function(x, options) {
sprintf('\\begin{figure*}\n%s\n\\end{figure*}', x)
})
I leave the rest of work to you to take care of more details in options (e.g. when options$fig.keep == 'none', you should not wrap the output in figure*). You may want to see how the default chunk hook for LaTeX is defined in knitr to know better how the chunk hook works.
However, in this case, I tend to write the LaTeX code by myself in the document instead of automatically creating it. After you have got figure*, you may start to think about \caption{} and \label{} (not hard, but I still want to see them in LaTeX).
Not sure about how knitr but for Sweave (and basic latex) there is in fact a trick: have the R code produce a pdf file, and then use standard \includegraphics to pull it in.
So with this:
\documentclass[twocolumn, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
%\SweaveOpts{dev=pdf}
<<aaa,fig=FALSE,print=FALSE,echo=FALSE>>=
pdf("mychart.pdf", width=6, height=3)
set.seed(42)
plot(cumsum(rnorm(100)), type='l', main="yet another random walk")
invisible(dev.off())
#
\begin{figure*}
\includegraphics{mychart.pdf}
\end{figure*}
\end{document}
I got the document below (which I then converted from pdf to png):
I also had a similar problem while preparing a figure that should span two columns in a IEEE two-column conference paper.
Setting the chunk hook caused some strange error in my setup.
Even this simple hook: knit_hooks$set(chunk = function(x, options) x)
But after looking into knitr::opts_chunk$get(), I realized that simply setting fig.env="figure*" solves the problem in an elegant way.
Here is how my chunk looks like in an Rnw file:
<<fig1, fig.width=18, fig.height=6, fig.env="figure*">>=
#

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