# Add information that focuses on aspects of the data table as a whole When an **informant** object is created with the `create_informant()` function, it has two starter sections: (1) 'table' and (2) 'columns'. The 'table' section should contain a few properties upon creation, such as the supplied table name (`name`) and table dimensions (as `_columns` and `_rows`). We can add more table-based properties with the `info_tabular()` function. By providing a series of named arguments (in the form `entry_name = "The *info text*."`), we can add more information that makes sense for describing the table as a whole. ```r info_tabular(x, ...) ``` ## Arguments - `x`: **The pointblank informant object** `obj:` // required A pointblank **informant** object that is commonly created through the use of the `create_informant()` function. - `...`: **Information entries** `` // required Information entries as a series of named arguments. The names refer to subsection titles within the `TABLE` section and the values are the **info text** (informational text that can be written as Markdown and further styled with **Text Tricks**). ## Returns A `ptblank_informant` object. ## Info Text The **info text** that's used for any of the `info_*()` functions readily accepts Markdown formatting, and, there are a few **Text Tricks** that can be used to spice up the presentation. Markdown links written as `< link url >` or `[ link text ]( link url )` will get nicely-styled links. Any dates expressed in the ISO-8601 standard with parentheses, `"(2004-12-01)"`, will be styled with a font variation (monospaced) and underlined in purple. Spans of text can be converted to label-style text by using: (1) double parentheses around text for a rectangular border as in `((label text))`, or (2) triple parentheses around text for a rounded-rectangular border like `(((label text)))`. CSS style rules can be applied to spans of **info text** with the following form: `[[ info text ]]<< CSS style rules >>` As an example of this in practice suppose you'd like to change the color of some text to red and make the font appear somewhat thinner. A variation on the following might be used: `"This is a [[factor]]<> value."` The are quite a few CSS style rules that can be used to great effect. Here are a few you might like: * `color: \;` (text color) * `background-color: \;` (the text's background color) * `text-decoration: (overline | line-through | underline);` * `text-transform: (uppercase | lowercase | capitalize);` * `letter-spacing: \;` * `word-spacing: \;` * `font-style: (normal | italic | oblique);` * `font-weight: (normal | bold | 100-900);` * `font-variant: (normal | bold | 100-900);` * `border: \ \ (solid | dashed | dotted);` In the above examples, 'length value' refers to a CSS length which can be expressed in different units of measure (e.g., `12px`, `1em`, etc.). Some lengths can be expressed as positive or negative values (e.g., for `letter-spacing`). Color values can be expressed in a few ways, the most common being in the form of hexadecimal color values or as CSS color names. ## YAML A pointblank informant can be written to YAML with `yaml_write()` and the resulting YAML can be used to regenerate an informant (with `yaml_read_informant()`) or perform the 'incorporate' action using the target table (via `yaml_informant_incorporate()`). When `info_tabular()` is represented in YAML, **info text** goes into subsections of the top-level `table` key. Here is an example of how a call of `info_tabular()` is expressed in R code and in the corresponding YAML representation. R statement: ``` informant %>% info_tabular( section_1 = "*info text* 1.", `section 2` = "*info text* 2 and {snippet_1}" ) ``` YAML representation: ``` table: _columns: 23 _rows: 205.0 _type: tbl_df section_1: '*info text* 1.' section 2: '*info text* 2 and {snippet_1}' ``` Subsection titles as defined in `info_tabular()` can be set in backticks if they are not syntactically correct as an argument name without them (e.g., when using spaces, hyphens, etc.). It's safest to use single quotation marks around any **info text** if directly editing it in a YAML file. Note that Markdown formatting and **info snippet** placeholders (shown here as `{snippet_1}`, see `info_snippet()` for more information) are preserved in the YAML. The Markdown to HTML conversion is done when printing an informant (or invoking `get_informant_report()` on an **informant**) and the processing of snippets (generation and insertion) is done when using the `incorporate()`function. Thus, the source text is always maintained in the YAML representation and is never written in processed form. ## Examples Create a pointblank `informant` object with `create_informant()`. We can specify a `tbl` with the `~` followed by a statement that gets the `small_table` dataset. ``` informant <- create_informant( tbl = ~ small_table, tbl_name = "small_table", label = "An example." ) ``` We can add **info text** to describe the table with the various `info_*()` functions. In this example, we'll use `info_tabular()` to generally describe the `small_table` dataset. ``` informant <- informant %>% info_tabular( `Row Definition` = "A row has randomized values.", Source = c( "- From the **pointblank** package.", "- [https://rstudio.github.io/pointblank/]()" ) ) ``` Upon printing the `informant` object, we see the additions made to the 'Table' section of the report. ``` informant ``` ## Function ID 3-1 ## See Also Other Information Functions: `info_columns()`, `info_columns_from_tbl()`, `info_section()`, `info_snippet()`, `snip_highest()`, `snip_list()`, `snip_lowest()`, `snip_stats()`

info_tabular function