rk.ctables: Custom Tables for RKWard

Features

• Stacking (Rows): Select multiple variables to stack them vertically (e.g., creating a demographic profile section).
• Nesting (Columns): Select multiple grouping variables to create hierarchical headers (e.g., Gender > Age Group).
• Weighting: Built-in support for survey weights (tab_weight).
• Statistics: Easily toggle Counts, Column Percentages, and Row Percentages.
• Total Control: Configure the label and position (Top/Bottom/None) of Total rows/columns.
• Output: Generates formatted HTML tables directly in the RKWard output window.

🌍 Internationalization

The interface is fully localized to match your RKWard language settings:

• 🇺🇸 English (Default)
• 🇪🇸 Spanish (es)
• 🇫🇷 French (fr)
• 🇩🇪 German (de)
• 🇧🇷 Portuguese (Brazil) (pt_BR)

Requirements

• RKWard: 0.7.5 or higher.
• R Packages:
  • expss
  • magrittr (for piping %>%)

Installation

1. Open R in RKWard.
2. Run the following commands in the R console:

local({
## Preparar
require(devtools)
## Computar
  install_github(
    repo="AlfCano/rk.ctables"
  )
## Imprimir el resultado
rk.header ("Resultados de Instalar desde git")
})

3. Restart RKWard to ensure the new menu items appear correctly.

Usage & Examples

The plugin relies on Variable Labels to produce professional tables (just like SPSS). Without labels, the table will show raw variable names (e.g., sex) instead of "Gender".

Step 0: Prepare Data (Penguins)

Copy and run this code in your RKWard console to load the penguins dataset and apply labels:

# Load data (Included in R 4.5+ or package palmerpenguins)
data("penguins")

# Apply Labels (expss uses these for the table headers)
library(expss)
penguins = apply_labels(penguins,
    species = "Penguin Species",
    island = "Island Location",
    bill_length_mm = "Bill Length (mm)",
    sex = "Gender",
    year = "Study Year"
)

Example 1: Basic Stacking (Demographics Table)

Create a summary table showing multiple variables stacked vertically.

1. Navigate to Analysis > Custom Tables (expss) > Custom Table Builder.
2. Rows (Stacked): Select species AND island.
3. Columns: Leave empty (defaults to Total).
4. Statistics: Check Counts (Cases) and Column Percent %.
5. Click Submit.
   • Result: A vertical table showing the distribution of Species, followed immediately by the distribution of Islands.

Example 2: Simple Crosstab

Compare groups side-by-side.

1. Rows: Select species.
2. Columns: Select sex.
3. Statistics: Check Column Percent %.
4. Click Submit.
   • Result: A standard crosstab showing Species distribution broken down by Gender.

Example 3: Complex Nesting (Hierarchical Columns)

Create a highly detailed table by nesting grouping variables.

1. Rows: Select species.
2. Columns: Select sex AND year.
3. Statistics: Check Counts and Column Percent %.
4. Total Position: Select After (Right/Bottom).
5. Click Submit.
   • Result: A wide table where "Male" and "Female" are the main headers, and each gender is further subdivided by "2007", "2008", and "2009".

Author

Alfonso Cano Robles

• Email: alfonso.cano@correo.buap.mx

Assisted by Gemini, a large language model from Google.