fit an xtable to a pdf file

Question

I am creating a sweave document that uses xtable to create table and puts into a pdf file. It works but table is not fitting the document and some text are missing. Is there a way to text align in xtable/fully fit an xtable to a pdf file?

This is my data:

dput(x)
structure(list(App = structure(c(3L, 2L, 1L), .Label = c("AppServer", 
"Db", "Web"), class = "factor"), Group = structure(c(2L, 1L, 
1L), .Label = c("Back", "Front"), class = "factor"), Owner = structure(c(1L, 
1L, 1L), .Label = "Infrasructure", class = "factor"), Server = structure(1:3, .Label = c("ServerA", 
"ServerB", "ServerC"), class = "factor"), NumberCPU = c(64L, 
120L, 120L), Description = structure(c(1L, 3L, 2L), .Label = c("Front End server to server web traffic", 
"Hold Web templates to generate dynamic content", "Keeps customer data and login information"
), class = "factor"), Cost = structure(1:3, .Label = c("$200,000 ", 
"$400,000 ", "$500,000 "), class = "factor")), .Names = c("App", 
"Group", "Owner", "Server", "NumberCPU", "Description", "Cost"
), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -3L))

this is the code to put the table in pdf:

print(xtable(x, caption=paste("Summary of applications"),table.placement="!h",caption.placement="top", align=c('l', 'p{1.5in}', rep('c',6) )))

Answer 1

I recommend checking out the xtable gallery, there are lots of examples that are useful. Basically, If you don't want to adjust your table by shorting the strings, I see two options:

1. Use a smaller font.
2. Use landscape mode.

Here, I use a combination of both:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{rotating}

\begin{document}

<<Data,echo=FALSE>>=
library(xtable)
x <- structure(list(App = structure(c(3L, 2L, 1L), .Label = c("AppServer", 
"Db", "Web"), class = "factor"), Group = structure(c(2L, 1L, 
1L), .Label = c("Back", "Front"), class = "factor"), Owner = structure(c(1L, 
1L, 1L), .Label = "Infrasructure", class = "factor"), Server = structure(1:3, .Label = c("ServerA", 
"ServerB", "ServerC"), class = "factor"), NumberCPU = c(64L, 
120L, 120L), Description = structure(c(1L, 3L, 2L), .Label = c("Front End server to server web traffic", 
"Hold Web templates to generate dynamic content", "Keeps customer data and login information"
), class = "factor"), Cost = structure(1:3, .Label = c("$200,000 ", 
"$400,000 ", "$500,000 "), class = "factor")), .Names = c("App", 
"Group", "Owner", "Server", "NumberCPU", "Description", "Cost"
), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -3L))
@

<<tab,echo=FALSE,results='asis'>>=
print(xtable(x, caption=paste("Summary of applications"),
             caption.placement="top",
             align=c('l', 'p{1.5in}', rep('c',6))),
             size="footnotesize",
             floating.environment="sidewaystable")
@


\end{document}

Note that you have to use the LaTex package rotating. This should give you something like this:

Answer 2

An alternative solution would be to use some markdown backend (knitr, markdown or pander packages) and split the table automatically to 80 character (or other user specified width) with pander. E.g.:

> library(pander)
> res <- structure(list(App = structure(c(3L, 2L, 1L), .Label = c("AppServer", "Db", "Web"), class = "factor"), Group = structure(c(2L, 1L, 1L), .Label = c("Back", "Front"), class = "factor"), Owner = structure(c(1L, 1L, 1L), .Label = "Infrasructure", class = "factor"), Server = structure(1:3, .Label = c("ServerA", "ServerB", "ServerC"), class = "factor"), NumberCPU = c(64L, 120L, 120L), Description = structure(c(1L, 3L, 2L), .Label = c("Front End server to server web traffic", "Hold Web templates to generate dynamic content", "Keeps customer data and login information"), class = "factor"), Cost = structure(1:3, .Label = c("$200,000 ", "$400,000 ", "$500,000 "), class = "factor")), .Names = c("App", "Group", "Owner", "Server", "NumberCPU", "Description", "Cost"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -3L))
> pander(res)

----------------------------------------------------
   App     Group      Owner      Server   NumberCPU 
--------- ------- ------------- -------- -----------
   Web     Front  Infrasructure ServerA      64     

   Db      Back   Infrasructure ServerB      120    

AppServer  Back   Infrasructure ServerC      120    
----------------------------------------------------

Table: Table continues below


---------------------------------------
     Description             Cost  
------------------------------ --------
Front End server to server web $200,000
    traffic                        

Keeps customer data and login  $400,000
       information                     

Hold Web templates to generate $500,000
       dynamic content                 
---------------------------------------

And the result can be converted to pdf or LaTeX easily then with pandoc or with pander directly from R.