All formatting lost with Markdown (even when supported)

[andrewheiss]

Markdown has limited support for formatting (i.e. no cell background colors, borders, column spans, etc.), but it does support bold and italics. Currently with print_md() and to_md(), bold and italic formatting is discarded:

ht <- huxtable(a = 1:5, b = 5:1) %>% 
  set_bold(2:4, 1:2, TRUE) %>% 
  set_italic(5, 1:2, TRUE)

# In RStudio this prints rows 2-4 in bold and row 5 in italic
print_screen(ht)

# This generates HTML that wraps cells in <span style="font-weight: bold; "> or
# <span style="font-style: italic; ">
print_html(ht)

# This discards all styles and does not generate cells wrapped in **X** or *X*
print_md(ht)

#> ---------------------------------
#>                1               5 
#> ---------------- ----------------
#>                2               4 
#>                                  
#>                3               3 
#>                                  
#>                4               2 
#>                                  
#>                5               1 
#> ---------------------------------

It would be cool if huxtable could maintain bold and italic and generate Markdown tables like this (though I don't know how difficult implementing that would be):

#> ---------------------------------
#>                1               5 
#> ---------------- ----------------
#>            **2**            **4** 
#>                                  
#>            **3**            **3** 
#>                                  
#>            **4**            **2** 
#>                                  
#>              *5*              *1* 
#> ---------------------------------

If that's not possible, issuing a warning similar to those created when using huxreg() (e.g. Markdown cannot handle cells with colspan/rowspan > 1) could be helpful to warn users that the bold and italics are gone.

[hughjonesd]

Could you try github master and report if it works for you?

[andrewheiss]

Awesome, that works! Thanks!

print_md(ht)
#> -----------------------
#>           1          5 
#> ----------- -----------
#>       **2**      **4** 
#>                        
#>       **3**      **3** 
#>                        
#>       **4**      **2** 
#>                        
#>         *5*        *1* 
#> -----------------------

[hughjonesd]

Actually, could you try again with the latest version? I had to rewrite it to deal with strings that break over multiple lines, and I'm not certain I've got it right (or can test it easily...)

[andrewheiss]

Yep, here's what I'm getting now:

library(tidyverse)
library(huxtable)

df <- tribble(
  ~a, ~b,
  1,  "This is a test.",
  2,  "This is a test with two lines.\n\nHere's the second line.",
  3,  "This is a test with a bunch of lines\n\nthat just keep going and does it break anything\n\n if it goes this long maybe I don't know yet\n\nbut I'm still typing and that's probably\n\nenough text for now."
)

ht <- df %>% 
  huxtable() %>% 
  set_bold(2:3, 2, TRUE)

print_md(ht)
#> ---------------------------------------------------
#>           1 This is a test.                        
#> ----------- ---------------------------------------
#>           2 **This is a test with two lines.**     
#>             ****                                   
#>             **Here's the second line.**            
#>                                                    
#>           3 **This is a test with a bunch of**     
#>             **lines**                              
#>             ****                                   
#>             **that just keep going and does it**   
#>             **break anything**                     
#>             ****                                   
#>             **if it goes this long maybe I don't** 
#>             **know yet**                           
#>             ****                                   
#>             **but I'm still typing and that's**    
#>             **probably**                           
#>             ****                                   
#>             **enough text for now.**               
#> ---------------------------------------------------

It's wrapping each broken line in bold, including empty lines (hence the ****). Ideally it should wrap the entire line with **s, even if broken in the middle, I think. Like this?

---------------------------------------------------
          1 This is a test.                        
----------- ---------------------------------------
          2 **This is a test with two lines.**     

            **Here's the second line.**            

          3 **This is a test with a bunch of     
            lines**                              

            **that just keep going and does it   
            break anything**                     

            **if it goes this long maybe I don't 
            know yet**                           

            **but I'm still typing and that's    
            probably**                           

            **enough text for now.**               
---------------------------------------------------

[hughjonesd]

So what's wrong at the moment is that even empty lines get wrapped in bold. Hmm, does that actually make it compile wrong to HTML or PDF?

[andrewheiss]

The ****s in empty lines trip up pandoc. This markdown file:

# Table with broken lines wrapped in `**`s

----------------------------------------------------
           1 This is a test.                        
------------ ---------------------------------------
           2 **This is a test with two lines.**     
             ****                                   
             **Here's the second line.**            

           3 **This is a test with a bunch of**     
             **lines**                              
             ****                                   
             **that just keep going and does it**   
             **break anything**                     
             ****                                   
             **if it goes this long maybe I don't** 
             **know yet**                           
             ****                                   
             **but I'm still typing and that's**    
             **probably**                           
             ****                                   
             **enough text for now.**               
----------------------------------------------------

# Table with complete lines wrapped in `**`s

---------------------------------------------------
          1 This is a test.                        
----------- ---------------------------------------
          2 **This is a test with two lines.**     

            **Here's the second line.**            

          3 **This is a test with a bunch of     
            lines**                              

            **that just keep going and does it   
            break anything**                     

            **if it goes this long maybe I don't 
            know yet**                           

            **but I'm still typing and that's    
            probably**                           

            **enough text for now.**               
---------------------------------------------------

…creates HTML that looks like this (using this pandoc command: pandoc testing.md -s -t html5 -o testing.html)

<h1 id="table-with-broken-lines-wrapped-in-s">Table with broken lines wrapped in <code>**</code>s</h1>
<table style="width:72%;">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 18%" />
<col style="width: 54%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th style="text-align: right;">1</th>
<th style="text-align: left;">This is a test.</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: right;">2</td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>This is a test with two lines.</strong> **** <strong>Here’s the second line.</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: right;">3</td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>This is a test with a bunch of</strong> <strong>lines</strong> **** <strong>that just keep going and does it</strong> <strong>break anything</strong> **** <strong>if it goes this long maybe I don’t</strong> <strong>know yet</strong> **** <strong>but I’m still typing and that’s</strong> <strong>probably</strong> **** <strong>enough text for now.</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h1 id="table-with-complete-lines-wrapped-in-s">Table with complete lines wrapped in <code>**</code>s</h1>
<table style="width:71%;">
<colgroup>
<col style="width: 16%" />
<col style="width: 54%" />
</colgroup>
<thead>
<tr class="header">
<th style="text-align: right;">1</th>
<th style="text-align: left;">This is a test.</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: right;">2</td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>This is a test with two lines.</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: right;"></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>Here’s the second line.</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: right;">3</td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>This is a test with a bunch of lines</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: right;"></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>that just keep going and does it break anything</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: right;"></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>if it goes this long maybe I don’t know yet</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="even">
<td style="text-align: right;"></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>but I’m still typing and that’s probably</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr class="odd">
<td style="text-align: right;"></td>
<td style="text-align: left;"><strong>enough text for now.</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Or

[hughjonesd]

Well, in any case, latest push should fix.

[hughjonesd]

Try now.

[andrewheiss]

Cool, that mostly fixes it! The only weirdness is that broken lines get extra </strong> <strong> breaks in the middle when converted to HTML and TeX, but it still works fine:

<strong>This is a test with a bunch of</strong> <strong>lines</strong>

and

\textbf{This is a test with a bunch of} \textbf{lines}

instead of

<strong>This is a test with a bunch of lines</strong>

\textbf{This is a test with a bunch of lines}