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Documentation Index

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These functions add or remove header and footer rows in a flextable, and provide tools for splitting compound column names into multi-row headers.

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add_header_row()

Add a single row to the header where labels can span multiple columns. 
add_header_row(x, top = TRUE, values = character(0), colwidths = integer(0))
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
top
logical
default:"TRUE"
Insert the row at the top (TRUE) or bottom (FALSE) of the existing header.
​
values
character | list | paragraph
Labels to add. A character vector, a list, or a call to as_paragraph() for formatted content. The number of labels must match the number of span groups defined by colwidths.
​
colwidths
integer
Number of columns each label spans. Must sum to the total number of columns. Defaults to one column per label.

​
Example

ft <- flextable(head(airquality))
ft <- add_header_row(
  ft,
  values = c("Measure", "Time"),
  colwidths = c(4, 2),
  top = TRUE
)
ft <- theme_box(ft)
ft

​
add_header_lines()

Add one or more full-width rows to the header. Each label spans all columns. 
add_header_lines(x, values = character(0), top = TRUE)
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
values
character | paragraph
A character vector or a call to as_paragraph(). Each element becomes a separate full-width row.
​
top
logical
default:"TRUE"
Insert rows at the top (TRUE) or bottom (FALSE) of the existing header.

​
Example

ft <- flextable(head(iris))
ft <- add_header_lines(ft, values = c("Table title", "Subtitle here"))
ft <- autofit(ft)
ft

​
add_header()

Add a header row where each value maps to a named column. Unlike add_header_row(), values fill exactly one column. 
add_header(x, top = TRUE, ..., values = NULL)
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
top
logical
default:"TRUE"
Insert the row at the top or bottom of the existing header.
​
...
name-value pairs
Named arguments where names are column keys and values are the labels to insert.
​
values
list
A named list of column key-value pairs. If supplied, ... is ignored.

​
Example

new_row <- list(
  Sepal.Length = c("min: 4.3", "max: 7.9"),
  Sepal.Width  = c("min: 2.0", "max: 4.4")
)
ft <- flextable(head(iris))
ft <- add_header(ft, values = new_row, top = FALSE)
ft <- theme_booktabs(ft, bold_header = TRUE)
ft
Add a single row to the footer where labels can span multiple columns. 
add_footer_row(x, top = TRUE, values = character(0), colwidths = integer(0))
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
top
logical
default:"TRUE"
Insert the row at the top or bottom of the existing footer.
​
values
character | list | paragraph
Labels to add. A character vector, a list, or a call to as_paragraph().
​
colwidths
integer
Number of columns each label spans. Must sum to the total number of columns.

​
Example

ft <- flextable(head(airquality))
ft <- add_footer_row(
  ft,
  values = c("Source", "Year"),
  colwidths = c(4, 2),
  top = TRUE
)
ft
Add one or more full-width rows to the footer. Each label spans all columns. 
add_footer_lines(x, values = character(0), top = FALSE)
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
values
character | paragraph
A character vector or a call to as_paragraph(). Each element becomes a separate full-width row.
​
top
logical
default:"FALSE"
Insert rows at the top (TRUE) or bottom (FALSE) of the existing footer.

​
Example

ft <- flextable(head(iris))
ft <- add_footer_lines(ft, values = c("Source: Fisher, 1936", "n = 6"))
ft
Add a footer row where each value maps to a named column. 
add_footer(x, top = TRUE, ..., values = NULL)
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
top
logical
default:"TRUE"
Insert the row at the top or bottom of the existing footer.
​
...
name-value pairs
Named arguments where names are column keys and values are the labels to insert.
​
values
list
A named list of column key-value pairs. If supplied, ... is ignored.

​
Example

new_row <- as.list(colMeans(iris[, -5]))
new_row$Species <- "Means"

ft <- flextable(head(iris))
ft <- add_footer(ft, values = new_row)
ft

​
delete_part()

Remove an entire part (header, footer, or body) from a flextable. 
delete_part(x, part = "header")
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
​
part
string
default:"header"
The part to remove: "header", "footer", or "body".

​
Example

ft <- flextable(head(iris))
ft <- delete_part(x = ft, part = "header")
ft

​
separate_header()

Split compound column names (e.g., Sepal.Length or Sepal_Length) into multiple header rows using a separator. 
separate_header(
  x,
  opts = c("span-top", "center-hspan", "bottom-vspan", "default-theme"),
  split = "[_\\.]",
  fixed = FALSE
)
​
x
flextable
required
A flextable object. Must have only one header row when this function is called.
​
opts
character
Optional post-processing operations as a character vector:
  • "span-top" — span empty cells upward with the first non-empty cell, column by column.
  • "center-hspan" — center cells that are horizontally spanned.
  • "bottom-vspan" — align to the bottom cells affected by "span-top".
  • "default-theme" — apply the theme set in set_flextable_defaults(theme_fun = ...) to the new header.
​
split
string
default:"[_\\\\\\\\.]"
A regular expression used to split column names. Default splits on underscores and dots.
​
fixed
logical
default:"FALSE"
If TRUE, treat split as a fixed string rather than a regular expression.

​
Example

x <- data.frame(
  Species          = as.factor(c("setosa", "versicolor", "virginica")),
  Sepal.Length_mean = c(5.006, 5.936, 6.588),
  Sepal.Length_sd   = c(0.352, 0.516, 0.636),
  Sepal.Width_mean  = c(3.428, 2.770, 2.974),
  Sepal.Width_sd    = c(0.379, 0.314, 0.323)
)

ft <- flextable(x)
ft <- colformat_double(ft, digits = 2)
ft <- theme_box(ft)
ft <- separate_header(x = ft, opts = c("span-top", "bottom-vspan"))
ft

​
Return value

All functions return the modified flextable object.

​
See also

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