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bg() changes the background color of selected rows and columns. You can supply a fixed color string or a function that maps cell values to colors, which is useful for heat-map-style formatting.

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Function signature

bg(x, i = NULL, j = NULL, bg, part = "body", source = j)

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Parameters

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x
flextable
required
A flextable object.
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i
integer | formula | logical
Row selector. Accepts integer indices, a one-sided formula (e.g., ~ qsec < 18), or a logical vector. NULL selects all rows in the specified part.
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j
integer | character | formula
Column selector. Accepts integer indices, column names, a formula, or a logical vector. NULL selects all columns.
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bg
character | function
required
Background color to apply. Can be:
  • A single color string (e.g., "#EFEFEF" or "wheat") applied to all selected cells.
  • A function that receives a column of data and returns a character vector of colors. Functions from the scales package (e.g., col_numeric()) work directly.
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part
string
default:"\"body\""
Which part of the table to target: "body", "header", "footer", or "all".
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source
integer | character
When bg is a function, source specifies which dataset column(s) to pass as the argument to that function. This is useful when you want to color cells in column j based on values from a different column (including hidden columns not in colkeys). Defaults to j.

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Return value

The modified flextable object.

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Examples

Apply a fixed background color to the header: 
ft <- flextable(head(mtcars))
ft <- bg(ft, bg = "wheat", part = "header")
ft
Color body rows conditionally using a formula: 
ft <- flextable(head(mtcars))
ft <- bg(ft, i = ~ qsec < 18, bg = "#EFEFEF", part = "body")
ft
Color an entire column across all parts: 
ft <- flextable(head(mtcars))
ft <- bg(ft, j = "drat", bg = "#606060", part = "all")
ft <- color(ft, j = "drat", color = "white", part = "all")
ft
Use a scales color function for continuous heat-map coloring: 
if (require("scales")) {
  ft <- flextable(head(iris))
  colourer <- col_numeric(
    palette = c("wheat", "red"),
    domain = c(0, 7)
  )
  ft <- bg(ft,
    j = c("Sepal.Length", "Sepal.Width", "Petal.Length", "Petal.Width"),
    bg = colourer, part = "body"
  )
  ft
}
Word does not support transparency in table cell or paragraph shading. Use solid color values only when targeting Word output.

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See also

  • color() — set text color
  • highlight() — highlight text with a background color
  • style() — apply multiple formatting properties at once

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