Problem when I add a footnote to an Xtable when using RMarkdown

[tanga94]

Hi,

I have compiled a table in RMarkdown using the "Xtable" and "rotating" packages. It knits perfectly, besides an issue when I add a footnote at the end. When I try to add a footnote, it constructs my table in a way that the footnote is also enclosed in my column seperating vertical lines, which expands my first column of the table completely (and this ruins my table completely)

Does anyone have advice on how to add a footnote without it being enclosed in column seperators, so that I can add a lengthy footnote such as the one below and the rest of my table remains unaffected?

I've reproduced my code chunk below

library(xtable)

## Create 6 vectors with data 

horizon <- c("Argentina","2", "10", "20", "Chile", "2", "10", "20", "Mexico", "2", "10", "20","South Africa", "2", "10", "20")
sp5 <- c("","0.6739", "0.9667", "3.8382", "", "2.4737", "2.8060", "4.2509", "", "5.4719", "6.5884", "7.1833", "", "2.6637", "4.3817", "4.7271")
m1 <- c("","0.0491", "0.6166", "1.3429", "", "1.7495", "2.0132", "1.9614", "", "2.3491", "2.2784", "2.9876", "", "0.0732", "0.0730", "0.1731")
m2 <- c("","1.3178", "1.9413", "3.0179", "", "1.6681", "1.6813", "1.6847", "", "3.2947", "4.1652", "4.2864","", "13.5581", "17.0198", "17.0587")
eq <- c("","6.6076", "6.6975", "6.4701", "", "2.7691", "4.8530", "5.7686", "", "4.0668", "9.0204", "12.8919", "", "0.0415", "0.2357", "0.8326")
bond <- c("","90.2654", "88.6232", "84.2164", "", "83.3904", "74.1451", "72.1791", "", "77.1693", "69.1581", "63.5943", "", "82.4652", "77.0207", "75.9368")
equity <- c("","1.0859", "1.1545", "1.1142", "", "7.9488", "14.5011", "14.1550", "", "7.6478", "8.7891", "9.0561","", "1.1979", "1.2688", "1.2716")

## Create dataframe using the vectors above

unit_table <- data.frame(horizon, sp5, m1, m2, eq,bond,equity, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
colnames(unit_table) <- c("Periods", "S\\&P 500", "US M1", "Domestic M1","Domestic Equity Index", "Bond Flows", "Equity Flows")

## Create a table using XTable

#Boldify a few specific words in the table 

unit_table[1, "Periods"] <- paste0("BOLD", unit_table[1, "Periods"])
unit_table[5, "Periods"] <- paste0("BOLD", unit_table[5, "Periods"])
unit_table[9, "Periods"] <- paste0("BOLD", unit_table[9, "Periods"])
unit_table[13, "Periods"] <- paste0("BOLD", unit_table[13, "Periods"])

# Xtable Code 

table <- xtable(unit_table, 
                caption = "Variance Decomposition for Bond Flows - Latin America and South Africa  \\label{Table4}",
                # tabular.environment = "longtable",
                floating = TRUE,
                table.placement = 'H',
                include.rownames = FALSE,
                # scalebox = 0.3,
                comment = FALSE,
                caption.placement = 'top',
                align = "|l|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|"
)

# Bold function in xtable for column names and words in table

bold.function <- function(x) gsub('BOLD(.*)', paste('\\\\textbf{\\1','}'),x)
bold <- function(x) {paste('{\\textbf{',x,'}}', sep ='')}

# adding a footnote

comment <- list(pos = list(0))
comment$pos[[1]] <- c(nrow(unit_table))
comment$command <- c(paste("\\hline\n", 
                           "This table presents the percentage of variation in bond flows due to variations in each variable in the Stuctural VAR system.\n", 
                           sep = ""))

print(table, sanitize.text.function = bold.function, sanitize.colnames.function = bold,floating = TRUE,floating.environment = "sidewaystable", include.rownames = FALSE,add.to.row = comment, hline.after = c(-1, 0), comment = FALSE)

[technocrat]

The placement problem arises because the text is inside the \LaTeX tabular environment. Any reason not to make it a parenthetical to the caption?

[tanga94]

@technocrat I'm unfamiliar going about doing that, any pointers on what to add to do that?

[technocrat]

How does

caption = "Variance Decomposition for Bond Flows - Latin America and South Africa\nThis table presents the percentage of variation in bond flows due to variations in each variable in the Stuctural VAR system." \\label{Table4}"

work for what you're trying to present?

[tanga94]

Unfortunately that doesn't work for me.

But is there a way to add a footnote to the caption?

I have tried the conventional way of adding a footnote, where I tried to attach ^[This table presents the percentage of variation in bond flows due to variations in each variable in the Structural VAR system], but that doesn't seem to work either

[technocrat]

The ^[...] only works within RMarkdown outside of the \LaTeX environment created by xtable. So, what's needed is a \LaTeX footnote, and the question is where to attach it within the table.

[tanga94]

Ideally, I would want to attach it either slightly underneath the table, or it can appear at the bottom of the page.

I've been struggling with the placement without it affecting the spacing of my table columns. That's why I've considered getting the footnote to appear at the bottom of the page

[technocrat]

How does it look if you follow the xtable block with just a line of text? If you want to control the font size, placement, etc., you can always use $ to enclose \LaTeX formatting

[tanga94]

@Hlynur any ideas here perhaps? (Sorry if I'm not supposed to reach out on this platform unsolicitedly)

[technocrat]

There's always Google