5  Tables in a for loop

Outputting tables (or figure) in a for loop works fine in Quarto, but there is no way to set the table numbers dynamically and get all the cross-references working in Word, HTML and PDF. We really need that dynamic numbering and cross-reference feature in a big report.

5.1 Example of tables produced in a for loop

Look at the Code (link at top in HTML output) to see the cat(knitr::knit_print(tab)) trick for getting your tables to appear.

We can set a caption but no way to cross-reference it

	mpg	cyl	disp	hp
Mazda RX4	21	6	160	110
Mazda RX4 Wag	21	6	160	110
Note:
kable

We can set a caption but no way to cross-reference it

	mpg	cyl	disp	hp
Mazda RX4	21	6	160	110
Mazda RX4 Wag	21	6	160	110
Note:
kable

5.2 Getting the cross-reference links

We have to use a bit of magic to get our dynamic table numbers and links using Quarto’s cross-referencing. The trick is to use a child Rmd (or qmd) in a for loop. This trick can be used for figures too but I’ll just show it here with tables. This code inspired from this gist.

We use knit_expand() and make a child Rmd that uses double curly braces like {{value.to.match}} in the code. That way the value at the time this Rmd was embedded can be referenced. Note that if value.to.match were a string (which it is not in this example), we would need to add quotes around {{value.to.match}} in our code.

With this approach we get our numbered tables and we can reference the tables usual such as Table 5.2 (note this is broken in Word output). Click on the Code link at top (HTML output) to see how it’s done.

Table 5.1: Cars with 4 cylinders. These tables have cross-ref links via ?tbl-xyz.

	mpg	cyl	disp	hp
Datsun 710	22.8	4	108.0	93
Merc 240D	24.4	4	146.7	62
Merc 230	22.8	4	140.8	95
Note:
kable

Table 5.2: Cars with 8 cylinders. These tables have cross-ref links via ?tbl-xyz.

	mpg	cyl	disp	hp
Hornet Sportabout	18.7	8	360.0	175
Duster 360	14.3	8	360.0	245
Merc 450SE	16.4	8	275.8	180
Note:
kable