How do I insert a table in a two-column PDF layout?

[cbrnr]

I would like to insert a computed table into a two-column PDF layout. Consider the following example:

---
title: "Two-Column Layout with Table"
format:
  pdf:
    documentclass: article
    classoption: twocolumn
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(knitr)
```

This is some introductory text.

```{r}
kable(head(cars))
```

This produces the following error:

ERROR: 
compilation failed- error
Package longtable Error: longtable not in 1-column mode.

See the longtable package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.207 \begin{longtable}
                       []{@{}rr@{}}

It seems like the longtable LaTeX package is not compatible with multi-column layouts according to this answer, which suggests to use the xtab package instead. Is this something I can do in Quarto, or is this only possible in knitr::kable() (or is this perhaps a bug that should be reported)?

I'm using Quarto 1.6.39 on Arch Linux (but the problem also occurs on other OSs like Windows).

[mcanouil]

Quarto does not control what third party packages/libraries emit.
Quarto will only try to detect when longtable is used to replace it with longtable* to make it work in Quarto cross-reference system.

For LaTeX packages conflicts, you need to handle them independently of Quarto.
Look at knitr::kable() documentation, for instance knitr::kable(..., format = "latex", table.envir = "table*") or knitr::kable(..., format = "latex", longtable = FALSE), etc.
This is really not up to Quarto.

Sidenote: prefer YAML syntax in Quarto

```{r setup, include=FALSE}

to

```{r}
#| label: setup
#| include: false

[cbrnr]

Related issue (created Oct 2013 👀): jgm/pandoc#1023

[cscheid]

But don't you think this is also a problem for Quarto?

Yes, it is. But the solution I would like to see implemented is for the markdown-to-latex community to move to https://ctan.math.washington.edu/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/tabularray/tabularray.pdf

Quarto already does a large number of ugly workarounds for longtable because of its quirks (I know they're ugly because I wrote them :)), and I can no longer justify the decrease in overall code quality to add more such workarounds.

[cbrnr]

😆❤️ Do you see this transition happening anytime soon? Or should I try Typst instead (maybe it just works)?

[cscheid]

I think that if you ask knitr for latex output, then it emits tabular, which does work.

What you need to avoid in the emitted LaTeX code is:

• longtable (because it plays badly with LaTeX crossreferences and two-column mode)
• table (because it plays badly with LaTeX crossreferences)

[cbrnr]

Thanks @cscheid! Using knitr::kable(..., format="latex") indeed works! 🚀