Create summary table of categorical variables of different lengths

Question

In SPSS it is fairly easy to create a summary table of categorical variables using \"Custom Tables\":

Answer 1

Here's my solution. It ain't pretty, which is why I put a bag over its head (wrap it in a function). I also add another variable to demonstrate that it's general (I hope).

prettyTable <- function(x) {

  tbl <- apply(x, 2, function(m) {
    marc <- sort(unique(m))
    cnt <- matrix(table(m), ncol = 1)
    out <- cbind(marc, cnt)
    out <- out[order(marc), ] # do sorting
    out <- cbind(out, round(prop.table(out, 2)[, 2] * 100, 2))
  })

  x2 <- do.call("rbind", tbl)

  spaces <- unlist(lapply(apply(x, 2, unique), length))
  space.names <- names(spaces)
  spc <- rep("", sum(spaces))
  ind <- cumsum(spaces)
  ind <- abs(spaces - ind)+1
  spc[ind] <- space.names

  out <- cbind(spc, x2)
  out <- as.data.frame(out)

  names(out) <- c("Variable", "Levels", "Count", "Column N %")
  out
}

prettyTable(x = mtcars[, c(2, 8:11)])

   Variable Levels Count Column N %
1       cyl      4    11      34.38
2                6     7      21.88
3                8    14      43.75
4        vs      0    18      56.25
5                1    14      43.75
6        am      0    19      59.38
7                1    13      40.62
8      gear      3    15      46.88
9                4    12       37.5
10               5     5      15.62
11     carb      1     7      21.88
12               2    10      31.25
13               3     3       9.38
14               4    10      31.25
15               6     1       3.12
16               8     1       3.12

Using googleVis package, you can make a handy html table.

plot(gvisTable(prettyTable(x = mtcars[, c(2, 8:11)])))