nice_table stops working after loading package "afex"

[seglima]

nice_table stops working after loading package "afex"

[rempsyc]

Interesting, thanks, will investigate. However, I think this is an issue from the side of afex, as just loading a package should not silently change behaviour for other packages. Sometimes functions are overwritten but a warning is then printed.

[rempsyc]

Ok, I'm indeed able to replicate this with a simple flextable and then saving class as nice_table. The interesting bit is that this issue only arises during interactive use, because the reprex makes it look like it works:

data <- mtcars[1:3, ]
table <- flextable::flextable(data)
class(table) <- c("nice_table", class(table))
table

suppressPackageStartupMessages(library(afex))

table

^{Created on 2024-02-22 with reprex v2.0.2}

While on the interactive console it is actually outputing this:

> table
[1] header     body       footer     col_keys   caption    blanks     properties
<0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

[rempsyc]

In afex, nice_table is a printing method for that class:

## S3 method for class 'nice_table'
print(x, ...)

It is defined as:

print.nice_table <- function(x, ...) {
  if(!is.null(heading <- attr(x, "heading"))) {
    cat(heading, sep = "\n")
  }
  print.data.frame(x)
  if(!is.null(attr(x, "sig_symbols"))) print_legend(x)
  if(!is.null(correction_method <- attr(x, "correction")) && 
     correction_method != "none") {
    cat("\nSphericity correction method:", correction_method, "\n")
  }
  invisible(x)
}

This calls print.data.frame(x) on the flextable object, which gives the output that you are seeing:

data <- mtcars[1:3, ]
table <- flextable::flextable(data)
class(table) <- c("nice_table", class(table))
table

print.data.frame(table)
#> [1] header     body       footer     col_keys   caption    blanks     properties
#> <0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

^{Created on 2024-02-22 with reprex v2.0.2}

But then it also prevents printing the flextable, with returning it invisibly with invisible(x) at the very end.

[rempsyc]

I have opened an issue in the afex repository: singmann/afex#126

[rempsyc]

I have posted a workaround on your stackoverflow question.

Essentially, use pkgload::unload instead of detach, which you can use within your script for the time being.

data <- mtcars[1:3, ]
table <- flextable::flextable(data)
class(table) <- c("nice_table", class(table))

suppressPackageStartupMessages(library(afex))

print(table)
#> [1] header     body       footer     col_keys   caption    blanks     properties
#> <0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

pkgload::unload("afex")

table

^{Created on 2024-02-22 with reprex v2.0.2}

---

The workaround of pkgload::unload works because, unlike detach, it detaches the whole namespace. You can just load afex again later in the script if you need to and repeat these steps as needed.

[seglima]

Thank you for looking into this and for finding an easy workaround!

[rempsyc]

In the development version of rempsyc, I have now removed the nice_table class completely, so tomorrow you should be able to install the new version from the r-Universe without having to use pkgload::unload in your script. I'd have to submit the new version to CRAN, eventually...

install.packages("rempsyc", repos = c(
  rempsyc = "https://rempsyc.r-universe.dev",
  CRAN = "https://cloud.r-project.org"))