Tinytex: ! LaTeX Error: Environment sidewaystable undefined.

[FMKerckhof]

---

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Dear, I am trying to use the xtable sideways-table floating environment (from https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/xtable/vignettes/xtableGallery.pdf) in a R markdown report. However, I get an error message that the environment sidewaystable is undefined:

! LaTeX Error: Environment sidewaystable undefined.

I have then tried to install the package that is supposed to contain the environment (\usepackage{rotating})

> tlmgr_install("rotating")
tlmgr install rotating
tlmgr.pl install: package rotating not present in repository.
tlmgr.pl: action install returned an error; continuing.
tlmgr.pl: package repository https://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet (verified)
tlmgr.pl: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.
tlmgr update --self
tlmgr install rotating
tlmgr.pl install: package rotating not present in repository.
tlmgr.pl: action install returned an error; continuing.
tlmgr.pl: package repository https://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet (verified)
tlmgr.pl: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.

Then, I went on to check CTAN and I found that rotating is now integrated with latex-graphics (https://ctan.org/pkg/rotating?lang=en) which does not seem part of the repository either:

tlmgr install latex-graphics
tlmgr.pl install: package latex-graphics not present in repository.
tlmgr.pl: action install returned an error; continuing.
tlmgr.pl: package repository https://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet (verified)
tlmgr.pl: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.
tlmgr update --self
tlmgr install latex-graphics
tlmgr.pl install: package latex-graphics not present in repository.
tlmgr.pl: action install returned an error; continuing.
tlmgr.pl: package repository https://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/software/tex/systems/texlive/tlnet (verified)
tlmgr.pl: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.

I did install the package latex-graphics-dev, but still to no avail. I am aware that I could try to install from a zip archive as well (#126), but that seems like a hacky solution, especially with something as core to latex as the graphics package. So I am wondering, is there a cleaner solution? Am I using the wrong version? Is tlmgr using the wrong version? Below I includedthe output of xfun::session_info()

I am running the latest version of R, my Rstudio and all packages are up to date. My OS is Windows 10. I have issued a full reinstall as well (tinytex::reinstall_tinytex())

R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 10 x64 (build 18362), RStudio 1.3.1093

Locale:
  LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
  LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United States.1252    

Package version:
  assertthat_0.2.1  base64enc_0.1.3   cellranger_1.1.0  cli_2.0.2         compiler_4.0.2    crayon_1.3.4      digest_0.6.25    
  dplyr_1.0.2       ellipsis_0.3.1    evaluate_0.14     fansi_0.4.1       generics_0.0.2    glue_1.4.2        graphics_4.0.2   
  grDevices_4.0.2   highr_0.8         hms_0.5.3         htmltools_0.5.0   jsonlite_1.7.1    knitr_1.29        lifecycle_0.2.0  
  magrittr_1.5      markdown_1.1      methods_4.0.2     mime_0.9          pillar_1.4.6      pkgconfig_2.0.3   prettyunits_1.1.1
  progress_1.2.2    purrr_0.3.4       R6_2.4.1          Rcpp_1.0.5        readxl_1.3.1      rematch_1.0.1     rlang_0.4.7      
  rmarkdown_2.3     rstudioapi_0.11   stats_4.0.2       stringi_1.5.3     stringr_1.4.0     tibble_3.0.3      tidyselect_1.1.0 
  tinytex_0.25.4    tools_4.0.2       utf8_1.1.4        utils_4.0.2       vctrs_0.3.4       xfun_0.17         yaml_2.2.1 

Speficially for tinytex:

R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-w64-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
Running under: Windows 10 x64 (build 18362), RStudio 1.3.1093

Locale:
  LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252  LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252    LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252
  LC_NUMERIC=C                           LC_TIME=English_United States.1252    

Package version:
  graphics_4.0.2  grDevices_4.0.2 stats_4.0.2     tinytex_0.25.4  tools_4.0.2     utils_4.0.2     xfun_0.17    

Reproducible example (R markdown file):

`````

title: "Reprex xtable issue"
author: "FM Kerckhof"
date: "r Sys.Date()"
fontsize: 10pt
geometry: "left=3cm,right=3cm,top=2cm,bottom=2cm"
output:
pdf_document:
toc: yes
fig_caption: yes
number_sections: yes
editor_options:

chunk_output_type: console

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = FALSE)

load libraries ------------------------------------------------------------

library(knitr)
library(xtable)

load dataset --------------------------------------------------------------

data("CO2")

# Introduction

This is a Rmd that serves as a reprex for an issue with tinytex and 
sidewaystable. 

# Normal xtable enviroment runs smoothly

Without sidewaystable we get a properly rendered table in Table \ref{tab:oktable}.

```{r workingtable, echo=FALSE,warning=FALSE, results='asis'}

names(CO2) <- c("Plant identifier","Type","Treatment","Carbon dioxide concentration (mL/L)","CO2 uptake rate (micromol/m2)")
print(xtable(CO2,caption = "Overview table of measurements.",label = "tab:oktable",align = "rp{2cm}|p{2cm}p{3cm}p{3cm}p{3cm}"),
      sanitize.text.function=function(x){x},hline.after=c(-1,0),caption.placement="top",
      include.rownames=FALSE,comment=FALSE,sanitize.colnames.function=NULL)

The issue starts with sidewaystable

The sideways table environment cannot be found, the encompassing LaTeX packages
cannot be installed.

```{r problemtable, echo=FALSE,warning=FALSE, results='asis'}

print(xtable(CO2,caption = "Overview table of measurements.",label = "tab:faultytable",align = "rp{2cm}|p{2cm}p{3cm}p{3cm}p{3cm}"),
sanitize.text.function=function(x){x},hline.after=c(-1,0),caption.placement="top",
include.rownames=FALSE,comment=FALSE,sanitize.colnames.function=NULL,
floating = TRUE, floating.environment = "sidewaystable")

# Session info

```{r sessioninfo}
knitr::kable(devtools::session_info()$packages[,1:3])

````

[yihui]

Could you read and follow the issue guide exactly to provide all the required information? As requested, please provide a reproducible example, otherwise it is often hard for us to help you. Thanks!

[FMKerckhof]

Apologies, I editted my initial issue. I pasted a working example of a markdown document

[cderv]

(but I had to escape the chuncks for github to take the formatting).

FWIW you can format correctly by following the issue guide https://yihui.org/issue/#please-format-your-issue-correctly

[cderv]

It seems the issue comes from the fact the package rotating is not loading in the tex file.

To see that, I added keep_tex in
yaml output: pdf_document: toc: yes fig_caption: yes number_sections: yes keep_tex: true
and look for \usepackage{rotating} that I did not found, and hence the error.

So I tried adding the package by using extra_dependencies

output: 
  pdf_document: 
    toc: yes
    fig_caption: yes
    number_sections: yes
    keep_tex: true
    extra_dependencies: rotating

and it works fine, because \usepackage{rotating} is now explicitly added.

This is explained explicitly in the doc for xtable you linked (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/xtable/vignettes/xtableGallery.pdf) at chapter 5.10

Requires usepackage{rotating} in the LATEX preamble.

If you want to use that, you'll need to add yourself the correct package in the preamble. Either using what I used, or by inserting a custom preamble. See:

• Using extra packages: https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/latex-extra.html
• Adding to preamble : https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/latex-preamble.html

And also for next time, consider asking on RStudio community for example - it is better suited for asking questions with a broad community of r-helper !

Thank you !

[FMKerckhof]

Thank you @cderv , for the problem resolution, the clear explanation and the guidelines for future issues. I should not worry about future compatibility given that rotating is part of latex-graphics, according to CTAN (https://ctan.org/pkg/rotating?lang=en)?