\HeaderA{formatDL}{Format Description Lists}{formatDL}
\keyword{print}{formatDL}
\begin{Description}\relax
Format vectors of items and their descriptions as 2-column
tables or LaTeX-style description lists.
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
formatDL(x, y, style = c("table", "list"),
         width = 0.9 * getOption("width"), indent = NULL)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{x}] a vector giving the items to be described, or a list of
length 2 or a matrix with 2 columns giving both items and
descriptions.
\item[\code{y}] a vector of the same length as \code{x} with the
corresponding descriptions.  Only used if \code{x} does not already
give the descriptions.
\item[\code{style}] a character string specifying the rendering style of the
description information.  If \code{"table"}, a two-column table with
items and descriptions as columns is produced (similar to Texinfo's
\code{@table} environment.  If \code{"list"}, a LaTeX-style tagged
description list is obtained.
\item[\code{width}] a positive integer giving the target column for wrapping
lines in the output.
\item[\code{indent}] a positive integer specifying the indentation of the
second column in table style, and the indentation of continuation
lines in list style.  Must not be greater than \code{width/2}, and
defaults to \code{width/3} for table style and \code{width/9} for
list style.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
After extracting the vectors of items and corresponding descriptions
from the arguments, both are coerced to character vectors.

In table style, items with more than \code{indent - 3} characters are
displayed on a line of their own.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
a character vector with the formatted entries.
\end{Value}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
## Use R to create the 'INDEX' for package 'splines' from its 'CONTENTS'
x <- read.dcf(file = system.file("CONTENTS", package = "splines"),
               fields = c("Entry", "Description"))
x <- as.data.frame(x)
writeLines(formatDL(x$Entry, x$Description))
## or equivalently: writeLines(formatDL(x))
## Same information in tagged description list style:
writeLines(formatDL(x$Entry, x$Description, style = "list"))
## or equivalently: writeLines(formatDL(x, style = "list"))
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

