write.xlsx outputting merged cells directly from R

Question

I need to output a data frame into an excel file. The problem is that I would like to merge-center the data only for the first column. This is an easy excel function but would like to know if this is possible directly from R using xlsx or anyother library

Any help will be appreciated.

Edit: I am new to posting questions on StackOverflow so I guess I do not have rights to upload pictures. I have added the two on my google+. The first picture is what the situation is now

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-ednAfy8SCb8/UdcM8RB6xgI/AAAAAAAAMPA/9FuO15_UP4M/w256-h194-no/1.jpg

The second image is how I would like it to be

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rU8elOT4FN8/UdcM8UZDTLI/AAAAAAAAMPE/ImNJoe5uzwk/w256-h194-no/2.jpg

Answer 1

This can be done in the xlsx package using:

    addMergedRegion(sheet, startRow, endRow, startColumn, endColumn)

Answer 2

One possibility is to use library XLConnect and function mergeCells() - only for this function you have to provide reference in for of A2:B3 and so on.

library(XLConnect)
#Create file
wb <- loadWorkbook("file.xlsx", create = TRUE)

# Create a worksheet called 'cars'
createSheet(wb, name = "cars")

#write data cars to sheet
writeWorksheet(wb, cars, sheet = "cars")

# Merge the cells A2:A3 and A4:A5 on the worksheet created above
mergeCells(wb, sheet = "cars", reference = c("A2:A3","A4:A5"))

# Save workbook
saveWorkbook(wb)