How to add variables based on external data to a tabular{tables} summary table

Is it possible to add rows (or columns) to a summary table based on an external object with tabular() ?

This works:

tabular( (Sepal.Width+Petal.Width) ~ (n=1) + Format(digits=2)*(Species)*(mean + sd), data=iris )

This does not:

var <- names(iris)[c(2,4)]
tabular( (var) ~ (n=1) + Format(digits=2)*(Species)*(mean + sd), data=iris )

Is there a simple way to choose variables using another object, or do I really have to call them by their name?

Disclaimer: I'm new to both latex and the package {tables}, so please forgive my naivety.

Solution

Try this:

tabular( parse(text = paste(var, collapse = "+")) ~ (n=1) + Format(digits=2)*(Species)*(mean + sd), data=iris )

then you will get

                 Species                                    
                 setosa       versicolor      virginica     
             n   mean    sd   mean       sd   mean      sd  
 Sepal.Width 150 3.43    0.38 2.77       0.31 2.97      0.32
 Petal.Width 150 0.25    0.11 1.33       0.20 2.03      0.27