collapse is a C/C++ based package for data transformation and statistical computing in R. It’s aims are:
Documentation comes in 5 different forms:
After installing collapse, you can call
help("collapse-documentation") which will produce a central
help page providing a broad overview of the entire functionality of the
package, including direct links to all function documentation pages and
links to 13 further topical documentation pages (names in
.COLLAPSE_TOPICS) describing how clusters of related
functions work together.
Thus collapse comes with a fully structured hierarchical documentation which you can browse within R - and that provides everything necessary to fully understand the package. The Documentation is also available online.
The package page under help("collapse-package") provides
some general information about the package and its design philosophy, as
well as a compact set of examples covering important functionality.
Reading help("collapse-package") and
help("collapse-documentation") is the most comprehensive
way to get acquainted with the package.
help("collapse-documentation") is always the most
up-to-date resource.
I have presented collapse in detail at useR 2022. A 2h video recording that provides a quite comprehensive up-to-date introduction is available here. The corresponding slides are available here.
There is an updated (2022) cheatsheet that compactly summarizes the package.
I wrote a recent (2023) rather technical vignette providing some details on collapse’s handling of R objects:
There are 5 further vignettes which are available online (due to their size and the enhanced browsing experience on the website):
Introduction to collapse : Introduces key features in a structured way
collapse and dplyr : Demonstrates the integration of collapse with dplyr / tidyverse workflows and associated performance improvements
collapse and plm: Demonstrates the integration of collapse with plm and shows examples of efficient programming with panel data
collapse and data.table: Shows how collapse and data.table may be used together in a harmonious way
collapse and sf: Shows how collapse can be used to efficiently manipulate sf data frames
Note that these vignettes currently do not cover major features introduced in versions 1.7 through 1.9. They have been updated if you see a 2023 in the date of the vignette. Updating them is currently not a priority for me, but you are welcome to help update them.
I maintain a blog linked to Rbloggers.com where I introduced collapse with some compact posts covering central functionality. Among these, the post about programming with collapse is useful for developers. A recent post about collapse and the fastverse also provides a broader contextualization and reflective outlook for the collapse and fastverse projects.