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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

qol 1.2.0

New functions

New functionality

  • inverse(): Now supports variable names written without quotation marks. (21.12.2025)
  • keep()/dropp(): Now support variable ranges, like “state:income”. (21.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Removed pre_summed parameter. Instead the function now checks on it’s own, whether the provided data frame is pre summarised or not. (23.12.2025)
  • dots_to_char(): Renamed from args_to_char() and is now able to get the original argument from up the environment tree and return it as character vector. (02.01.2026)
  • args_to_char(): Now converts the contents of a given argument to a character vector. (02.01.2026)
  • excel_output_style(): Parameter file is now split up into save_path and file (meaning just the file name + extension). (06.01.2026)
  • any_table(), frequencies(), crosstabs(), export_with_style(): The style parameter is now set to the new global styling options as default instead of excel_output_style(). (06.01.2026)
  • any_table(): The var_labels and stat_labels parameter is now set to the new global options as default. (07.01.2026)
  • In general: New global options for print, monitor and na.rm have been implemented into the functions capable of using them. (07.01.2026)
  • if.(): If only a single variable name is provided, it is now evaluated as !is.na(var_name). (10.01.2026)
  • retain_value(): Reworked iternally, can now also handle character variables. (10.01.2026)
  • excel_output_style(): New parameters as_heatmap, heatmap_low_color, heatmap_middle_color and heatmap_high_color. These can also be set as global options. If as_heatmap is TRUE the tables from any_table(), frequencies(), crosstabs() and export_with_style() receive a conditional formatting. (11.01.2026)
  • crosstabs(): Now has a new parameter show_total to control output of row and column totals. (11.01.2026)
  • keep()/dropp(): The “:” can now be used as a placeholder for “starts with” (“text:”), “ends with” (“:text”) and “contains” (“:text:”). (12.01.2026)
  • any_table(): Is now able to generate ‘pct_value’ statistic without outputting additional ‘sum’ values. (12.01.2026)
  • build_master(): Now generates a code block which can rebuilt the master file. Additionally the folder structure is now generated in code blocks which can open the folders and files. Overall gave the master file a bit more visual structure. (12.01.2026)

Removed

Fixed

  • keep(): Variables where always output in provided order. order_vars = FALSE (default) will now output variables in order of appearance. (21.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Now checks if a column combination is also part of the row combinations. (22.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Fixed row header variables where sorted alphabetically instead of in provided order. Bug was introduced in version 1.1.1. (23.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Fixed by variables could be sorted in the wrong order. (30.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Added missing format for variable ‘state’ in examples. (02.01.2026)
  • frequencies(): ‘formats’ parameter was missing a ‘=’ in examples. (02.01.2026)
  • summarise_plus(): Group percentages with nesting = “all” or “single” and na.rm = TRUE are now computed as intended. (02.01.2026)
  • handle_cell_styles(): Set apply_font and font_id in a save way to prevent warnings. (04.01.2026, thanks to @JanMarvin)
  • summarise_plus(): Removed conversion to numeric values before applying formats, which could lead to not matching formats, if a numeric value was intentionally stored as character value. (07.01.2026)
  • any_table(): When na.rm was TRUE and many table cells where generated while only having few observations, it could happen that some combinations weren’t generated and a result mismatch happend. Results are now joined instead of cbind together to be safe. (11.01.2026)

Optimization

  • summarise_plus(): Now uses faster collapse::na_omit for NA removal. (27.12.2025)
  • dummy_data(): Optimized and now just takes half the time to generate data. (27.12.2025)
  • summarise_plus(): Swapped in more collapse functions. Turned off sorting of collapse::GRP when using the shortcut route. (28.12.2025)
  • apply_formats(): NA value subsetting is now only done once and not twice with interval formats. data.table::setkey is now only called on the format data frame. (28.12.2025)
  • summarise_plus(): When na.rm option is TRUE and only statistics based on sums are selected, summarise_plus() is now able to take the shortcut route. This also gives any_table() a huge performance boost when na.rm option is TRUE. (29.12.2025)
  • In general: Swapped in more collapse functions. (29.12.2025)
  • any_table(): If more than two group percentages have to be computed, any additional one gets computed faster, because they are computed on a smaller data frame. (29.12.2025)
  • In general: Error handling has been generalized in many places to make it more robust and get a better overview. (02.01.2026)
  • apply_format(): Removed redundant data.table transformations. (11.01.2026)

New Error Checks

Additionally

  • Restructured some “Small Helpers” into “Renaming” and “Variable Selection”. (21.12.2025)
  • Adjusted some warning messages. (22.12.2025)
  • Added some comments to the heavier functions, to enhance visual code structure. (22.12.2025)
  • Added transpose_plus() and sort_plus() examples to the README. (27.12.2025)
  • discrete_format() and interval_format(): Labels will now be converted to numeric if they are all numeric. (02.01.2026)
  • In general: Added more messages to display what functions do. (03.01.2026)
  • retain_value(), retain_sum(): value parameter is now called values. (10.01.2026)
  • mark_cases(), retain_value(), retain_sum(): Adjusted unit tests to something that actually makes sense. (10.01.2026)
  • In general: Added some unit tests on file saving and retrieving. (10.01.2026)
  • any_table(), frequencies(), crosstabs(), export_with_style(): Updated examples to show how a file is saved via the style element. (13.01.2026)

qol 1.1.1

CRAN release: 2025-12-13

CRAN release on 13.12.2025

New functions

  • multi_join(): Join two or more data frames together in one operation. (30.11.2025)
  • libname(): Check if path exists and retrieve files. (04.12.2025)

Fixed

  • any_table(): Fixed multi layered column header labels where not applied correct. (28.11.2025)
  • any_table(): Fixed incorrect column order when using order_by “values” while variable names have underscores. (04.12.2025)
  • any_table(): Using pre summed data now also works, if variable names carry underscores. (04.12.2025)
  • Added article comparing this package with SAS even further. (02.12.2025)

qol 1.1.0

CRAN release: 2025-11-20

CRAN release on 20.11.2025

New functions

  • build_master(): Reads a given folder structure, which contains scripts, and builds a master script as a markdown file. (18.10.2025)
  • build_rstheme(): Build a complete theme file, which can be used to change the visual appearance of RStudio. (23.10.2025)
  • combine_into_workbook(): Combines any number of tables created with any_table() into one workbook and styles them according to their meta information. (26.10.2025)
  • replace_except(): Replaces a provided pattern with another, while protecting exceptions. (29.10.2025)
  • mark_case(): Marks first or last cases within a provided group. (31.10.2025)
  • retain_value(): Retains the first value for all cases of the same group. (31.10.2025)
  • retain_sum(): Retains the summarised values for all cases of the same group. (31.10.2025)

New functionality

  • interval_format(): Implemented keywords “low”and “high” with which one can define pseudo low or high values, if one doesn’t know, what the minimum or maximum value of a variable is. (20.10.2025)
  • discrete_format(): Implemented keyword “other” with which one can catch any other value not covered by the explicitly specified values. (27.10.2025)
  • any_table(): Now returns styling meta information as a third list element. This meta information can be used by combine_into_workbook(). (26.10.2025)
  • any_table(): Now supports underscores in variable names. (29.10.2025)
  • any_table(): Added new column ordering possibilities by “columns” or “values_stats”. (03.11.2025)
  • any_table(): Can now output tables even though no column variables are specified. (05.11.2025)

Fixed

  • In any_table() the header and table row heights as well as the column widths set by the style option where 1 row/column to short. (14.10.2025)
  • In any_table() the row heights didn’t catch the whole table. (14.10.2025)
  • any_table() ran into an error, if a variable was provided as pct_group, which was not part of the row and column variables. (14.10.2025)
  • Fixed typos in frequencies examples, where it said “frequency” instead of “frequencies”. (18.10.2025)
  • In Excel outputs the number stored as text error is now ignored. (19.10.2025, thanks to @JanMarvin)
  • Fixed table length captured with too many rows. (19.10.2025)
  • any_table(): Fixed order_by stats not working as intended in some cases. (03.11.2025)
  • any_table(): Fixed table rows not ordered correctly in some cases. (03.11.2025)
  • any_table(): Depending on variable constellation and ordering of the column header it could happen, that the header wasn’t merged correct in the Excel workbook. This was fixed. (04.11.2025)
  • any_table(): Doesn’t run into an error, if the table only consists of one value column. (05.11.2025)

Changed functionality

  • In excel_output_style() the options column_widths and row_heights now start at the first column/row instead of the beginning of the table. (19.10.2025)
  • In summarise_plus(), if summarised values should be merged back, the variables TYPE, TYPE_NR and DEPTHS are now not merged back anymore. (31.10.2025)

Additionally

  • Added missing functions export_with_style() and get_excel_range() to the ?qol overview page. (14.10.2025)
  • Added information to the startup message to use ?qol to get an overview. (14.10.2025)
  • Now using openxlsx2 helper to convert row and column numbers to Excel ranges. (19.10.2025, thanks to @JanMarvin)
  • All Excel tables now have named ranges for the table and the values. (19.10.2025, thanks to @JanMarvin)
  • Added an example to the README showing how to save an Excel workbook to the filesystem. (19.10.2025)
  • Used lintr package for some code cleanup. (20.10.2025, thanks to @JanMarvin for the advise)
  • Added custom theme section to the README. (23.10.2025)
  • Added message, if a format is applied to a factor variable. (27.10.2025)
  • Excel workbooks will now only be opened in interactive sessions. (29.10.2025, thanks to @JanMarvin)
  • Corrected typos in snippets. (03.11.2025)
  • Added article comparing this package with SAS. (14.10.2025)
  • Changed GitHub Page style. (14.10.2025)
  • Added example themes with corresponding code. (23.10.2025)

qol 1.0.2

CRAN release: 2025-10-14

CRAN release on 14.10.2025

DESCRIPTION file

  • Fixed brackets in DESCRIPTION so that auto linking works.
  • Added another URL.

Fixed

  • There could be an error in summarise_plus(), any_table() and args_to_char(), if there where to many variables provided.
  • summarise_plus() ran into an error, if a value label from a format contained a “.”.
  • any_table() could lead to wrong results if the pre_summed option was used and a variable was part of multiple combinations in the summarised data.

Changed functionality

  • In summarise_plus(), when types are defined, the total row is now removed if not explicitly defined as type.
  • In summarise_plus(), when the nesting option “deepest” is used, the variables TYPE, TYPE_NR and DEPTHS are now also generated.

Unit tests

  • Adjusted tests according to changed functionalities

Additionally

  • Added openxlsx2 as import in the qol main help file
  • Corrected a typo in a warning message in any_table() concerning variable order.

qol 1.0.1

CRAN release: 2025-10-10

  • Added references to specific SAS functions in the description field of the Description file where they are mentioned.
  • Removed specific seed in R/dummy_data.R
  • Fixed a bug in dummy_data where it could happen that not enough observations where generated.

qol 1.0.0

  • Initial CRAN submission.