NEWS in package ‘pillar’

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Changes in version 1.7.0

Breaking changes

• colonnade() is now soft-deprecated (#485).
• expect_known_display() and is_vector_s3() are now deprecated (#460, #501).
• new_pillar() deprecates extra argument (#497).

Features

• Focus columns specified via the focus argument to tbl_format_setup() are kept in their original place and shown with the maximum width and with the "type" component underlined (#465).

Bug fixes

• Update s3_register() to use new implementation from rlang, this fixes CRAN checks related to scale_type() (#462).

Internal

• Single pillars constructed with pillar() use only as much width as required when printing (#484).

Changes in version 1.6.5

Breaking changes

• New ctl_new_pillar_list(), supersedes ctl_new_compound_pillar() (#433).

Features

• If some but not all sub-columns of a data frame or matrix column are shown, the names and types of the remaining columns are displayed in the footer (#365, #444).
• num(fixed_exponent = ...) is now represented with the fixed exponent in the pillar header, and in the title in ggplot2 (#307).
• tbl_format_setup() gains focus argument that expects a character vector of column names. Focus columns are moved to the front and separated from the main columns by a subtle vertical line (#384).
• New scale_x_num() and scale_y_num(). If a column created with num() is used in a ggplot, the x and y scale will be formatted automatically according to to the specification (#400, #404).
• List columns omit size information if horizontal space is insufficient (#392).
• If the column title of a backticked column is abbreviated, the trailing backtick is still printed (#391).
• new_pillar_shaft_simple() gains short_formatted argument that contains the data to be used if horizontal space is insufficient (#389).
• Default obj_sum() method returns abbreviation in attribute of return value (#390).

Bug fixes

• Extra columns in footer show backticks again if they are non-syntactic (#393).
• Fixed some cases for combinations of printed width and getOption("width") (#432).
• Fix support for nanotime::nanotime() classes (#378, #380).

Documentation

• ?num and ?char now point to tibble (#382).

Internal

• Use eager registration via NAMESPACE for own methods for classes from other packages.
• Reworked formatting routine, now using a visitor-based approach with in-order iteration over all pillars. The only visible changes are that usage of free space (in the case of limited space) has slightly improved (#435).
• Prepared removal of dependency on the crayon package (#233, #406).
• Use snapshot variants, requires testthat >= 3.1.1 (#387).
• Replace internal "pillar_vertical" class with glue::as_glue() (#279).

Changes in version 1.6.4

Bug fixes

• Fix printing for some tibbles where a fixed-width column is followed by a column with variable width (#366).
• Avoid nested backtick blocks in vignette.

Breaking changes

• num() requires an integerish digits argument (#362).

Documentation

• Link to tibble vignettes and documentation pages.

Changes in version 1.6.3

• Avoid blanket import for lifecycle package for compatibility with upcoming rlang (#368, @romainfrancois).

Changes in version 1.6.2

Options

• Options pillar.print_max, pillar.print_min, pillar.width and pillar.max_extra_cols are now queried before the corresponding tibble. or dplyr. options are consulted, the latter will be soft-deprecated in pillar v2.0.0 (#353).
• New pillar.bidi option. When active, control characters are inserted to improve display of data with right-to-left text (#333).
• The new pillar.max_footer_lines option (default: 7) allows controlling the maximum number of footer lines shown. It is applied in addition to the existing tibble.max_extra_cols option (#263).

Formatting

• If a column doesn't make use of all horizontal width offered to it, the excess width is distributed over other columns (#331).
• Improved allocation of free space in multi-tier tables with getOption("tibble.width") > getOption("width") (#344).
• All pillars are shown with their true horizontal extent, irrespective of the indicated width. This simplifies the implementation of custom pillar_shaft() methods (#347).

Features

• num() gains extra_sigfig argument to automatically show more significant figures for numbers of the same magnitude with subtle differences (#97).
• print.tbl() and format.tbl() support the max_extra_cols and max_footer_lines arguments that override the corresponding options (#360).
• print.tbl() and format.tbl() maps the now deprecated n_extra argument to max_extra_cols for consistency (#360).

Bug fixes

• Avoid mangling of duplicate column names in footer (#332).
• Fix warning with zero of type bit64::integer64() (#319).

Documentation

• All package options are now documented in ?pillar_options (#339).
• obj_sum() no longer calls type_sum() for vectors since pillar v1.6.1, this is now documented (#321).
• Fix documentation on usage of vctrs::vec_proxy() and vctrs::vec_restore() (#322).

Internal

• Using attr(exact = TRUE) everywhere.
• is_vector_s3() is no longer generic (#181).
• Fix internal logic around vec_proxy() and vec_restore() (#316).

Changes in version 1.6.1

• Bump required versions of ellipsis and vctrs to avoid warning during package load.
• obj_sum() no longer includes shape twice (#315).

Changes in version 1.6.0

Features

• New num() and char() offer a flexible way to customize the display of numeric and character columns (#191, #84).
• New "pillar.max_dec_width" option (#308).
• New format_type_sum.AsIs() avoids the need to implement your own format_type_sum() method (#286).
• align() gains space argument to control the character used for filling (#285).
• Numbers in scientific and decimal notation are formatted with the same rules regarding significant or decimal digits (#297).

Bug fixes

• Load the debugme package only if the DEBUGME environment variable is set.
• More accurate detection if the decimal dot is necessary, and how many digits to show after the decimal dot (#298).
• Use display width instead of number of characters when truncating character columns.

Documentation

• New vignette("numbers") and vignette("digits") (#308).

Internal

• Compatibility with vctrs 0.3.7 (#291).
• format.pillar_shaft_simple() requires "na" attribute and no longer defaults to pillar_na() (#273).

Changes in version 1.5.1

Features

• New format_glimpse() (#177).

Bug fixes

• Color and formatting can now be reliably turned off by setting the "cli.num_colors" option to 1 (#269).

Documentation

• Add examples for new functions (#264).
• Fix lifecycle badges everywhere.

Changes in version 1.5.0

Breaking changes

• obj_sum() now always returns a string. pillar_shaft.list() iterates over its elements and calls obj_sum() for each (#137).

• Breaking: print.pillar() and print.pillar_ornament() now show <pillar> <pillar_ornament> in the first line (#227, #228).

• pillar has been re-licensed as MIT (#215).

Extensibility

• New size_sum() generic (#239).

• New ctl_new_pillar() and ctl_new_compound_pillar() used via print.tbl(), format.tbl() and tbl_format_setup.tbl() (#230).

• New new_pillar() low-level constructor (#230).

• New new_pillar_component() and pillar_component() (#230).

• New articles vignette("extending") and vignette("printing") (#251).

Formatting

• All printing code has been moved from tibble to pillar (#179), including glimpse() (#234). This concentrates the printing code in one package and allows for better extensibility.

• Improve formatting for "Surv" and "Surv2" classes from the survival package (#199).

• Vectors of the vctrs_unspecified() class are formatted better (#256).

• Arrays are now formatted by showing only their first slice (#142).

• Avoid wrapping extra column names with spaces (#254).

Internal

• Now using debugme to simplify understand the complex control flow, see vignette("debugme") (#248).

• New format.pillar_ornament() (#228).

• Using testthat 3e (#218).

• Avoid pillar.bold option in most tests (#216).

• Change internal storage format for colonnade() and extra_cols() (#204).

Changes in version 1.4.7

• Adapt to changed environment on CRAN's Solaris machine.

Changes in version 1.4.6

• Restore compatibility with R 3.2.

Changes in version 1.4.5

Features

• New pillar.min_chars option allows controlling the minimum number of characters shown for a character column (#178, @statsmaths).

• bit64::integer64() columns are now formatted the same way as numeric columns (#175).

• New align() to support easy alignment of strings within a character vector (existing function exported by @davidchall, #185).

Technical

• pillar_shaft(), format_type_sum() and extra_cols() issue a warning if dots are unused.

• new_pillar_title() and new_pillar_type() warn if ... is not empty.

Internal

• Use lifecycle package.

• Remove compatibility code for R < 3.3.

Changes in version 1.4.4

• obj_sum() uses vctrs::vec_size() internally.

• is_vector_s3.default() is soft-deprecated and no longer used. Please ensure that vctrs::vec_is() is TRUE for your class.

• Rely on vctrs for type abbreviations.

Changes in version 1.4.3

• new_pillar_shaft_simple() gains na argument to control appearance of NA values.

• String columns are quoted if at least one value needs quotes (#171).

• Apply subtle style to list_of columns (#172).

• Fix formatting if mantissa is very close to 1 (#174).

• Use as.character() instead of as_character().

• Remove compatibility with testthat < 2.0.0.

Changes in version 1.4.2

• List columns are shown with their perceived dimensions, which may be different from those stored in the "dim" attribute. Regression introduced in 1.4.0 (#167).

• Add ellipsis to vec_ptype_abbr() method.

Changes in version 1.4.1

• More careful specification of minimum package versions for the dependencies (#165).
• Fix type_sum.vctrs_vctr() that also led to a NOTE in R CMD check.
• Resolve vec_is() at runtime instead of during .onLoad() (#163, @lionel-).
• Implement methods for vctrs objects.

Changes in version 1.4.0

Breaking changes

• type_sum() forwards to vctrs::vec_ptype_abbr() (#134). This makes sure that list_of columns (for values of the same type) are properly displayed. The value returned for factor and complex remains unchanged, because this will change in vctrs.
• The class argument to new_pillar_shaft() deprecates the existing subclass argument. Passing a subclass argument leads to a warning once per session (#157).

Output

• Removed extra space for pillars with a negative value of lower magnitude than the largest positive value (example: -1 and 23).
• 0-col tibble and matrix columns are now formatted with a capital containing [,0] and an empty shaft (#149).

Performance

• squeeze() is now faster (because the width computation in pillar_shaft.numeric() now uses more arithmetics instead of string concatenation). Further speedups may require implementation of crucial parts in C (#147).
• Styling output is faster: an expensive check for availability of colored output is carried out only once per call to colonnade(), and styling is implemented manually (#133, @jimhester).

Internal

• All internal S3 classes have the pillar_ prefix (#156).
• Only check native output on Windows, due to subtle differences when running on Linux in a latin1 locale.

Changes in version 1.3.1

Bug fixes

• Fix off-by-one error in distribution of empty space (#141).

Visible changes

• NA in names is no longer escaped with backticks.
• Don't add quotes for pillars formatted with their format() method (tidyverse/tibble#448).

Internal changes

• Update base type abbrevs to rlang 0.3.0 (#140, @lionel-).
• Tests work again in a 256-color terminal (#129).

Changes in version 1.3.0

Visible changes

• Unknown data types are formatted using format(), not as.character() (#120).

• Multi-tier colonnades can always fill the last tier, even if the width isn't a proper multiple of getOption("width"). (Example: options(width = 80, tibble.width = 200) will print a wide tibble in three tiers, each 80 characters wide, with a total width of 240 characters.)

• Fixed mixed formatting (showing some pillars with maximum, and some with minimum width). If a pillar's minimum width is smaller than getOption("width"), it is shown nevertheless, abbreviated with dots if necessary.

Interface changes

• format_type_sum() gains width argument (#73).

Performance improvements

• Printing large multi-tier colonnades is much faster, the code that distributes pillars over tiers uses a much simpler and much faster algorithm (tidyverse/tibble#422).

• Printing is now faster overall, because less work is done for formatting in "subtle" style (gray of a fixed level), and because fansi::strip_sgr() is used instead of crayon::strip_style().

• Slightly faster printing of colonnades by reusing an intermediate result.

Internal

• pillar() no longer adds backticks if title is non-syntactic.

• colonnade() supports data frames and matrices. When printing, each sub-column is shown individually, using a title that resembles the syntax used to access it. Also supports recursively nested data frames (with data frame or matrix columns).

• Added fuzz tests for character colonnades of varying widths.

• Use fansi::substr_ctl() in favor of crayon::col_substr().

Changes in version 1.2.3

• Eliminate CRAN check warning about undeclared withr dependency.
• More defensive test to address CRAN check failures on Solaris.
• colonnade() now handles pillars named "sep" (#115).
• pillar_shaft.character() gains min_width argument.

Changes in version 1.2.2

• Whole numbers are printed without a decimal dot again. Numbers that are the result of a whole number divided by a power of 10 (subject to a tolerance to account for floating-point imprecision) are shown without trailing decimal zeros, even if these zeros are significant according to the pillar.sigfig option (#105).
• New new_pillar_title() and new_pillar_type() to support consistent output in glimpse() (#31).
• New format_type_sum() generic that allows overriding the formatting of the type summary in the capital (#73).
• The digits.secs option is respected when computing the width for date-time values (#102).

Changes in version 1.2.1

Display

• Turned off using subtle style for digits that are considered insignificant. Negative numbers are shown all red. Set the new option pillar.subtle_num to TRUE to turn it on again (default: FALSE).
• The negation sign is printed next to the number again (#91).
• Scientific notation uses regular digits again for exponents (#90).
• Groups of three digits are now underlined, starting with the fourth before/after the decimal point. This gives a better idea of the order of magnitude of the numbers (#78).
• Logical columns are displayed as TRUE and FALSE again (#95).
• The decimal dot is now always printed for numbers of type numeric. Trailing zeros are not shown anymore if all displayed numbers are whole numbers (#62).
• Decimal values longer than 13 characters always print in scientific notation.

Changes in version 1.1.0

• NA values are now shown in plain red, without changing the background color (#70).
• New options to control the output, with defaults that match the current behavior unless stated otherwise:
  • pillar.sigfig to control the number of significant digits, for highlighting and truncation (#72),
  • pillar.subtle to specify if insignificant digits should be printed in gray (#72),
  • pillar.neg to specify if negative digits should be printed in red,
  • pillar.bold to specify if column headers should be printed in bold (default: FALSE, #76),
  • pillar.min_title_chars to specify the minimum number of characters to display for each column name (default: 15 characters, #75).
• Shortened abbreviations for types: complex: cplx -> cpl, function: fun -> fn, factor: fctr -> fct (#71).
• Date columns now show sub-seconds if the digits.secs option is set (#74).
• Very wide tibbles now print faster (#85).

Changes in version 1.0.1

• Work around failing CRAN tests on Windows.

Changes in version 1.0.0

Initial release.

User functions

pillar(x, title = NULL, width = NULL, ...) colonnade(x, has_row_id = TRUE, width = NULL, ...) squeeze(x, width = NULL, ...)

Functions for implementers of data types

new_pillar_shaft_simple(formatted, ..., width = NULL, align = "left", min_width = NULL, na_indent = 0L) new_pillar_shaft(x, ..., width, min_width = width, subclass) new_ornament(x, width = NULL, align = NULL) get_extent(x) get_max_extent(x)

Utilities

dim_desc(x) style_na(x) style_neg(x) style_num(x, negative, significant = rep_along(x, TRUE)) style_subtle(x)

Testing helper

expect_known_display(object, file, ..., width = 80L, crayon = TRUE)

Own S3 methods

pillar_shaft(x, ...) # AsIs, Date, POSIXt, character, default, list, logical, numeric type_sum(x) # AsIs, Date, POSIXct, data.frame, default, difftime, factor, ordered is_vector_s3(x) # Date, POSIXct, data.frame, default, difftime, factor, ordered obj_sum(x) # AsIs, POSIXlt, default, list extra_cols(x, ...) # squeezed_colonnade