metatools
SDTM supplemental-qualifier merging got sturdier, then the package went quiet for two years.
Comparison · Analytics
cleanepi vs FedData
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cleanepi and FedData — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cleanepi vs FedData: at a glance
What is cleanepi?
cleanepi is in the long tail of bug fixes that follows a 1.0 — and changed maintainers along the way.
cleanepi cleans and standardises epidemiological line list data — dates, subject IDs, missing values, duplicates — and produces a report of what it changed. Since 1.0.0 in mid-2024 the releases have been almost entirely corrective: date-guesser fixes, report structure fixes and matching behaviour corrections. Maintainership passed to Bubacarr Bah in 1.1.2.
What is FedData?
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
cleanepi vs FedData: editorial side-by-side
cleanepi
0.0ANALYTICS
cleanepi is in the long tail of bug fixes that follows a 1.0 — and changed maintainers along the way.
◆ Current state
cleanepi cleans and standardises epidemiological line list data — dates, subject IDs, missing values, duplicates — and produces a report of what it changed. Since 1.0.0 in mid-2024 the releases have been almost entirely corrective: date-guesser fixes, report structure fixes and matching behaviour corrections. Maintainership passed to Bubacarr Bah in 1.1.2.
◆ Where it's heading
Work has concentrated on the report object and on making the cleaning functions behave predictably at the edges — case- and whitespace-insensitive missing-value matching, report elements returned as vectors instead of comma-separated strings, an argument to print a single operation's report. The underlying cleaning API has barely moved since 1.0.0, which suggests it is settled.
◆ Prediction
The report interface has been reworked repeatedly across these releases and is the most likely place for further change; the cleaning functions themselves look stable.
FedData
0.0ANALYTICS
FedData has spent two major versions migrating US federal geodata off R's retiring spatial stack.
◆ Current state
FedData downloads and standardises US federal geospatial datasets — NLCD, NHD, NED, SSURGO, Daymet, GHCN, PAD-US, NASS — into consistent R objects. Two breaking majors define the current package: 3.0.0 moved returns to sf and raster and pulled data from cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs, and 4.0.0 finished the job by dropping sp and raster entirely for terra and sf. Recent releases are dataset refreshes, most recently PAD-US 4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks two moving targets at once: the R spatial stack, which it has now fully migrated onto terra and sf, and the federal agencies whose URLs, file naming and hosting keep shifting. With the dependency migration finished, releases have shrunk to single-dataset updates such as annual NLCD and PAD-US 4.0, which suggests the structural work is done and the ongoing cost is data-source maintenance.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued small releases pinned to new vintages of the underlying federal datasets, plus fixes when an agency moves or reformats a source; no further dependency-level upheaval is visible in these entries.
Alternatives to cleanepi and FedData
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either cleanepi or FedData.
marquee
marquee is filling in the typographic details — outlines, border types, real font metrics for underlines.
logrx
A clinical-script logger that stopped shipping after its 0.2 line, changelogs made of merged PRs.
lobstr
R's object inspector is losing its view of the internals as CRAN closes off the private C API.
GSODR
A weather-station data client that broke one return type to hand back distances instead of bare IDs.
giscoR
giscoR's 1.0 moved its dataset index into the cache, so new Eurostat releases arrive without a package update.
See all cleanepi alternatives → · See all FedData alternatives →
Recent activity from cleanepi and FedData
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9mo agocleanepiCase-insensitive missing-value matching and report fixes
- 1y agocleanepiReport elements become vectors; date parsing default restored
- 1y agoFedDataget_padus() updated to PAD-US 4.0
- 1y agocleanepiDate guesser corrected; empty-row indices fixed
- 1y agoFedDataAnnual NLCD access added; get_nass() retired
- 2y agocleanepiFirst major release with cleaning and reporting
- 2y agoFedDatasp and raster dropped; everything returns terra or sf ⚡
- 3y agoFedDataGHCN moves to https; NHD handles empty and odd geometries
- 3y agoFedDataAll raster writing moves to terra
- 3y agoFedDataVersion 3 rebuilds on sf and cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cleanepi and FedData?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cleanepi and FedData are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is cleanepi better than FedData?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cleanepi and FedData are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to cleanepi?
Top cleanepi alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cleanepi alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cleanepi for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to FedData?
Top FedData alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "FedData alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/feddata for the full list with editorial commentary on each.