rjdqa
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Comparison · Analytics
collapse vs redist
A side-by-side editorial comparison of collapse and redist — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
collapse vs redist: at a glance
What is collapse?
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
collapse provides fast grouped statistical computing and data transformation for R, built on a C backend with its own grouping, hashing and aggregation primitives. The 2.1.x line is a maintenance and optimization series: SIMD multiple-accumulator work delivering roughly 2x on fsum() and 7x on fmean() for systems without OpenMP, a custom internal unlist() with better attribute preservation, and a steady stream of correctness fixes in collap(), pivot() and roworderv().
What is redist?
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
redist simulates redistricting plans via sequential Monte Carlo, merge-split MCMC and short-burst optimization, and it is the analysis tool behind a good deal of published districting work. The user-facing shape was set by 4.0.1's constraint interface and the split of metrics into the redistmetrics package; since then the changes are in the algorithms. The most consequential recent one replaces the SMC label-counting adjustment with a backward kernel that removes approximation error outright.
collapse vs redist: editorial side-by-side
collapse
0.0ANALYTICS
collapse got a JSS paper and a 7x fmean speedup in the same release.
◆ Current state
collapse provides fast grouped statistical computing and data transformation for R, built on a C backend with its own grouping, hashing and aggregation primitives. The 2.1.x line is a maintenance and optimization series: SIMD multiple-accumulator work delivering roughly 2x on fsum() and 7x on fmean() for systems without OpenMP, a custom internal unlist() with better attribute preservation, and a steady stream of correctness fixes in collap(), pivot() and roworderv().
◆ Where it's heading
The package is consolidating institutionally as much as technically. The repository moved to the fastverse organization with multiple people granted access, the Journal of Statistical Software paper landed as the primary citation, and documentation now includes an AI-generated interactive layer. Technically the focus is the hashing and grouping core — the decision to treat -0 and 0 as equal across funique(), group(), fmatch(), fmode() and their derivatives was made in sync with an equivalent change in Rcpp, and accepted a measured 3% cost to get it. The last release with breaking changes sits outside this six-entry window.
◆ Prediction
Expect further targeted performance work on the grouped statistical functions and continued small correctness fixes; the governance move to fastverse suggests contribution volume rather than direction is what the maintainer is managing.
redist
0.0ANALYTICS
redist keeps rewriting the sampler underneath a district-drawing API it has held stable since 4.0.
◆ Current state
redist simulates redistricting plans via sequential Monte Carlo, merge-split MCMC and short-burst optimization, and it is the analysis tool behind a good deal of published districting work. The user-facing shape was set by 4.0.1's constraint interface and the split of metrics into the redistmetrics package; since then the changes are in the algorithms. The most consequential recent one replaces the SMC label-counting adjustment with a backward kernel that removes approximation error outright.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is toward exactness and throughput at once — the new kernel is described as both eliminating approximation error and costing far less computation, and successive releases keep adding parallelism, most recently to the flip algorithm. Feature growth has moved into the optimization side, where short-burst gained multiple independent scorers and a Pareto frontier. The release notes are not a reliable ledger: 4.3.1 ships the identical text as 4.3.0.
◆ Prediction
Expect the remaining single-threaded algorithms to gain the chains-style parallelism that flip just received, following the pattern SMC established several releases ago.
Alternatives to collapse and redist
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 collapse or redist.
epikit
epikit narrows to field-epidemiology helpers, handing proportions to a sibling package
SimInf
SimInf 10.0 turns an epidemic simulator into a tool that fits models to real time series
mutagen
A young package porting Stata's egen row-wise helpers to the tidyverse, one function per release
broman
A statistician's personal toolbox, growing one plotting utility at a time
qtl
R/qtl is in pure custodial mode: every recent release answers a compiler, not a user
See all collapse alternatives → · See all redist alternatives →
Recent activity from collapse and redist
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2mo agocollapseSIMD accumulators give fmean a 7x speedup without OpenMP
- 6mo agoredistParallel chains for redist_flip()
- 6mo agoredistPatch release reusing the 4.3.0 notes
- 7mo agocollapseNegative zero now hashes equal to zero across the package
- 8mo agocollapsecollap() no longer double-aggregates external weights
- 9mo agocollapseCustom unlist() preserves attributes
- 10mo agoredistSMC backward kernel removes label-counting approximation error
- 0y agocollapseAssorted bug fixes
- 1y agocollapsena_insert gains by-reference mode; gsplit and pivot speed up
- 2y agoredistMulti-objective short-burst search with Pareto frontier
- 3y agoredistredist_ci interface and faster loop-erased random walk
- 4y agoredistredist_constr() unifies constraints and admits user-defined ones ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between collapse and redist?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. collapse and redist 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 collapse better than redist?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. collapse and redist 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 collapse?
Top collapse alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "collapse alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/collapse-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to redist?
Top redist alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "redist alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/redist-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.