TidyDensity
A distribution catalogue that grows by one family at a time, and rarely breaks anything.
Comparison · Analytics
dissmapr vs labelled
A side-by-side editorial comparison of dissmapr and labelled — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
dissmapr vs labelled: at a glance
What is dissmapr?
dissmapr spent its first releases becoming citable rather than adding methods.
dissmapr provides an R workflow for compositional dissimilarity and turnover — occurrence data through spatial gridding and environmental linkage to order-wise dissimilarity and bioregional mapping. All three releases to date are infrastructure: a first citable archive in June 2026, then a maturity release aligning the package with the B-Cubed software development guide. The ten-function pipeline described in the notes has not changed across them.
What is labelled?
The bridge between Stata/SPSS labelled data and tidy R keeps widening, one integration at a time.
labelled manages variable labels, value labels and user-defined missing values on data imported from Stata, SPSS and SAS, filling the gap between those formats' metadata and R's native types. Recent releases have pushed outward from the core label accessors: survey design objects from the survey package are now supported throughout, look_for() results can be rendered as formatted gt tables, and dictionary data frames convert in both directions. Error messaging moved wholesale to cli in 2.14.0.
dissmapr vs labelled: editorial side-by-side
dissmapr
0.0ANALYTICS
dissmapr spent its first releases becoming citable rather than adding methods.
◆ Current state
dissmapr provides an R workflow for compositional dissimilarity and turnover — occurrence data through spatial gridding and environmental linkage to order-wise dissimilarity and bioregional mapping. All three releases to date are infrastructure: a first citable archive in June 2026, then a maturity release aligning the package with the B-Cubed software development guide. The ten-function pipeline described in the notes has not changed across them.
◆ Where it's heading
The work is compliance-shaped rather than method-shaped: explicit @importFrom in place of whole-namespace imports, library() calls removed from package code, roughly 11 MB of development caches dropped, a runnable README quick-start, and Zenodo archival with CITATION.cff and codemeta.json. dissmapr moves in lockstep with its B-Cubed sibling invasimapr — both tagged 0.1.0 within three minutes of each other and 0.2.0 on the same day — so releases here reflect project-wide standards deadlines more than package-specific work. The stated roadmap of additional ecological distance metrics has not yet landed.
◆ Prediction
With standards work now signed off and R CMD check clean, the next release is the first real chance for the roadmap items — additional ecological distance metrics — to arrive.
labelled
0.0ANALYTICS
The bridge between Stata/SPSS labelled data and tidy R keeps widening, one integration at a time.
◆ Current state
labelled manages variable labels, value labels and user-defined missing values on data imported from Stata, SPSS and SAS, filling the gap between those formats' metadata and R's native types. Recent releases have pushed outward from the core label accessors: survey design objects from the survey package are now supported throughout, look_for() results can be rendered as formatted gt tables, and dictionary data frames convert in both directions. Error messaging moved wholesale to cli in 2.14.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is toward being usable wherever labelled data ends up, not just where it is loaded. Each recent release either extends support to another object type — survey designs, packed columns, plain vectors, tibbles with list columns — or adds a conversion path between labels and some other representation. The look_for() search function has become a second centre of gravity alongside the label accessors, accumulating its own output formats and long-format conversions.
◆ Prediction
The pattern of adding compatibility with one more object type or output format per release is stable and likely continues. Nothing in these entries indicates a change to the underlying haven_labelled representation the package is built on.
Alternatives to dissmapr and labelled
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 dissmapr or labelled.
cfbfastr
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
rnpn
The USA phenology data client rebuilt its entire stack and stopped handing users -9999 as a number.
GeneNMF
GeneNMF rebuilt how it derives meta-programs, changing every result it had produced.
rempsyc
Publication-ready psychology tables and plots, tracking APA style as closely as the software allows.
sdsfun
A spatial-statistics utility package exists to be depended on, and is built accordingly.
See all dissmapr alternatives → · See all labelled alternatives →
Recent activity from dissmapr and labelled
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agodissmaprVersion bump; notes identical to 0.2.0
- 1mo agodissmaprB-Cubed standards alignment, docs overhaul and a citable DOI
- 1mo agodissmaprdissmapr v0.1.0: First citable release
- 9mo agolabelledFormatted look_for() tables and two-way dictionary conversion
- 11mo agolabelledSurvey design objects supported across the package
- 1y agolabelledRegression in set_variable_labels() corrected
- 1y agolabelledcli adopted for all messaging; null_action gains options
- 2y agolabelledCustom functions can rewrite variable and value labels in bulk
- 3y agolabelledPacked columns supported and label attributes exposed directly
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between dissmapr and labelled?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. dissmapr and labelled 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 dissmapr better than labelled?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. dissmapr and labelled 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 dissmapr?
Top dissmapr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "dissmapr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/dissmapr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to labelled?
Top labelled alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "labelled alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/labelled for the full list with editorial commentary on each.