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filearray vs gtsummary

A side-by-side editorial comparison of filearray and gtsummary — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

filearray vs gtsummary: at a glance

Featurefilearraygtsummary
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themeson-disk-arrays, memory-safety, c++, performanceclinical-tables, analysis-results-data, regression-summaries, reproducible-reporting
Last editorial update2h ago1h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is filearray?

The on-disk array layer under RAVE spends its releases hunting segfaults.

filearray stores large arrays on disk and reads them back with little memory overhead, serving as the storage substrate for the RAVE intracranial EEG stack. The 0.2.2 release fixes out-of-bound indexing that caused segfaults along certain margins and an ASAN-flagged signed integer overflow in the load path. The user-facing API has been stable since 0.1.6.

Read the full filearray trajectory →

What is gtsummary?

gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.

gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.

Read the full gtsummary trajectory →

filearray vs gtsummary: editorial side-by-side

F
filearray
ANALYTICS
0.0

The on-disk array layer under RAVE spends its releases hunting segfaults.

◆ Current state

filearray stores large arrays on disk and reads them back with little memory overhead, serving as the storage substrate for the RAVE intracranial EEG stack. The 0.2.2 release fixes out-of-bound indexing that caused segfaults along certain margins and an ASAN-flagged signed integer overflow in the load path. The user-facing API has been stable since 0.1.6.

◆ Where it's heading

This is infrastructure whose release history reads as a memory-safety log: unprotected C++ variables, buffer sizes exceeding array length, allocations one byte short, endianness on big-endian platforms, and now out-of-bound margins caught by sanitizers. The one sustained feature direction is reducing the cost of operating on arrays too large for memory — lazy operator evaluation through a proxy class, fmap-style application, and marginal collapse. Portability work has steadily removed hard requirements, dropping the C++11 declaration and swapping OpenMP for TinyThreads to get parallelism on macOS.

◆ Prediction

Expect continued sanitizer-driven patches rather than new interfaces; the three-year gap before 0.2.2 suggests releases now arrive only when a crash or a CRAN check demands one.

G
gtsummary
ANALYTICS
0.0

gtsummary is quietly rebuilding itself around analysis results data, one table verb at a time.

◆ Current state

gtsummary builds publication-ready summary, regression and survival tables for clinical and epidemiological work. Across this window it has grown in two directions at once: table composition primitives — splitting tables by rows and columns, stacking with labeled IDs, nested strata stacks, flexible merge columns — and a steadily deepening ARD layer, where tbl_ard_* functions, gather_ard() and the hierarchical table family expose the underlying analysis results data as a first-class object.

◆ Where it's heading

The ARD work is the through-line. Table IDs exist so gather_ard() can return a named list; hierarchical tables gained per-level sorting and targeted filtering; ARD inputs are pre-processed so sorting applies to non-standard shapes. The package is becoming a structured-results engine that happens to render tables, rather than a renderer alone. Alongside that, 2.2.0 restored data pre-processing that 2.0 had removed after the reduced functionality hurt users — a maintainer willing to reverse a major-version decision.

◆ Prediction

Expect the hierarchical and ARD functions, introduced as a preview without a full deprecation cycle, to keep stabilizing toward a settled API rather than new table types appearing.

Alternatives to filearray and gtsummary

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 filearray or gtsummary.

See all filearray alternatives → · See all gtsummary alternatives →

Recent activity from filearray and gtsummary

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 2mo agogtsummaryTheme elements no longer evaluated by default
  2. 2mo agofilearraySegfault on out-of-bound margins fixed
  3. 8mo agogtsummaryARD strata functions and finer theme control
  4. 11mo agogtsummaryPer-level hierarchical sorting and labeled stacking
  5. 1y agogtsummaryTable splitting, ID labeling, and add_difference_row
  6. 1y agogtsummaryData pre-processing restored after the 2.0 removal
  7. 1y agogtsummarytbl_merge gains explicit merge columns
  8. 3y agofilearrayLazy operator evaluation and macOS parallelism
  9. 3y agofilearraySequential read bug in fmap corrected
  10. 4y agofilearrayPartition limit removed by opening files on demand
  11. 4y agofilearrayHeader signatures and symbolic link detection
  12. 4y agofilearrayFlush timing left to the operating system

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between filearray and gtsummary?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. filearray and gtsummary 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 filearray better than gtsummary?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. filearray and gtsummary 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 filearray?

Top filearray alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "filearray alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/filearray-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to gtsummary?

Top gtsummary alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "gtsummary alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/gtsummary-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.