← Back to home
Comparison · Analytics

haven vs timetk

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

haven vs timetk: at a glance

Featurehaventimetk
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesr, data-import, spss-stata-sas, readstattime-series, anomaly-detection, visualization, feature-engineering
Last editorial update6h ago46m ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is haven?

haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.

haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.

Read the full haven trajectory →

What is timetk?

timetk swallowed anomalize whole, then went quiet for two years

timetk handles time series wrangling, visualization, and feature engineering in a tidyverse idiom. Its defining recent move was absorbing the anomalize package outright in 2.9.0, bringing anomaly detection, cleaning, and the associated plots inside timetk rather than leaving them in a sibling package. Development then paused for nearly two years before 2.9.1, a robustness and documentation release.

Read the full timetk trajectory →

haven vs timetk: editorial side-by-side

H
haven
ANALYTICS
0.0

haven's release cadence has narrowed to compiler and R-devel upkeep.

◆ Current state

haven is the tidyverse's bridge to SPSS, Stata and SAS files, wrapping the C ReadStat library. The last several releases are almost entirely maintenance: syncing vendored ReadStat and patching ahead of R-devel changes. The most recent substantive user-facing work landed in 2.5.2 and earlier.

◆ Where it's heading

Development has shifted from extending the file-format surface to keeping a C dependency compiling against newer toolchains. The deprecation of write_sas() narrowed that surface deliberately, steering users to write_xpt() because the sas7bdat format is undocumented and unsupported upstream.

◆ Prediction

Expect further ReadStat sync releases triggered by compiler or R-devel breakage rather than new format support or writing features.

T
timetk
ANALYTICS
0.0

timetk swallowed anomalize whole, then went quiet for two years

◆ Current state

timetk handles time series wrangling, visualization, and feature engineering in a tidyverse idiom. Its defining recent move was absorbing the anomalize package outright in 2.9.0, bringing anomaly detection, cleaning, and the associated plots inside timetk rather than leaving them in a sibling package. Development then paused for nearly two years before 2.9.1, a robustness and documentation release.

◆ Where it's heading

The trajectory before the pause was consolidation: fold in adjacent functionality, then make the visualization layer handle many series at once via trelliscopejs, then broaden feature generation with tk_tsfeatures(). The recent release works on the least glamorous layer — internal generics so date parsing and sequence generation behave consistently across Date, POSIXct, hms, yearmon, and yearqtr — which is the kind of foundation work a package does when it has accumulated too many special cases. The long gap and the CI-refresh content suggest maintenance attention rather than a new direction.

◆ Prediction

The stated gap is the unimplemented twitter method for anomalize(), which is the one concrete outstanding item the release notes name; beyond that the recent work points to consolidation rather than expansion.

Alternatives to haven and timetk

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 haven or timetk.

See all haven alternatives → · See all timetk alternatives →

Recent activity from haven and timetk

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

  1. 11mo agotimetktimetk 2.9.1 makes date parsing consistent across time classes
  2. 1y agohavenhaven 2.5.5 syncs ReadStat for stricter gcc diagnostics
  3. 2y agohavenhaven 2.5.4 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
  4. 2y agotimetktimetk 2.9.0 absorbs the anomalize package
  5. 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.3 patches for an upcoming R-devel change
  6. 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.2 fixes SAS catalog reads and deprecates write_sas()
  7. 3y agohavenhaven 2.5.1 aligns labelled headers and fixes name repair
  8. 4y agotimetktimetk 2.8.1 exposes trelliscope plotting parameters
  9. 4y agohavenhaven 2.5.0 adds custom variable widths when writing files
  10. 4y agotimetktimetk 2.8.0 adds trelliscopejs support for many-series plots
  11. 4y agotimetktimetk 2.7.0 adds tk_tsfeatures() for grouped feature matrices
  12. 4y agotimetktimetk 2.6.2 adds .week_start and facet direction controls

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between haven and timetk?

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

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

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

What are the best alternatives to timetk?

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