simlandr
Potential landscape tooling settling onto standard R generics after two rounds of renaming.
Comparison · Analytics
healthyR.data vs incase
A side-by-side editorial comparison of healthyR.data and incase — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
healthyR.data vs incase: at a glance
What is healthyR.data?
From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
healthyR.data supplies the data layer for the healthyverse packages. It began by shipping hospital data inside the package and now fetches from CMS and provider endpoints at call time through get_cms_meta_data(), fetch_cms_data(), and their provider counterparts. The most recent release is a single httr2 compatibility fix.
What is incase?
A safer case_when that keeps hardening its guarantees while realigning to tidyverse naming.
incase supplies in_case(), switch_case(), grep_case() and fn_case() as vectorised recoding functions in the dplyr::case_when idiom, with _fct and _list variants that return factors or lists instead of forcing atomic type conversion. The 0.4.0 release deprecates the undotted preserve, default and ordered arguments in favour of dotted forms, starting a removal clock, and adds .exhaustive to error on unmatched inputs.
healthyR.data vs incase: editorial side-by-side
healthyR.data
0.0ANALYTICS
From a bundled hospital dataset to a live CMS API client.
◆ Current state
healthyR.data supplies the data layer for the healthyverse packages. It began by shipping hospital data inside the package and now fetches from CMS and provider endpoints at call time through get_cms_meta_data(), fetch_cms_data(), and their provider counterparts. The most recent release is a single httr2 compatibility fix.
◆ Where it's heading
The 2023 release added roughly twenty current_*_data() accessors, one per CMS measure file - a wide but static surface. The 2024 releases replaced that approach with metadata lookup plus generic fetchers, then taught the fetchers to handle CSV, Excel, and ZIP payloads rather than API responses alone. The package's weight has moved from what it ships to what it can retrieve.
◆ Prediction
With the fetch layer generalised, the next visible work is more likely record-limit and error handling around httr2 than further per-measure accessors.
incase
0.0ANALYTICS
A safer case_when that keeps hardening its guarantees while realigning to tidyverse naming.
◆ Current state
incase supplies in_case(), switch_case(), grep_case() and fn_case() as vectorised recoding functions in the dplyr::case_when idiom, with _fct and _list variants that return factors or lists instead of forcing atomic type conversion. The 0.4.0 release deprecates the undotted preserve, default and ordered arguments in favour of dotted forms, starting a removal clock, and adds .exhaustive to error on unmatched inputs.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is consistently toward catching recoding mistakes at the call site rather than letting them pass silently. Early releases broadened how a match can be expressed — pattern matching, function application, factor and list returns. Recent work has shifted to guarantees about the result: correct factor level ordering relative to .default, and now an exhaustiveness check. Notably 0.4.0 reverses the 0.3.2 decision to accept arguments with or without dots, trading that flexibility for namespace safety against user-supplied case names.
◆ Prediction
The deprecation warnings introduced in 0.4.0 point to a follow-up release that removes the undotted arguments outright. Whether .exhaustive eventually becomes the default is unclear from these entries.
Alternatives to healthyR.data and incase
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 healthyR.data or incase.
lavaanExtra
SEM reporting helpers converging on APA output, one CRAN resubmission at a time.
ibis.iSDM
A raster-to-terra migration is the only readable change in a feed of merge notes.
anyflights
A nycflights13 generator whose recent work is all about the data being right.
vinereg
Conditional density and log-likelihood fill out a vine copula regression package.
stringx
A drop-in string API for base R, kept alive by upstream check failures.
See all healthyR.data alternatives → · See all incase alternatives →
Recent activity from healthyR.data and incase
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agoincaseDotted arguments and an .exhaustive matching check
- 1y agohealthyR.datahttr2 compatibility fix
- 2y agohealthyR.dataFetchers handle CSV, Excel, and ZIP, with a record limit
- 2y agohealthyR.dataMetadata lookup and generic CMS fetchers replace bundled data ⚡
- 2y agoincaseDotted and undotted arguments both accepted
- 3y agohealthyR.dataTwenty CMS measure accessors added
- 3y agohealthyR.datacli, crayon, and rstudioapi dependencies dropped
- 5y agoincaseFix NULL return when no condition matches
- 5y agohealthyR.dataxz compression added to meet CRAN size policy
- 5y agoincaseFactor and list return families arrive
- 5y agoincaseDrop unused stats import to clear a check NOTE
- 5y agoincasePattern and function-based matching families added
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between healthyR.data and incase?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. healthyR.data and incase 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 healthyR.data better than incase?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. healthyR.data and incase 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 healthyR.data?
Top healthyR.data alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "healthyR.data alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/healthyr-data for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to incase?
Top incase alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "incase alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/incase for the full list with editorial commentary on each.