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quantities vs tidypolars

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

quantities vs tidypolars: at a glance

Featurequantitiestidypolars
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score0.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themesunits, measurement-uncertainty, error-propagation, r-packagepolars, r, dplyr, dataframes
Last editorial update1h ago9h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is quantities?

The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.

quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.

Read the full quantities trajectory →

What is tidypolars?

tidypolars is grinding toward complete dplyr coverage, one supported function at a time

tidypolars lets you write dplyr and tidyr syntax against Polars DataFrames and LazyFrames. Its releases follow a fixed shape: raise the required polars version, add a handful of newly supported R functions and arguments, fix places where behaviour diverges from dplyr. Recent additions run from %notin% and as.integer() to .before/.after in mutate() and time zone handling in datetime parsing. Cadence is roughly every six to ten weeks and has not varied.

Read the full tidypolars trajectory →

quantities vs tidypolars: editorial side-by-side

Q
quantities
ANALYTICS
0.0

The glue package that makes R carry units and uncertainty through the same calculation.

◆ Current state

quantities combines the units and errors packages into one class so values keep both their measurement units and their uncertainty through arithmetic, subsetting and data frame operations. Recent releases have been narrow: fixes to the covariance and correlation implementations, and performance work on the data.frame methods. Most of the release traffic is coordination with its two parent packages.

◆ Where it's heading

The design settled with 0.2.0, which made uncertainty unit-aware and added correlation and covariance support for quantities objects. Since then the package behaves like the integration layer it is — releasing when units, errors, dplyr or ggplot2 shift underneath it rather than on its own schedule. Several releases consist only of test repairs against upstream changes.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next release to follow a units or errors change rather than introduce new behaviour of its own.

T
tidypolars
ANALYTICS
0.0

tidypolars is grinding toward complete dplyr coverage, one supported function at a time

◆ Current state

tidypolars lets you write dplyr and tidyr syntax against Polars DataFrames and LazyFrames. Its releases follow a fixed shape: raise the required polars version, add a handful of newly supported R functions and arguments, fix places where behaviour diverges from dplyr. Recent additions run from %notin% and as.integer() to .before/.after in mutate() and time zone handling in datetime parsing. Cadence is roughly every six to ten weeks and has not varied.

◆ Where it's heading

Coverage is the whole strategy, and the target has been widening from dplyr into tidyr — unnest_longer_polars(), separate_longer_delim_polars() and separate_longer_position_polars() bring list-column and string-splitting verbs that have no Polars-idiomatic equivalent in the tidyverse dialect. The other consistent thread is fidelity: distinct() dropping unselected columns, summarize() dropping the last group, relocate() honouring tidy-select helpers, NULL in mutate() behaving as dplyr does. Each of these is a small breaking change made to match the reference rather than to differ from it.

◆ Prediction

The pattern of tracking the polars floor upward every release and following tidyverse changes closely — .by in fill() arrived when tidyr 1.3.2 shipped it — suggests the next releases continue mirroring new dplyr and tidyr arguments rather than adding a distinct capability.

Alternatives to quantities and tidypolars

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 quantities or tidypolars.

See all quantities alternatives → · See all tidypolars alternatives →

Recent activity from quantities and tidypolars

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

  1. 1mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.19.0
  2. 4mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.18.0
  3. 6mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.17.0
  4. 6mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.16.0
  5. 9mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.15.1
  6. 9mo agotidypolarstidypolars 0.15.0
  7. 1y agoquantitiesFixes covariance and correlation implementations
  8. 2y agoquantitiesFaster data.frame methods
  9. 3y agoquantitiesTest fixes for an upstream units change
  10. 3y agoquantitiesUncertainty becomes unit-aware; adds correlation support
  11. 5y agoquantitiesCompatibility fix for units 0.7-0
  12. 6y agoquantitiesFixes uncertainty propagation for offset unit conversions

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between quantities and tidypolars?

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

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

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

What are the best alternatives to tidypolars?

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