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pivottabler

INFRA · APIS
Velocity0.0

Create Pivot Tables

github.com/cbailiss/pivottabler ↗

The pivot table package that ships only when R itself changes underneath it.

pivot-tablesr-packagehtmlexcel-exportmaintenance-modereporting
◆Current state
pivottabler builds pivot tables in R and renders them to HTML, LaTeX and Excel, with Word, PowerPoint and PDF reachable through its sibling basictabler and flextable. The feature work finished years ago — the last substantial additions were the outline layout and the enhancement batches of 2020. Since then the release stream tracks R's own release notes rather than any roadmap of its own.
◆Where it's heading
Three of the last four releases exist because base R changed: is.atomic(NULL) in 4.4.0, match() and %in% on date types in 4.3.0, stringsAsFactors in 4.1.0. The one genuine feature in that stretch, lowN and highN in findCells(), is a convenience on top of machinery that already existed. The package and basictabler move as a pair — the 2021 Excel fix was shipped from both sides two minutes apart, and both got their CRAN-notes release on the same afternoon in April 2025.
◆Prediction
Expect the next release to be triggered by another base R change or a CRAN check, not by a feature; the pairing with basictabler means it will likely arrive within minutes of its sibling's.

◆Recent moves

  1. 1y ago

    CRAN note fixes, shipped alongside basictabler

    Small changes for CRAN notes, released 83 seconds after its sibling basictabler's equivalent and ending an 18-month silence. Keeps the package on CRAN and nothing more.

    View source ↗
  2. 2y ago

    Source fixes for R 4.4.0's is.atomic(NULL) change

    Source changes to absorb R 4.4.0 making is.atomic(NULL) return FALSE. The maintainer explicitly notes users need change nothing — this is the package keeping pace with base R, which is what most of its recent releases are.

    View source ↗
  3. 3y ago

    findCells gains top-N and bottom-N selection by cell value

    The only feature in the recent window: findCells() gains lowN and highN to pull the N lowest or highest cells by value, returned already sorted. It turns a common two-step search-then-order into one call. The rest anticipates R 4.3.0's change to how match() and %in% handle date types.

    View source ↗
  4. 5y ago

    v1.5.3: New export options

    Word, PowerPoint and PDF output become reachable by routing through basictabler and flextable, rather than being implemented here. Consistent with how this pair of packages works — delegate the format writers, keep the table model. Per-cell border formatting also gets easier.

    View source ↗
  5. 5y ago

    v1.5.2: Bug fix for export to Excel via basictabler table

    Fixes blank Excel cells for totals and calculation headings when a pivot table was converted to a basictabler table and exported. Notably it was fixed from both ends the same afternoon — pivottabler now assigns raw values to those headings, and basictabler falls back to the formatted value when none exists.

    View source ↗
  6. 5y ago

    Maintenance for the R 4.1 stringsAsFactors deprecation

    Maintenance around R 4.1.0's stringsAsFactors deprecation, with the actual logic having shipped in 1.5.0, plus a fix for themes supplied as a plain list. No new capability.

    View source ↗