Skip to contents

Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

summarytools 1.1.5 (2026-01-27)

CRAN release: 2026-01-27

  • Removed pryr dependency (affects what.is() output)
  • Fixed errors with function calls parsing

summarytools 1.1.4 (2025-04-17)

CRAN release: 2025-04-29

  • Fix for variables containing column names generating warnings (e.g. var <- "Species" ; freq(iris[[var]]))

summarytools 1.1.3 (2025-03-26)

CRAN release: 2025-03-26

  • Fixed an error with dfSummary() when looping over a list of data frames and using get()
  • Fixed recursion error occuring when calling functions while the package is not loaded

summarytools 1.1.2 (2025-03-13)

CRAN release: 2025-03-17

  • Fixed error in freq() and dfSummary() with tagged NA values (haven/labelled)
  • Removed native pipes to avoid any R version dependency issues
  • In ctable(), parameter “rev” was added to change the reference row / col when calculating risk ratio & odds ratio.

summarytools 1.1.1 (2025-02-25)

CRAN release: 2025-02-26

  • In dfSummary()
    • Fix for labelled frequencies with NA’s
  • In descr()
    • Fix for variable misalignment when more than 10 vars present
    • Fix for results with only 1 statistic
  • Fix for warning message “NULL is NULL”
  • Fix for parse_call warning

summarytools 1.1.0 (2025-02-12)

CRAN release: 2025-02-20

  • In stby()
    • New parameter useNA adds a group for missing values in grouping variable(s); set to FALSE to avoid the message displayed when NAs are detected.
  • In tb()
    • Fix for broken proportions in freq tables
    • New parameters fct.to.chr and recalculate for freq() tables
    • Parameter na.rm deprecated
  • In dfSummary():
    • New parameter class allows switching off class reporting in Variable column.
  • In freq(), ctable() and dfSummary():
    • New parameter na.val allows specifying a value / factor level that is to be considered NA. In turn, the value “(Missing)” is no longer considered missing by default (using na.val = "(Missing)" will yield the same results).
    • Fix for weights not being applied correctly in by-group processing.
    • Labelled vectors (“labelled” / “haven_labelled”) are treated like factors in freq(), and in dfSummary() when all values have a label. Future versions will extend support to ctable().
  • In descr():
    • “n” (total number of observations, also displayed in heading) added to available statistics.
    • stats parameter more flexible: keywords (all, fivenum, and common) can be used in conjunction with statistics, to add or remove them. stats= c("common", "n", "-pct.valid") adds N to, and excludes Pct. Valid from, common statistics.
    • Fix for N in header showing 1st group’s size rather than global size.
    • Fix for weights not being applied correctly in by-group processing.
  • define_keywords() now uses RStudio’s api for dialogs.
  • llabel() wrapper added for label(x, all = TRUE)

summarytools 1.0.2 (2022-07-10)

  • Github-only release
  • Various fixes and minor improvements

summarytools 1.0.1 (2022-05-19)

CRAN release: 2022-05-20

  • This version only includes minors fixes requested by CRAN.

summarytools 1.0.0 (2021-07-27)

CRAN release: 2021-07-28

  • In dfSummary():

    • It is now possible to control which statistics to show in the Freqs / Values column (see help("st_options", "summarytools") for examples)
    • In html outputs, tables are better aligned horizontally (categories >> counts >> charts); if misalignment occurs, adjusting graph.magnif should resolve it
    • List-type columns and Inf values no longer generate errors
    • tmp.img.dir can be left to NA when style = "grid"
    • Fixed typo in attribute name Dataf.rame.label
    • Removal of grouping variables is now consistent across all languages

  • In descr():

  • In ctable():

    • Fixed row/column names not always properly displayed
    • Fixed risk ratios showing when only odds ratios should
    • Fixed error when prop="none" with integer data

  • Selected heading elements can be totally omitted by one of two ways:

  • Improved functionality for customized terms / translations (see vignette("introduction", "summarytools") for details)

  • fix-valign.tex is now in the includes directory for use with R Markdown when creating pdf documents with dfSummary() outputs - see `vignette(“rmarkdown”, )

  • Navigation links and table of contents were added to introductory vignette, making it is easier to navigate

summarytools 0.9.9 (2021-02-04)

CRAN release: 2021-03-19

  • Style “jira” has been added to reflect pander’s support for it.
  • Documentation has been reviewed and improved.
  • In dfSummary():
    • When generating a dfSummary() in Rmarkdown using method = "render", it is possible to set tmp.img.dir = NA. It must still be defined (not as NA) when method = "pander" and style = "grid".
    • Grouping variable(s) are now excluded from results when using stby() or dpyr::group_by(). Use keep.grp.vars = TRUE to replicate previous behavior.
    • Removed an extra (empty) line in text graphs
  • In ctable() and freq():
    • Fixed bug with integers
  • The ctable.round.digits was added to the list of st_options() (there is already a global round.digits option, but it uses 2 as default, while 1 is a more sensible value for ctable().
  • print.summarytools() now removes titles from headings when keyword “title.function” is set to NA or empty string.

summarytools 0.9.8 (2020-12-10)

CRAN release: 2020-12-10

Version 0.9.8 is essentially the CRAN release of the 0.9.7 GitHub-Only release which saw gradual changes being implemented over the course of several months. See changes listed under 0.9.7 for changes since last CRAN release (0.9.6)

summarytools 0.9.7 (2020-05-21)

GitHub-only release - this was a constantly evolving version to be eventually released as 0.9.8 on CRAN when it reached maturity.

  • Added shortcut function stview() pointing to summarytools::view(). This avoids potential conflicts with other packages using the more and more popular view() function (notably, tibble, part of the tidyverse family, defines view() as an alias for View())
  • Enforced adequate number formatting using format() internally, so that using the following optional arguments with any core function or with print() or view() will produce expected results:
    • decimal.mark, big.mark, small.mark
    • nsmall, digits
    • scientific
    • big.interval, small.interval (limited support)
  • Fixed a bug arising when an object created using a language other than the active one (st_options("lang")) was displayed
  • Improved string encoding behavior
  • Added global option “char.split” to control maximum number of characters allowed in descr() and ctable() column headings showing variable names
  • html footnotes are now always enclosed within a <p> tag
  • Updated hex logo and added a favicon in html reports
  • Simplified and improved performance of what.is()
  • In dfSummary():
    • Added support for list-type columns
    • Improved performance by optimizing barcode detection and blank character replacements, which are the two main bottlenecks
    • Fixed a bug with barcode detection
    • Changed default value of round.numbers to 1 (which was de facto applied)
    • round.numbers doesn’t affect proportions - only 1 decimal is shown, always
    • Made slight adjustments to the html graphs appearance
    • Improved alignment of Freq cell when numerical values are shown
    • Replaced “!” with “*” for rounded-values notice
    • Fixed issue where grouped dfSummary() tables would end up nested in one another
    • Added a check for numerical variables having infinitesimal variability, in which case a linear transformation is applied to obtain better histograms
  • In descr():
    • Added the order argument that gives the option to display variables in their order of appearance in the data or in a custom order (as opposed to the default behavior which is to display them alphabetically sorted)
  • In freq(), values for the order argument are now singular (backward compatibility is preserved for now)
    • levels –> level
    • names –> name
  • Three global options (set via st_options() were added:
    • dfSummary.style (“multiline” by default; can also be set to “grid”)
    • freq.cumul (TRUE by default; set to FALSE to hide cumulative proportions)
    • freq.ignore.threshold (25 by default; when feeding freq() a whole data frame, this number determines how many distinct values are allowed for numerical variables. Above that number, the variable will be ignored)

summarytools 0.9.6 (2020-03-01)

CRAN release: 2020-03-02

  • In ctable():
    • Added Odds Ratio and Risk Ratio (aka Relative Risk) statistics with 95% C.I.’s
    • Fixed issue with chi-square statistic not reporting appropriate values
    • Fixed html alignment of statistics below the table (now centering based on table width as it should)
  • In dfSummary(), fixed an issue arising when a very large range of numeric values exists in a column

summarytools 0.9.5 (2020-02-10)

CRAN release: 2020-02-10

  • Eliminated automatic check for X11 capabilities as it caused problems on some systems; the user can instead set global option st_options(use.x11 = FALSE) if encountering problems
  • To simplify installation on Unix-like systems (including Mac OS), the RCurl::base64Encode() function used to create ascii-encoded graphs in html documents isn’t used anymore; base64enc::base64encode() is used instead
  • When saving outputs to .Rmd documents; ‘plain.ascii’ is now automatically set to FALSE and ‘style’ is automatically set to “rmarkdown”, in accordance with with the way .md documents are generated
  • Fixed bug arising with data frames called “data”
  • freq.silent was added to global options
  • Weights are now supported for freq() used in conjunction with stby() or dplyr::group_by()
  • Weights are also supported for ctable() used in conjunction with stby() (but not with dplyr::group_by())
  • Improvements and fixes for dfSummary():
    • Fixed null graphic device appearing in RGui and non-GUI interfaces
    • Calling summarytools::dfSummary() (without loading the package) is now possible
    • Improved Rmarkdown compatibility
  • Improvements and fixes for descr():
    • When descr() with stby(), results are no longer assembled into a single table if more than one grouping variables are used
    • Fixed bug arising when using stby() with several grouping variables

summarytools 0.9.4 (2019-08-24)

CRAN release: 2019-08-24

  • Added support for dplyr’s group_by() function as an alternative to stby()
  • Added support for magrittr %$% operator
  • Added support for pipeR %>>% operator
  • freq() recognizes factor level “(Missing)” from forcats::fct_explicit_na as NA’s
  • For freq() objects, collapse boolean parameter has been added as an experimental feature (must be set in the print() method)
  • Improved output when grouping by more than one variable, either with stby() or dplyr::group_by()
  • tb() supports objects having several grouping variables
  • tb() has an added parameter “na.rm” for freq() objects
  • Improved how descr() deals with empty vectors and invalid weights
  • Fixed a problem with freq() arising when using sampling weights while no missing values were present

summarytools 0.9.3 (2019-04-11)

CRAN release: 2019-04-11

  • Function tb() turns freq() and descr() outputs into “tidy” tibbles
  • Function define_keywords() allows defining translatable terms in GUI and optionally save the results in a csv file (through Save File… dialog)
  • Function use_custom_lang() replaces useTranslations() and triggers an Open File… dialog when no argument is supplied
  • In freq():
    • A new parameter cumul allows turning on or off cumulative proportions
    • The order parameter values “names”, “freq”, and “levels” now have their counterparts “-names” (or “names-”), “-freq” and “-levels”
    • A new parameter rows has been added; it allows subsetting the output table either with a numeric vector, a character vector, or a single search string (regular expression)
  • In ctable():
    • Added support for weights
    • Added logical argument “chisq.test” to display chi-square results below the cross-tabulation table
  • In dfSummary(), added content specific to email addresses: valid, invalid, duplicates
  • Added translations : Portuguese (“pt”), Turkish (“tr”), and Russian (“ru”)

Deprecated functions:

  • byst() had to be dropped because of issues related to objects names; only stby() is accepted from now on
  • useTranslations() has been replaced by use_custom_lang()

summarytools 0.9.2 (2019-02-22)

CRAN release: 2019-02-22

No changes (re-submission of 0.9.1 to CRAN)

summarytools 0.9.1 (2019-02-20)

CRAN release: 2019-02-20

For users updating solely from CRAN, this is a major update. Many changes were introduced since version 0.8.8 (versions 0.8.9 and 0.9.0 were released solely on GitHub). Please refer to the README file, the two vignettes and the information below for all the details.

  • stby(), a summarytools-specific version of by(), is introduced. It is highly recommended that you use it instead of by(); its syntax is identical and it greatly simplifies the printing of the generated objects
  • In dfSummary():
    • ‘max.tbl.height’ allows printing summaries in scrollable windows (useful in .Rmd when a data frame contains numerous variables)
    • Setting ‘tmp.img.dir’ allows the inclusion of png graphs in Rmarkdown documents when using pander method in combination with arguments plain.ascii = FALSE and style = “grid”
    • Platform-specific png device types are used, improving image quality
  • Several examples are added to all main functions; use the example() function to access them

summarytools 0.9.0 (2019-01-05)

  • Output translations are introduced. For instance, setting st_options(lang='fr') gives access to French translations. Spanish (‘es’) translations are also available.
  • Function useTranslations() (which in later versions becomes use_custom_lang()) allows using custom translations
  • In descr(), the weight variable (when used) is automatically removed from the list of variables to analyze
  • In dfSummary(), images are processed using functions from the magick package, improving the general layout of the output tables
  • Improved support for magrittr operators

summarytools 0.8.9 (2018-12-17)

  • In dfSummary():
    • Number of columns and number of duplicates added to the headings section
    • Integer sequences as well as UPC/EAN codes are detected and identified
    • Statistics for unary / binary data are simplified
    • Dimension of the bars in barplots now reflect frequencies relative to the whole dataset, allowing comparisons across variables
  • In descr(), the ‘stats’ parameter accepts values “common” and “fivenum”
  • With st_options(), setting multiple options at once is now possible; all options have their own parameter (the legacy way of setting options is still supported)
  • More parameters can be overridden when calling print() or view() - refer to the print() method’s documentation to learn more
  • The ‘omit.headings’ parameter is replaced by the more straightforward (and still boolean) ‘headings’. The former is still supported but will disappear in a future release (possibly 0.9.2)
  • Row subsetting is no longer displayed in the headings section, as it was error-prone

Special thanks to Paul Feitsma for his numerous suggestions.

summarytools 0.8.8 (2018-10-07)

CRAN release: 2018-10-07

  • Fixed character encoding issues
  • In dfSummary():
    • Fixed an issue with dfSummary() where reported percentages could exceed 100% under specific circumstances
    • Fixed issue with groups not being properly updated when used in Shiny apps

summarytools 0.8.7 (2018-07-23)

CRAN release: 2018-07-23

  • Fixed an issue with dfSummary() when missing values were present along with whole numbers
  • Fixed an issue with descr() where group was not shown for the first group when omitting headings

summarytools 0.8.6 (2018-07-20)

CRAN release: 2018-07-20

  • In dfSummary():
    • “Label” column now shows proper line breaks in the html versions
    • In lists of values / frequencies, digits are omitted for integer variables and for numerics containing whole numbers only
    • Fixed an error when using the pipe (%>%) operator
  • In descr(), fixed a calculation error for coefficient of variation (cv)
  • In ctable() html outputs, ‘<’ and ‘>’ are properly escaped when appearing in row or column names

summarytools 0.8.5 (2018-06-17)

CRAN release: 2018-06-17

summarytools 0.8.4 (2018-06-07)

CRAN release: 2018-06-07

  • Method for calculating number of bins in dfSummary() histograms changed (from nclass.FD() to nclass.Sturges())
  • Removed extra space in dfSummary() with time objects
  • Allowed one more value for frequency counts in dfSummary() when “[1 other value]” was displayed; this actual value is now displayed instead

summarytools 0.8.3 (2018-04-16)

CRAN release: 2018-04-16

  • Introduced global options with st_options()
  • New logical options for freq(): ‘totals’ and ‘display.nas’
  • In descr(), Q1 and Q3 were added; also, the order in the ‘stats’ argument is now reflected in the output table
  • In all functions, argument ‘split.table’ becomes ‘split.tables’ as per changes in the ‘pander’ package
  • Argument ‘omit.headings’ added to all main functions
  • In dfSummary():
    • Number alignment improvements
    • Fixed frequencies not appearing when value 0 was present
    • Fixed arguments ‘valid.col’ and ‘na.col’ being unresponsive
    • Fixed warnings when generating graphics columns
    • ‘graph.magnif’ argument now allows shrinking or enlarging graphs
  • For print() and view(), argument ‘html.table.class’ is now called ‘table.classes’ and its usage is simplified (please refer to the corresponding help files for details
  • CSS class ‘st-small’ can be used to make html tables smaller by slightly reducing font size and cell padding

summarytools 0.8.2 (2018-02-11)

CRAN release: 2018-02-11

  • Added support for Date / POSIXt objects in dfSummary()
  • Improved support for lapply() when used with freq()
  • Fixed performance issue with numerical data having a very large range
  • Fixed missing line feeds in dfSummary() bar charts

summarytools 0.8.1 (2018-01-14)

CRAN release: 2018-01-14

  • Fixed issue with all-NA factors in dfSummary()
  • Fixed issues with graphs in dfSummary()
  • Added vignettes
  • Improved handling of negative column indexing by the parsing function
  • Removed accentuated characters from docs

summarytools 0.8.0 (2017-12-10)

CRAN release: 2017-12-10

Backward-compatibility Note

In dfSummary(), parameter name ‘display.labels’ has been changed to ‘labels.col’ for consistency reasons. Also, see Notes for Version 0.6.9 about the ‘file’ parameter.

summarytools 0.7.0

GitHub-only release

  • Improved alignment in cells having counts + proportions
  • Updated vignette to reflect latest changes and added examples using the example datasets “exams” and “tobacco”
  • dfSummary()’s last column now includes counts and percentages for both valid and missing data
  • Internal change: Roxygen2 is now used to generate documentation

summarytools 0.6.9

GitHub-only release

  • Introduced ctable() for cross-tabulations
  • Extended support for printing objects created using by() and/or with(): variable names, labels and by-groups are now displayed correctly
  • view() is now more than just a wrapper function for the print() method; it is the function to use when printing an object created with by()
  • Appending to summarytools-generated html files is now possible
  • Most pander options stored in summarytools objects can be overridden by print() or view()
  • freq() has an new parameter, ‘order’, allowing to order rows by count rather than values
  • Alignment of numbers in descr() observations table has been improved

Backward Compatibility Note

The ‘file’ parameter must now be used with print() or view(); its use with other functions is now deprecated.

summarytools 0.6.5 (2016-12-05)

CRAN release: 2016-12-05

  • Improved the way dfSummary() reports frequencies for character variables
  • Fixed problems with outputs when using weights
  • Added hash markup to table headings for better markdown integration
  • Added an option to the print() method to suppress the footnote in HTML outputs
  • Fixed a problem with dfSummary() which arose when number of factor levels exceeded max.distinct.values

summarytools 0.6 (2016-11-21)

CRAN release: 2016-11-21

  • Added Introductory vignette
  • Fixed markdown output that would not render strings such as
  • Improved multiline tables line feeds
  • Improved sample datasets
  • Removed Bootstrap content not likely to be used
  • Changed the way method = "browser" sends file path to browser for better cross-platform compatibility
  • Improved results when using by()

summarytools 0.5

GitHub-only release

  • Function descr() now supports weights
  • Output from what.is() has been simplified
  • Other changes are transparent to the user, but make the internals more consistent across functions

summarytools 0.4 (2015-08-05)

CRAN release: 2015-08-05

  • freq() now supports weights.
  • Better knitr integration
  • Added sample datasets

summarytools 0.3 (2015-03-11)

CRAN release: 2015-03-11

  • view() allows opening HTML tables in RStudio’s Viewer
  • desc() is renamed descr()
  • Returned objects are now of class “summarytools” and have several attributes that are used by print.summarytools()
  • print.summarytools() has argument ‘method’ that can be one of “pander”, “viewer”, or “browser”, the last two being used to display an HTML version of the output, using Bootstrap’s CSS (https://getbootstrap.com)
  • Row indexing is “detected” and reported
  • Rounding occurs when results are displayed (non-rounded results are stored)
  • Argument ‘echo’ is deprecated

summarytools 0.2 (2014-11-25)

CRAN release: 2014-11-25

  • unistats() is now called desc()
  • frequencies() is now called freq()
  • desc() now accepts data frames as first argument; factors and character columns will be ignored
  • desc() results tables can be transposed
  • freq() returns a matrix-table rather than a list
  • rapportools is used instead of Hmisc for variable labels
  • Function properties() was removed.

summarytools 0.1 (2014-08-11)

CRAN release: 2014-08-11

Initial Release