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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

lazysf 0.4.0

Breaking changes

  • The backend now uses gdalraster for all GDAL access. Geometry columns in collected results are wk-typed (wk::wkb, wk::wkt, wk::rct).

  • st_as_sf() is no longer registered for tbl_GDALVectorConnection. Use collect() first, then sf::st_as_sf() on the resulting tibble.

  • DBI class names renamed: SFSQLConnection → GDALVectorConnection, SFSQLDriver → GDALVectorDriver, SFSQLResult → GDALVectorResult. The driver constructor is now GDALSQL() (was SFSQL()).

  • The magrittr pipe (%>%) is no longer re-exported. Use R’s native pipe (|>).

Compatibility

  • Full compatibility with dbplyr >= 2.6.0. The new dbplyr dialect system (sql_dialect()) caused several silent regressions with the previous development code:
    • sql_translation(), sql_escape_logical(), and sql_query_fields() now dispatch on a custom dialect class (sql_dialect_gdal_vector / sql_dialect_gdal_sqlite) rather than the connection class, matching how dbplyr 2.6.0 dispatches these generics.
    • Identifier quoting now uses double quotes (ANSI SQL) rather than backticks. GDAL’s embedded SQLite engine rejects backtick-quoted identifiers generated by dbplyr 2.6.0’s default SQLite dialect.
    • supports_window_clause() was removed from dbplyr 2.6.0; it is now conditionally registered only when the generic exists.
    • Spatial SQL translations (SpatiaLite functions) are gated on dialect: SQLITE connections get full spatial translations, OGRSQL connections get base translations only.

New features

  • New geom_format argument to dbConnect() controls geometry output: "WKB" (default), "WKT", "NONE", or "BBOX". Configurable globally via options(lazysf.geom_format = ...).

  • New dialect argument to dbConnect() controls SQL dialect: "SQLITE" (the default), "OGRSQL", "INDIRECT_SQLITE", or "" (let GDAL choose). SQLITE is the default because it supports subqueries (required for dbplyr verb chaining) and spatial SQL functions like ST_Area(). Configurable globally via options(lazysf.dialect = ...).

  • lazysf() now passes ... through to dbConnect(), so geom_format and dialect can be set directly: lazysf(dsn, geom_format = "WKT").

  • Added db_connection_describe() method for informative printing: GDAL <SQLITE> WKB [/path/to/file.gpkg].

  • New sql_query_fields() method generates LIMIT 0 SQL for field discovery (replacing dbplyr’s default WHERE (0 = 1) which OGRSQL can’t handle). For named tables, dbSendQuery() intercepts this and uses $getLayerDefn() for pure OGR metadata access — no SQL execution at all. Subqueries are correctly wrapped in parentheses with an alias.

  • New .schema_from_defn() builds typed empty data frames from OGR layer definitions, mapping OGR field types to R types (OFTInteger → integer, OFTReal → double, OFTDateTime → POSIXct, OFSTBoolean → logical, etc.). Schema column names and types match what fetch() returns.

  • New dbListFields() method uses $getLayerDefn() for schema introspection without executing SQL.

  • Geometry columns are now automatically marked with wk types on materialization: wk::wkb() for WKB, wk::wkt() for WKT, and wk::rct() for BBOX. CRS from the layer’s spatial reference is attached to all geometry vectors.

  • New sql_translation() method provides SpatiaLite function translations for the SQLITE dialect. R functions like st_area(), st_intersects(), st_buffer(), st_transform() etc. translate to their SpatiaLite SQL equivalents, enabling idiomatic dplyr pipelines with spatial operations: lazysf("countries.gpkg") |> filter(st_area(geom) > 1e6). OGRSQL dialect falls back to base SQLite translations only.

  • Added sql_escape_logical() method: TRUE/FALSE map to 1/0 for SQLite, NA maps to NULL.

  • Added supports_window_clause() method (returns TRUE for SQLITE dialect).

  • Future-proofed for upcoming dbplyr sql_dialect() generic. When the next version of dbplyr ships with the new dialect system, lazysf will automatically provide SQLite translation without any code changes.

  • New use_arrow argument to dbConnect() and lazysf() enables GDAL’s Arrow C stream interface for reading features. Columnar transfer via GDALVector$getArrowStream() and nanoarrow, typically much faster for larger datasets. Requires GDAL >= 3.6. Configurable globally via options(lazysf.use_arrow = ...).

  • Geometry columns are automatically marked with wk types on materialization. CRS is attached. This enables sf::st_as_sf() on the collected tibble via sf’s wk support without any lazysf-specific method.

Bug fixes

  • Multiline SQL from dbplyr is now collapsed to a single line before passing to GDALVector. GDAL’s constructor rejects SQL with newline characters, which dbplyr generates for rename(), transmute(), and any verb that enumerates columns explicitly.

  • Table-qualified column prefixes from GDAL (e.g. nc.AREA from SELECT "nc".*) are now stripped automatically so column names match what dbplyr expects.

  • OGRFeatureSet class is stripped from fetch results. The gdalraster print method for this class conflicts with wk-typed geometry columns.

  • FID column name is normalized to uppercase "FID" in both the fetch() and Arrow paths, matching GDAL’s behavior (GeoPackage stores "fid" but fetch() returns "FID").

  • Geometry column from getLayerDefn() is excluded from the attribute field loop in .schema_from_defn() — getLayerDefn() includes geometry as a field but fetch() handles it separately via returnGeomAs.

Known issues

  • GDAL’s GDALVector initialization emits “SpatiaLite is not available” warnings on systems without SpatiaLite linked. These are harmless C++ diagnostics that can’t be suppressed from R. Tracked upstream in gdalraster.

  • No window functions: slice_min(), slice_max(), row_number() etc. are not supported by GDAL’s SQLite engine. Use arrange() |> head() instead.

  • Spatial SQL function availability depends on GDAL build configuration. ST_Area() and ST_SRID() work without SpatiaLite (GDAL-native). ST_AsText(), ST_Intersects(), and most geometry operations require SpatiaLite.

Dependencies

  • gdalraster (>= 2.0.0) replaces sf in Imports.
  • wk added to Imports for geometry type marking.
  • sf removed from dependencies (was previously in Imports, then Suggests).
  • nanoarrow added to Suggests (for Arrow stream interface).
  • dbplyr (>= 2.0.0) now required (2nd edition backend API).
  • magrittr removed from dependencies.

lazysf 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2026-02-17

  • Added dbplyr_edition method to declare compatibility with the dbplyr 2nd edition backend API (#9, thanks @hadley).

  • Now requires dbplyr (>= 2.0.0).

lazysf 0.2.0

CRAN release: 2025-04-03

  • Fixed doc links thanks to CRAN.

  • Moved to hypertidy org.

lazysf 0.1.0

CRAN release: 2020-11-14

  • First release.