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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

dfeR 2.0.0

CRAN release: 2026-09-23

  • Breaking change: Removed the deprecated wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry dataset and its startup message. Use geo_hierarchy instead, which has all the same columns plus more, and is kept up to date (it includes 2025, wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry stopped at 2024).
  • Added diagnostic_test() and a set of check_* helpers to diagnose and (optionally) fix common DfE laptop R-setup issues — proxy settings, Git SSL verification, GITHUB_PAT, renv download methods, RTools toolchain, global .gitconfig location, and .Renviron/.Rprofile location.
  • Added fetch_mp_lookup() to fetch the Westminster constituency to sitting MP lookup maintained at https://github.com/dfe-analytical-services/mp-lookup, giving one row per constituency with the MP’s name, party, member ID and email alongside the geography the constituency maps to. It errors with an informative message if the upstream file is missing any expected columns.
  • air_install() now checks the installed Air version and automatically reinstalls it if it is older than the minimum version required by air_style() (currently 0.10.0, when Air’s default assignment-style changed to "arrow"). It also gains a force argument to always reinstall. If the install does not leave a supported version of Air in place, it now warns rather than failing silently.
  • format_ay(), format_fy(), format_ay_reverse() and format_fy_reverse() now accept vectors of years, e.g. format_ay(c(201617, 201718)). Previously they failed given more than one value.
  • Fixed get_ons_api_data() ignoring any where filter in query_params; filtered queries could return extra rows. It also now gives informative errors when a query matches nothing, the API can’t be reached, or the API rejects the request (for example an unknown data_id).
  • Fixed air_style() failing when the target path contains spaces (for example a OneDrive path under “OneDrive - Department for Education”).
  • Fixed check_databricks_odbc() failing for users who don’t have stringr installed.

dfeR 1.3.0

  • Breaking change: In geo_hierarchy and the output of fetch_mayoral(), the cauth_name and cauth_code columns are renamed to english_devolved_area_name and english_devolved_area_code, and the Greater London Authority is now included as the mayoral authority for London boroughs.
  • Added air_install() and air_style() to install and run the Air formatter on R code.
  • Added write_df_to_delta() to write a data frame to a Delta table in Databricks, with an accompanying vignette. It accepts DATABRICKS_HOST with or without a scheme; bare hosts have https:// prepended automatically, http:// is upgraded to https://, and any trailing slash is stripped. An unset or empty DATABRICKS_HOST gives a clear error.
  • Added the data lsip_lad which is a lookup table for Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) areas and the function fetch_lsips() to fetch LSIP data.
  • Updated geo_hierarchy, and associated fetch_* functions with latest 2025 lookups.
  • Updated pretty_num() to add an abbreviate argument giving the option to avoid displaying large numbers in millions/billions, and a dynamic_dp_value argument that adds decimal places only when a value in millions/billions isn’t a whole number.
  • The fetch_*() functions now give an error when given a year that their lookup does not cover, where previously they returned an empty data frame.

dfeR 1.2.0

  • Added geo_hierarchy, which supersedes wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry and adds 2025 along with mayoral columns.
  • Added fetch_mayoral().

dfeR 1.1.0

  • Added a function that checks Databricks variables for ODBC connections: check_databricks_odbc().
  • Updated wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry by adding three digit local authority codes (also known as old_la_codes) to the data.
  • Added old_la_codes which is an internal lookup table of local authorities with their names, nine digit codes and ‘old’ three digit codes. It is used to add ‘old’ 3 digit la codes to wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry.
  • Updated fetch_las() so that old_la_codes are included in the output.

dfeR 1.0.1

CRAN release: 2025-01-15

Fix the spacing and printing of the z_replace() warning message, updating the eesyapi URL in the README and removed extraneous package tests.

dfeR 1.0.0

CRAN release: 2025-01-13

Initial CRAN release. Added lookup data geog_time_identifiers. Added z_replace() to replace NA values in tables except for ones in geography and time columns that match ones in geog_time_identifiers.

dfeR 0.6.1

Patch to update the pretty_num() function so that the dp argument’s default is 0.

dfeR 0.6.0

Update pretty_num so that:

  • it can take single or multiple values.
  • it has the argument nsmall that allows control over the number of digits displayed after rounding.

Add pretty_num_table() which uses pretty_num() to format numbers in a readable format in data frames. It has all the customization provided by pretty_num.

dfeR 0.5.1

Patch to update the get_clean_sql() function to ignore lines starting with ‘USE’.

dfeR 0.5.0

Add the following lookup data sets into the package:

  • ons_geog_shorthands
  • countries
  • regions
  • wd_pcon_lad_la_rgn_ctry

Add the following fetch_locations() functions:

  • fetch_wards()
  • fetch_pcons()
  • fetch_lads()
  • fetch_las()
  • fetch_regions()
  • fetch_countries()

Add wrapper for ONS Open Geography Portal API:

  • get_ons_api_data()

Add helper for turning messages on or off:

  • toggle_message()

dfeR 0.4.1

Update comma_sep() function to allow non-numeric values instead of throwing an error, now returns them unchanged.

dfeR 0.4.0

Add function which creates a DfE R project:

  • create_project()

dfeR 0.3.1

Fix bug in get_clean_sql() where using the additional settings would lose the original SQL statement.

dfeR 0.3.0

Add pretty_* functions for presenting pretty numbers:

  • pretty_num()
  • pretty_filesize()
  • pretty_time_taken()

Add helper function for comma separating numbers:

  • comma_sep()

dfeR 0.2.0

Add function for formatting financial years:

  • format_fy()

Add reversing functions for academic and financial years:

  • format_ay_reverse()
  • format_fy_reverse()

Add function for grabbing and cleaning a SQL script, and vignette for connecting to SQL.

  • get_clean_sql()

dfeR 0.1.1

Add default value to decimal place argument of round_five_up() function.

dfeR 0.1.0

Relaunch of the package with two functions:

  • format_ay()
  • round_five_up()