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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

cohortBuilder 1.0.0

CRAN release: 2026-07-03

Breaking changes

  • Filter system rewritten to S7. Filters are now S7 objects (e.g. CbFilterDiscrete, CbFilterRange) with dual dispatch on (filter_class, source_class). Properties are accessed via @ instead of closure environments. New S7 generics: cb_filter_data(), cb_get_filter_stats(), cb_plot_filter_data(), cb_get_filter_data(), cb_get_filter_defaults(), cb_filter_to_expr().
  • Removed def_filter(), new_filter(), and .as_constructor() — replaced by S7 constructors.
  • Switched from magrittr %>% to native pipe |>. Requires R >= 4.1.0.
  • Renamed the cohort statistics store and its API for clarity: the Cohort$new() cache argument is now compute_stats, the propagate_domains mode "cache" is now "stats", and the get_cache()/update_cache() methods are now get_stats()/update_stats(). The previous live-computation method Cohort$get_stats() (used by stat()) is now calc_stats().

New features

  • Custom filter types can now be registered via register_filter_type(), enabling extensions without modifying core package code.
  • New describe() helper to attach metadata (descriptions) to datasets and filters. describe() also accepts a label argument; when set on a variable, autofilter() reuses it as the generated filter’s name.
  • shape() filter entries now include a name field, and the description field combines the filter- and variable-level descriptions.
  • New shape() generic extracts structured filter/dataset metadata from a source, including statistics (min/max for range, choices for discrete).
  • New autofilter() generic auto-generates filters based on column types (character/factor → discrete, numeric → range, Date → date_range, POSIXct → datetime_range). Supports attach_as = "step" (add as filtering step) or attach_as = "meta" (store as available filters).
  • New .class parameter in tblist() to prepend custom S3 classes for method dispatch customization.
  • Steps now track pending status — only pending steps trigger statistics recalculation, improving performance for multi-step workflows.
  • update_filter() now supports pre/post hooks via hook_args.
  • New Cohort$new() propagate_domains argument controls how filter domains are narrowed between steps: "none" (default), "filter" (from previous step filter values), "stats" (from stored statistics; requires compute_stats = TRUE), or "data" (scan filtered data; the stats-free equivalent). Backed by the .propagate_domains() source method and the S7 generics cb_intersect_domain(), cb_intersect_domain_values(), cb_domain_from_stats(), and cb_domain_from_data(). Filter values are now intersected against their domain (with trimming messages) before filtering.
  • set_source() gains a compute_meta_stats argument (default from the cb.source_filters_meta_stats option) controlling whether metadata statistics for available_filters are pre-computed; when FALSE, filter domains fall back to live computation. Sources also accept an available_filters definition directly.
  • Filter ids are now deterministic by default (derived from dataset and variable names), enabling cross-step filter matching for domain propagation. Override with explicit id =.

AI/LLM integration

Improvements

  • Use collapse for binding operations (joins), with verbose option for diagnostics.
  • Reorganized breaks argument for date_range filter plots.
  • Extensive test coverage improvements including vdiffr snapshot tests for all filter plot types.
  • cohort() now exposes the compute_stats and propagate_domains arguments, and add_filter()/rm_filter() now expose and forward the hook argument (previously these were silently ignored).
  • Comprehensive roxygen documentation added across exported and internal functions, plus a new source-intelligence vignette covering describe(), autofilter(), shape(), and the AI/LLM tools.

cohortBuilder 0.4.0

CRAN release: 2026-02-24

  • Multi discrete filter does not operate on dplyr::across and dplyr::cur_column anymore.
  • Now cohort calculates only active filters cache while initializing source (results with significant performance improvement). The get_cache method computes cache when called (and the related cache was missing).
  • Add new datatime_filter that handle POSIXct type.
  • Move unique/distinct to collapse::funique.
  • Replace (internally) %in% with custom operator using collapse::fmatch, that seems to be more efficient.

cohortBuilder 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2024-09-25

  • Add new filter of type "query" that allows to configure complex filtering rules with queryBuilder package.
  • Add filter-focused .print_filter method responsible for printing filter values when calling sum_up on cohort.

cohortBuilder 0.2.0

CRAN release: 2023-02-28

  • Changed the way reproducible code is returned. Now more flexibility is allowed with using e.g. .repro_code_tweak method.
  • The tblist source reproducible code is now using pipe chains for each dataset filtering.
  • Optimized filtering with having cache computed only for active filters.
  • Properly readjust steps and filters ids after step is removed.
  • Add .post_binding method, that allows to modify data object when binding is completed.
  • Fix reproducible code generation when no filters applied.

cohortBuilder 0.1

CRAN release: 2022-06-01

  • First release.