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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

vecmatch (development version)

vecmatch 1.4.0

Major changes

  • balqual() gained two new type values, "desc_full" and "desc_reduced", which report standard descriptive statistics for every balancing variable, separately for each treatment level and for the unmatched and matched dataset. This makes it possible to compare the covariate distributions between both datasets, in addition to the pairwise balance metrics. The tables follow the layout of the balance tables, with the statistics as rows and the two matching stages as the Before and After columns. Numeric covariates are summarized by N, mean, standard deviation, minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, maximum, skewness and excess kurtosis for "desc_full", or by N, minimum, mean, median and maximum for "desc_reduced". Categorical covariates are instead cross-tabulated, with the count and the percentage of every level within each treatment level, computed separately for each matching stage and printed as a single N (%) cell in a separate table. The two values are mutually exclusive, and both are opt-in, so the default output is unchanged.

  • match_gps() now works with any reference when method = "nnm". The columns kept for matching were selected with a logical mask built on the full csmatrix, but the mask was applied after the treatment column had already been dropped, so every position shifted by one. The gps column of the reference was therefore only retained when the reference happened to be the first gps column of the csmatrix; any other reference failed with undefined columns selected. When it did not fail, the shifted mask kept the neighbouring gps column as well, so [Matching::Matchby()] silently matched on two covariates instead of one and returned a different set of matches. Both branches now index the gps column of the first group of the current combination by name, which also fixes the same error for a user-supplied combos whose group1 differs from reference.

  • match_gps() now actually honours the max_controls argument for method = "fullopt". It was passed to [optmatch::fullmatch()] under a name that function does not accept and carried the value of caliper, so it was silently discarded and had no effect on the matching. Calls that set max_controls to a non-default value will now produce different (correct) results.

  • csregion() now stops with an informative message when the common support region turns out to be empty, or when a treatment group loses all of its observations. Previously such a call failed with non-numeric argument to binary operator, which came from the fallback warning of the internal refitting step rather than from the empty region itself, and gave no hint about the actual cause. With refit = FALSE the same situation returned a zero-row csr object silently, and the problem only surfaced later in match_gps(). Emptying a group is now reported as well, since dropping it would silently change the estimand. The new messages name the groups involved and suggest a larger sample, fewer treatment groups, a different borders value or a different model specification in estimate_gps().

Minor changes and bug fixes

  • match_gps() no longer warns when a method-specific tuning parameter is left at its default. Previously, a call such as match_gps(csr, method = "fullopt") emitted a warning for every unset parameter (order, min_controls, max_controls), which made an ordinary default call look like it had gone wrong. Defaults are now filled in silently. Arguments that do not apply to the selected method are still reported, but only when they were explicitly supplied by the user.

  • The descriptive metrics of balqual() describe the covariates as they are given in the formula, while the balance metrics are computed on the model matrix. A factor is therefore described once by its levels rather than once per dummy-coded column, and interaction terms are covered by the balance metrics only.

  • The statistic argument of balqual() is not used by the descriptive metrics, and a warning is now issued when it is supplied together with type = "desc_full" or type = "desc_reduced" alone.

  • Fixed a bug in balqual(), where the values of the cutoffs argument were matched to the metrics by position across all three balance metrics rather than by name. Passing a subset of the metrics, e.g. type = c("smd", "var_ratio"), raised a recycling warning and could evaluate a metric against the cutoff of another one.

  • print.quality() now returns its argument invisibly, as documented for print() methods, instead of returning it visibly. The visible return value made the quality tables be printed twice whenever the result of print() was itself auto-printed, e.g. inside capture.output() or a knitted document.

  • Fixed the fallback warning of csregion(), which was emitted when refitting the GPS model on the CSR-restricted data fails. Its message was split into three fragments that strwrap() received as the width and indent arguments instead of as text, so the warning aborted instead of being shown.

  • optimize_gps() no longer aborts with $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors when the GPS estimation fails for the first combination of the search space. Failed combinations are passed through as the message of the underlying error, but the treatment levels were read from the first result unconditionally, so a single failure at the head of the estimation space brought down the whole sweep. The first result that actually holds a GPS matrix is now used instead. If every combination fails, the function stops with a message that reports how many were tried and the reason given by the first failure.

Documentation

  • The package documentation is now also available as a pkgdown website at https://polymerase3.github.io/vecmatch/. The site collects the reference pages of all exported functions, grouped by the five steps of the vecmatch workflow, together with the vignettes and this changelog, and is rebuilt automatically by a GitHub Actions workflow on every push to main.

vecmatch 1.3.0

CRAN release: 2025-12-01

Major changes

  • Refactored and unified the S3 class system across the package, and added helper methods for inspecting the internal structure of vecmatch objects.
  • Added get_select_params() and run_selected_matching() to streamline the re-estimation step after the main optimization workflow.
  • Reduced and cleaned up package dependencies in DESCRIPTION, and improved how suggested packages are handled in the code.

Minor changes and bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug in raincloud(), where facet labels were reversed when using facet.
  • Removed backend handling from optimize_gps(). The parallel backend must now be registered outside the function.
  • Updated the optimization vignette to use run_selected_matching().
  • Corrected a typo in the cancer dataset.
  • Added examples for all exported functions and wrapped long-running examples in \donttest{}.
  • Updated badges in the README.
  • Added automated tests to check reproducibility of results.

vecmatch 1.2.0

CRAN release: 2025-07-08

Major changes

Minor changes

  • Fixed factor handling in raincloud() and mosaic(), now allowing custom facet ordering via releveling.
  • Added SMD and p-value labels to raincloud().
  • Updated the raincloud() legend to show group names with their observation counts.

vecmatch 1.1.0

CRAN release: 2025-04-24

Major changes

  • csregion() now allows specifying how to handle observations at the borders of the Common Support Region (CSR) using the new borders argument.
  • match_gps() has been updated to support datasets with only two unique treatment groups.

Minor changes

  • Added a vignette demonstrating usage and functionality.
  • Introduced this NEWS.md file to document package changes.