vectra: Columnar Query Engine for Larger-than-RAM Data

A minimal columnar query engine with lazy execution on datasets larger than RAM. Provides 'dplyr'-like verbs (filter(), select(), mutate(), group_by(), summarise(), joins, window functions) and common aggregations (n(), sum(), mean(), min(), max(), sd(), first(), last()) backed by a pure C11 pull-based execution engine and a custom on-disk format ('.vtr'). Reads and writes 'GeoTIFF' (including tiled and 'BigTIFF' layouts) and a tiled raster format ('.vec') with overview pyramids and time cubes for larger-than-RAM raster data. Streams vector operations (spatial transforms, point-in-polygon and nearest-feature joins including a two-sided grid-partitioned join, select-by-location, clip, erase, dissolve, rasterization, polygonization, and contouring) through 'sf', and runs raster operations (zonal statistics, focal windows, terrain derivatives, resample or reproject warp, polygon masking, map algebra, and mosaicking) in native C or over the tiled '.vec' format, one batch or tile at a time for data larger than RAM.

Version: 0.9.1
Depends: R (≥ 4.1.0)
Imports: tidyselect, rlang, libgeos, parallel
LinkingTo: libgeos
Suggests: biglm, bit64, knitr, openxlsx2, rmarkdown, sf, terra, testthat (≥ 3.0.0)
Published: 2026-06-29
DOI: 10.32614/CRAN.package.vectra
Author: Gilles Colling ORCID iD [aut, cre, cph]
Maintainer: Gilles Colling <gilles.colling051 at gmail.com>
BugReports: https://github.com/gcol33/vectra/issues
License: MIT + file LICENSE
URL: https://gillescolling.com/vectra/, https://github.com/gcol33/vectra
NeedsCompilation: yes
SystemRequirements: GNU make
Materials: README, NEWS
CRAN checks: vectra results [issues need fixing before 2026-07-13]

Documentation:

Reference manual: vectra.html , vectra.pdf
Vignettes: vectra Engine Reference (source, R code)
Format Backends (source, R code)
Indexing and Query Optimization (source, R code)
Joins (source, R code)
Working with Large Data (source, R code)
Offloading: streaming, monoids, and out-of-core fits (source, R code)
Getting Started with vectra (source, R code)
Star Schemas and Lookup (source, R code)
Species Distribution Models (source, R code)
Out-of-core GIS with vectra (source, R code)
Streaming spatial operations (source, R code)
String Operations and Fuzzy Matching (source, R code)

Downloads:

Package source: vectra_0.9.1.tar.gz
Windows binaries: r-devel: vectra_0.7.1.zip, r-release: vectra_0.7.1.zip, r-oldrel: vectra_0.7.1.zip
macOS binaries: r-release (arm64): vectra_0.9.1.tgz, r-oldrel (arm64): vectra_0.9.1.tgz, r-release (x86_64): vectra_0.9.1.tgz, r-oldrel (x86_64): vectra_0.7.1.tgz
Old sources: vectra archive

Linking:

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