Version 0.9.5.0 of stringdist is accepted on CRAN (binaries for non-linux OSs will be available in a few days). The main new feature, with a huge thanks to our awesome new contributor Chris Muir, is that we made it easy to call stringdist functionality from your package’s C or C++ code.

The main steps to get it done are:

1. Make sure to add stringdist to the Imports: and LinkingTo: fields in your DESRIPTION file
2. Add the #include <stringdist_api> to your C/C++ source file.
3. Start using stringdist from C!

Here’s an example source file

#include <R.h>
#include <Rdefines.h>
#include <stringdist_api.h>


SEXP my_soundex(SEXP strings, SEXP useBytes){
  Rprintf("\nWow, using 'stringdist' soundex encoding, from my own C code!\n");
  return sd_soundex(strings, useBytes);
}

Great! how can I learn more?

• The full API is desribed in a pdf file that is generated from doxygen that comes with the package. You can find it by typing ?stringdist_api on the R command line.
• A minimal example package that links to stringdist is available on GitHub
• A more sophisticated package with more elaborate examples can be found here: refinr (By Chris)

Any other news?

A few fixes, and a couple of long-deprecated function arguments have finally been removed. Check out the NEWS file on CRAN for a complete overview.

Happy coding!