magclass
Data Class and Tools for Handling Spatial-Temporal Data
Data class for increased interoperability working with spatial-temporal data together with corresponding functions and methods (conversions, basic calculations and basic data manipulation). The class distinguishes between spatial, temporal and other dimensions to facilitate the development and interoperability of tools build for it. Additional features are name-based addressing of data and internal consistency checks (e.g. checking for the right data order in calculations).
Data Class and Tools for Handling Spatial-Temporal Data
R package magclass, version 7.5.0
Purpose and Functionality
Data class for increased interoperability working with spatial-temporal data together with corresponding functions and methods (conversions, basic calculations and basic data manipulation). The class distinguishes between spatial, temporal and other dimensions to facilitate the development and interoperability of tools build for it. Additional features are name-based addressing of data and internal consistency checks (e.g. checking for the right data order in calculations).
Installation
For installation of the most recent package version an additional repository has to be added in R:
options(repos = c(CRAN = "@CRAN@", pik = "https://rse.pik-potsdam.de/r/packages"))
The additional repository can be made available permanently by adding the line above to a file called .Rprofile stored in the home folder of your system (Sys.glob("~") in R returns the home directory).
After that the most recent version of the package can be installed using install.packages:
install.packages("magclass")
Package updates can be installed using update.packages (make sure that the additional repository has been added before running that command):
update.packages()
Tutorial
The package comes with vignettes describing the basic functionality of the package and how to use it. You can load them with the following command (the package needs to be installed):
vignette("magclass-concept") # Concept behind magclass
vignette("magclass-expansion") # MAGPIE Class Object Expansion
vignette("magclass") # MAGPIE Class Tutorial
vignette("magclass6") # magclass 6
Questions / Problems
In case of questions / problems please contact Jan Philipp Dietrich [email protected].
Citation
To cite package magclass in publications use:
Dietrich J, Bodirsky B, Bonsch M, Humpenoeder F, Bi S, Karstens K, Leip D, Sauer P, Baumstark L, Bertram C, Giannousakis A, Klein D, Neher I, Pehl M, Schultes A, Stevanovic M, Wang X, Beier F, Pflüger M, Richters O, Rein P (2026). "magclass: Data Class and Tools for Handling Spatial-Temporal Data." doi:10.5281/zenodo.1158580 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1158580, Version: 7.5.0, https://github.com/pik-piam/magclass.
A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
@Misc{,
title = {magclass: Data Class and Tools for Handling Spatial-Temporal Data},
author = {Jan Philipp Dietrich and Benjamin Leon Bodirsky and Markus Bonsch and Florian Humpenoeder and Stephen Bi and Kristine Karstens and Debbora Leip and Pascal Sauer and Lavinia Baumstark and Christoph Bertram and Anastasis Giannousakis and David Klein and Ina Neher and Michaja Pehl and Anselm Schultes and Miodrag Stevanovic and Xiaoxi Wang and Felicitas Beier and Mika Pflüger and Oliver Richters and Patrick Rein},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1158580},
date = {2026-06-25},
year = {2026},
url = {https://github.com/pik-piam/magclass},
note = {Version: 7.5.0},
}