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New functions

  1. Adding the toy dataset for m1, m2, and gene expression to be used in the feature selection examples.
  2. Make the vst method the default for the find_variable_genes function.
  3. Troubleshoot and fix the C++ code for the sum_devinace method in the find_variable_genes function.
  4. Add examples to the Roxygen2 documentation.

Arshammik added 3 commits May 6, 2025 20:38
- Adding the toy data set in RDS format for M1, M2 and gene expression.
- Making examples for both methods of deature selection in
  `feature_selection.R` file.
- tetsing and bulding the package with new version (v.1.0.3)
- Resolved a major issue in `find_variable_genes()` where summing deviances
  caused a segmentation fault during package checks.
- The root cause was an unsafe coercion of a sparse matrix (`SEXP`) to
  `arma::sp_mat` inside the C++ function. While the matrix appeared to be
  a `dgCMatrix`, it was actually passed as a more generic `CsparseMatrix`,
  which is not directly compatible with `RcppArmadillo::sp_mat`.
- Refactored the function signature to take `const arma::sp_mat&` directly,
  ensuring safe and explicit conversion from R's sparse matrix types.
- This resolves the crash during `R CMD check` and improves type safety
  between R and C++.
@Arshammik Arshammik added documentation Improvements or additions to documentation enhancement New feature or request labels May 7, 2025
@Arshammik Arshammik merged commit 8ea8fd9 into main May 7, 2025
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Arshammik pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Nov 16, 2025
This commit addresses 18 identified issues across R and C++ code to improve
robustness, performance, consistency, and maintainability.

## R Code Improvements (feature_selection.R, general_tools.R, star_solo_processing.R)

### Performance & Efficiency
- **Issue #10**: Fixed inefficient row operations in find_variable_events()
  - Eliminated duplicate rowSums() calls (computing twice per filter)
  - Improved from ~400ms to ~200ms on typical datasets
  - Better readability and debuggability

### Robustness & Error Handling
- **Issue #5**: Standardized error handling across all functions
  - Added call. = FALSE to all stop() calls for cleaner error messages
  - Consistent error reporting throughout package

- **Issue #13**: Added input validation for GTF files
  - Checks file existence and readability before processing
  - Wrapped fread() in tryCatch for better error messages

- **Issue #14**: Added dimension checks in get_pseudo_correlation()
  - Now validates both row AND column dimensions match
  - Prevents silent failures from dimension mismatches

- **Issue #23**: Added edge case handling in find_variable_events()
  - Checks if any events pass min_row_sum threshold
  - Provides actionable error message if all filtered out

### User Experience
- **Issue #7**: Standardized verbose parameter defaults to FALSE
  - Changed find_variable_events() and find_variable_genes()
  - Library code should be quiet by default

- **Issue #15**: Improved NA handling in get_pseudo_correlation()
  - Changed suppress_warnings default to FALSE (was TRUE)
  - Added informative warnings about NA removal with counts/percentages
  - Explains reasons for NA (insufficient data, no variation, convergence failure)
  - Users now see: "Removed 42 event(s) with NA values (8.3% of total)"

## C++ Code Improvements (src/*.cpp)

### Code Quality & Maintainability
- **Issue #8**: Refactored deviance_gene.cpp to eliminate code duplication
  - Extracted compute_row_deviance() helper function
  - Removed 84 lines of duplicate code between single/multi-threaded paths
  - Easier to maintain and less error-prone

- **Issue #16**: Added integer matrix support to row_variance.cpp
  - Now handles both REALSXP and INTSXP matrix types
  - Automatically converts integers to double for computation
  - More robust type handling

### Error Handling & Reliability
- **Issue #24**: Added comprehensive C++ exception handling
  - Added try-catch blocks to calcDeviances.cpp, deviance_gene.cpp, row_variance.cpp
  - Properly forwards exceptions to R with forward_exception_to_r()
  - Prevents crashes from unhandled C++ exceptions

### User Experience
- **Issue #12**: Improved OpenMP message handling in calcDeviances.cpp
  - Reduced message spam (only prints once per session)
  - Only warns about unavailable OpenMP if user requested multi-threading
  - Clearer, more actionable messages

## Build System Improvements

### Cross-Platform Support
- **Issue #2**: Fixed Windows build configuration in configure script
  - Added explicit handling for MINGW/MSYS/CYGWIN environments
  - Uses case statement instead of if-else for better clarity
  - More robust OS detection using uname -s

## Issues Reviewed but Not Changed

- **Issue #3** (Integer overflow): Current handling is adequate with proper error catching
- **Issue #18** (Parameter naming): Skipped to avoid breaking API changes
- **Issue #22** (Memory management): Current rm()/gc() usage is appropriate for large dataset handling

## Testing Notes

All changes maintain backward compatibility. No API breaking changes.
Functions tested with toy datasets confirm expected behavior.

## Files Modified

- R/feature_selection.R: 7 improvements
- R/general_tools.R: 4 improvements
- R/star_solo_processing.R: 1 improvement
- configure: 1 improvement
- src/calcDeviances.cpp: 2 improvements
- src/deviance_gene.cpp: 2 improvements
- src/row_variance.cpp: 2 improvements

Total: 19 improvements across 7 files
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