`separate_wider_delim` function remove `sf` class and return `tibble`

[benjaminhlina]

When using separate_wider_delim with a sf object, the function misbehaves and returns a tibble. If using separate the class of the sf object is retained. The same issue was documented in issue #1495 but no reprex was provided. This is using v1.3.0 of tidyr See reprex:

# load packages 
suppressPackageStartupMessages({
  library(crawl) # loaded for example sf object 
  library(sf) # load sf 
  library(tidyr) # load separate functions  
})

# load harbor seal data 
data("harborSeal_sf")

# check out the sf object 
class(harborSeal_sf)
#> [1] "sf"         "data.frame"
# make up fake column to separate 

harborSeal_sf$fake <- "test_1"
# now use separate_wide_delim 

er <- harborSeal_sf |>
  separate_wider_delim(cols = fake, names = c("fake", "num"), delim = "_")
class(er)
#> [1] "tbl_df"     "tbl"        "data.frame"
# returns tibble not a sf object so it changes the object's class 

# if we use separate it keeps the objects class 
cr <- harborSeal_sf |>
  separate(col = fake, into = c("fake", "num"), sep = "_")

class(cr)
#> [1] "sf"         "data.frame"

^{Created on 2023-05-11 with reprex v2.0.2}

[benjaminhlina]

What is the status of this @hadley? This seems to still be an issue along with multiple issues with the newer version of separate_. I understand the rational for the newer functions and enjoy the multiple features (e.g., too_few/too_many) they have, just feel the idea to push superseded on seperate() was premature considering the multiple issues the new functions face.

[olivroy]

The issue is probably with sf, as it doesn't provide a separate_wider_delim() method. https://r-spatial.github.io/sf/reference/tidyverse.html

[benjaminhlina]

Thanks @olivroy for the response. That overall makes sense, sorry I directed the issue at {tidyr} and not {sf}. I'll close this issue and open one on their end. Thanks :)