Grid Fundamentals & Concepts
In vaster: Tools for Raster Grid Logic

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)

library(vaster)

What is vaster?

The vaster package provides pure raster grid logic without requiring actual raster data. It separates the abstract mathematical operations of raster grids—dimension, extent, cell indexing, coordinate transformations—from data formats and file I/O.

This is useful when you need to:

Pre-compute grid operations before reading or writing data
Work with virtual grids and mosaics
Perform format-agnostic grid calculations
Build higher-level geospatial tools

The Virtual Grid Model

A raster grid in vaster is defined by just two components:

Dimension: the number of columns and rows c(ncol, nrow)
Extent: the bounding box c(xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax)

## a 10x5 grid covering [0, 100] x [0, 50]
dimension <- c(10, 5)
extent <- c(0, 100, 0, 50)

From these two pieces of information, all grid properties can be derived:

n_cell(dimension)
x_res(dimension, extent)
y_res(dimension, extent)

There is no data, no file format, no CRS—just the logical grid structure. This matches how GDAL and other tools internally represent grids.

Cell Numbering Convention

Cells are numbered from 1, starting at the top-left corner and proceeding row-wise (left-to-right, top-to-bottom). This matches the convention used by the raster and terra packages.

## cell numbers for a 4x3 grid
dimension <- c(4, 3)
extent <- c(0, 4, 0, 3)

## total cells
n_cell(dimension)

## cell 1 is top-left
xy_from_cell(dimension, extent, 1)

## cell 4 is top-right  
xy_from_cell(dimension, extent, 4)

## cell 12 is bottom-right
xy_from_cell(dimension, extent, 12)

The cell centre coordinates reflect this ordering:

## all cell centres
cells <- seq_len(n_cell(dimension))
xy_from_cell(dimension, extent, cells)

Resolution and Origin

Resolution is the cell size in x and y directions:

dimension <- c(10, 5)
extent <- c(0, 100, 0, 50)

x_res(dimension, extent)  
y_res(dimension, extent)

The origin is the point where cell boundaries align. By default, vaster uses the bottom-left corner of the extent:

origin(dimension, extent)

Understanding the origin is important for aligning multiple grids—covered in detail in vignette("extent-alignment").

Extent Properties

Extract individual extent components, dimension is obviously irrelevant for extent components but is included for consistency with other functions.

extent <- c(-180, 180, -90, 90)

x_min(c(1, 1), extent)
x_max(c(1, 1), extent)
y_min(c(1, 1), extent)
y_max(c(1, 1), extent)

xlim(c(1, 1), extent)
ylim(c(1, 1), extent)

Coordinate Arrays

Generate coordinate vectors for all columns or rows:

dimension <- c(4, 3)
extent <- c(0, 4, 0, 3)

## x coordinates of cell centres (one per column)
x_centre(dimension, extent)

## y coordinates of cell centres (one per row)
y_centre(dimension, extent)

## x coordinates of cell corners/edges (ncol + 1 values)
x_corner(dimension, extent)

## y coordinates of cell corners/edges (nrow + 1 values)
y_corner(dimension, extent)

For a full matrix of all cell centre coordinates:

xy(dimension, extent)

Comparison with raster/terra

The vaster approach differs from raster and terra in that there is no object to create or manage. Grid operations are pure functions:

## terra approach
library(terra)
r <- rast(ncol = 10, nrow = 5, xmin = 0, xmax = 100, ymin = 0, ymax = 50)
res(r)
ncell(r)
xyFromCell(r, 1)

## vaster approach
dimension <- c(10, 5)
extent <- c(0, 100, 0, 50)
c(x_res(dimension, extent), y_res(dimension, extent))
n_cell(dimension)
xy_from_cell(dimension, extent, 1)

This functional approach is useful when you need to perform many grid calculations without the overhead of object creation, or when working in contexts where raster packages aren't available.

Next Steps

vignette("cell-operations"): Converting between cells, coordinates, and row/col indices
vignette("extent-alignment"): Aligning and cropping extents to grids
vignette("gdal-interop"): Working with GDAL geotransforms and RasterIO