Select by location - ‘sp’ vs. ‘sf’

library(sf)
library(sp)
library(rgdal)
library(profvis)

Using ‘sp’

profvis({
  aoi = readOGR(".", "aoi")
  grid = readOGR(".", "grid_full")
  grid_sub = grid[aoi, ]
})

## OGR data source with driver: ESRI Shapefile 
## Source: ".", layer: "aoi"
## with 1 features
## It has 1 fields
## OGR data source with driver: ESRI Shapefile 
## Source: ".", layer: "grid_full"
## with 1440000 features
## It has 2 fields

Using ‘sf’

profvis({
  aoi = st_read(".", "aoi")
  grid = st_read(".", "grid_full")
  grid_sub = grid[aoi, ]
})

## Reading layer `aoi' from data source `/home/michael/Dropbox/BGU/Itai/p_21_Allan_Grid_Preparation' using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
## Simple feature collection with 1 feature and 1 field
## geometry type:  POLYGON
## dimension:      XY
## bbox:           xmin: -4.889354 ymin: 42.23365 xmax: 8.325818 ymax: 51.19109
## epsg (SRID):    4326
## proj4string:    +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +no_defs
## Reading layer `grid_full' from data source `/home/michael/Dropbox/BGU/Itai/p_21_Allan_Grid_Preparation' using driver `ESRI Shapefile'
## Simple feature collection with 1440000 features and 2 fields
## geometry type:  POINT
## dimension:      XY
## bbox:           xmin: -15.73142 ymin: 38.82817 xmax: 4.121077 ymax: 49.61102
## epsg (SRID):    4326
## proj4string:    +proj=longlat +datum=WGS84 +no_defs