Package {fssg}

Title: Parametric Survival Modeling in Bulk
Version: 1.0.0
Description: A simple tool for the bulk creation and testing of parametric survival models. Simply provide 'fssg' with a formula and some data, and let it identify the best distributions for you.
License: MIT + file LICENSE
URL: https://github.com/jmrothen/fssg
BugReports: https://github.com/jmrothen/fssg/issues
Encoding: UTF-8
LinkingTo: Rcpp
Imports: actuar, dplyr, extraDistr, flexsurv, magrittr, methods, Rcpp, rstudioapi, stats, survAUC, survival, SurvMetrics, tictoc, VGAM
Suggests: knitr, rmarkdown, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), splines2
Config/testthat/edition: 3
VignetteBuilder: knitr
Depends: R (≥ 3.5)
LazyData: true
Config/roxygen2/version: 8.0.0
NeedsCompilation: yes
Packaged: 2026-05-30 00:17:00 UTC; jmrot
Author: John Rothen ORCID iD [aut, cre, cph]
Maintainer: John Rothen <jmrothen.business@gmail.com>
Repository: CRAN
Date/Publication: 2026-06-03 13:10:08 UTC

Pipe operator

Description

See magrittr::%>% for details.

Usage

lhs %>% rhs

Arguments

lhs

A value or the magrittr placeholder.

rhs

A function call using the magrittr semantics.

Value

The result of calling rhs(lhs).

Function to check if times can be calculated using the distribution with default inits.

Description

Function to check if times can be calculated using the distribution with default inits.

Usage

check_inits(times, distribution)

Arguments

times

Surv object or numeric vector.

distribution

A distribution object from fssg_dist_lists.

Details

This should work with all fssg custom distribution, but does not work on some of the native flexsurv distributions.

Value

Boolean indicator for success. If true, then all values can be calculated, and life is good.

Examples


# choose a distribution
dist <- get_fssg_dist('gamma_gompertz')

# identify all of the actual survival times
times <- rpois(1000, 100) # simulated times

# check if the distribution can be calculated at each time with default inits
check_inits(times, dist)

Erlang Density Function

Description

Provides the probability density function at point x for an erlang distribution of parameters k and lambda. X, k, and l can be vectors.

Usage

derlang(x, k, l, log = FALSE)

Arguments

x

vector of quantiles.

k

shape parameter, positive integer.

l

short for lambda, rate parameter, must be greater than zero.

log

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

The probability of the Erlang probability distribution at x with parameters K and lambda.

References

https://quarto.wessa.net/erlang.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_distribution

Examples

derlang(1, 1, 1)

Gamma-Gompertz Distribution Function

Description

Provides probability density function for Gamma-Gompertz distribution.

Usage

dgamgomp(x, b, sigma, beta, log = FALSE)

Arguments

x

vector of quantiles.

b

scale paramater, must be greater than 0.

sigma, beta

shape parameters, must be greater than 0.

log

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles x.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma/Gompertz_distribution

Examples

dgamgomp(1,1,1,1)

Hypertabastic Distribution Function

Description

Provides probability distribution function for Hypertabastic distribution.

Usage

dhypertab(x, a, b, log = FALSE)

Arguments

x

vector of quantiles.

a

alpha parameter. Must be greater than 0.

b

beta parameter. Must be greater than 0.

log

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles x.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertabastic_survival_models

Examples

dhypertab(1,1,1)

Inverse Lindley Distribution Function

Description

Providers probability distribution function for Inverse Lindley distribution.

Usage

dinvlind(x, theta, log = FALSE)

Arguments

x

vector of quantiles.

theta

paramater, must be greater than 0.

log

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles x.

References

Sharma, V. K., Singh, S. K., Singh, U., & Agiwal, V. (2015). The inverse Lindley distribution: a stress-strength reliability model with application to head and neck cancer data. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 32(3), 162-173. doi:10.1080/21681015.2015.1025901

Asgharzadeh, Akbar & Alizadeh Sangtarashani, Mojtaba. (2023). Inverse Lindley distribution: different methods for estimating their PDF and CDF. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation. 94. 1-20. doi:10.1080/21681015.2015.1025901

Examples

dinvlind(1,1)

Log Cauchy Distribution Functions

Description

Provides probability distribution function for Log Cauchy distribution.

Usage

dlogcauchy(x, mu, sigma, log = FALSE)

Arguments

x

vector of quantiles.

mu

location parameter, must be real.

sigma

scale parameter, must be greater than 0.

log

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles x.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-Cauchy_distribution

Examples

dlogcauchy(1,1,1)

fssg: Flexsurv "Shotgun".

Description

A simple tool for the bulk creation and testing of parametric survival models.

Usage

fssg(
  formula,
  data = NA,
  models = NA,
  skip = c("default"),
  opt_method = "BFGS",
  spline = NA,
  max_knots = 1,
  dump_models = TRUE,
  detailed = FALSE,
  ibs = FALSE,
  progress = TRUE,
  warn = FALSE
)

Arguments

formula

Formula. Should be a survival formula, with a Surv object on the left hand side.

data

If your formula needs a dataset, provide that here.

models

Vector of strings. If you only want to run specific models, specify them here by their list name in fssg_dist_list.

skip

Vector. If you want to skip any specific models, you can add their names here. By default, some of the repetitive or incredibly niche models are skipped.

opt_method

String. Named of the preferred optimization method. Default for fssg is 'Nelder-Mead', with 'BFGS' being used as a back-up in case of errors. Can be any valid optim method, and the back-up method will always be 'BFGS', or 'Nelder-Mead' if 'BFGS' is the primary method provided.

spline

String or Vector of Strings. Include 'rp' or 'wy' for Royston-Parmar natural cubic spline, or Wang-Yan alternative natural cubic spline respectively. The Wang-Yan version requires the package splines2ns. If set to NA, then the spline step will be skipped. fssg runs spline models using all three available scale options in flexsurvspline, for 'hazard', 'odds' and 'normal.

max_knots

Integer. Specifies the maximum number of knots to be considered in spline models.

dump_models

Logical. If TRUE, each successful model will be placed into a list and returned.

detailed

Logical. If True, calculates a number of additional fit statistics for each model.

ibs

Logical. If TRUE, calculate integrated brier score for each model. Please note that this greatly increases run time, and is not recommended for large data.

progress

Logical. If TRUE, prints progress updates while the function runs.

warn

Logical. If TRUE, also prints any warnings that appear.

Details

Please see vignette("fssg") for a more in-depth example of the function.

Value

List containing a summary of the models generated. If dump_models is True, also returns a list of generated models.

Examples

library(survival)
fssg(
  Surv(time, status)~1,
  data=aml,
  models=c('genf','exp','dagum','lomax','rayleigh','gamma_gompertz'),
  spline = c('rp'),
  max_knots=2,
  warn = TRUE
)$summary

fssg_dist

Description

flexsurv allows for the creating of custom distribution objects, which must follow a specific format to be used in flexsurv functions. fssg uses a modified version of this formatting, which specifies the relevant distribution functions directly.

Usage

fssg_dist(
  name,
  pars,
  location,
  transforms,
  inv.transforms,
  inits,
  d,
  p,
  q = NA,
  h = NA,
  H = NA,
  fullname = ""
)

Arguments

name

Simple short hand name for the relevant distribution. flexsurv will search for the distribution functions using this name by default if the functions aren't explicitly defined. E.g. 'norm' for pnorm, dnorm, etc.

pars

Vector of parameter names which will be provided to the relevant distribution functions.

location

Name of the parameter which should be allowed to vary based on covariates. The name 'location' is an artifact of the original flexsurv methodology, where it was assumed that the distributions were from a location-scale family. flexsurv does provide the ability to allow for more than one parameter to vary through the 'anc' option, however this has not been adapted into fssg at this time.

transforms

Vector of the functions which should be used to scale each parameter to the real number line. If a parameter must be positive, then 'log' would scale the parameter to the real line. This is used to pass parameters through to the optimization function. If no transformation is needed, use 'identity'.

inv.transforms

Vector of the inverse transformation functions for parameters. E.g. If transforms is 'log', inv.transforms would be 'exp'.

inits

Function which will take a vector of times t and provide the initial parameter estimates. Ideally these should be estimated using the times from the relevant dataset, but can also be arbitrary initial values such as 1.

d

Density function of the relevant distribution, such as dnorm. If not supplied, flexsurv will search the global environment for a p-function using the name paramater. If one is not found, flexsurv will attempt to search for a hazard function instead (hnorm). If this fails, flexsurv will not be able to model.

p

Distribution function of the relevant distribution, such as pnorm. If not supplied, flexsurv will search the global environment for a p-function using the name paramater. In the case that one is not found, then flexsurv will estimate one using integration, which will slow the process considerably.

q

Quantile function for the relevant distribution, such as qnorm. fssg provides a helper function (quantilify) to approximate q functions based on a p function. Will be estimated if not provided.

h

Hazard function of the relevant distribution. Not required, but may be supplied instead of a d function if that is preferred. Will be estimated if not provided.

H

Cumulative hazard function. Will be estimated if not provided.

fullname

Alternative name(s) for the distribution. This is used for labeling of outputs generated by fssg.

Details

fssg distributions should be specified as a list, with the following attributes.

Important note: flexsurv by default only varies one model parameter (what is specified in the distributions as location) We can make more than one parameter vary using the anc parameter in flexsurvreg. Example: anc = list(shape1 = ~ var1 + var2, shape2 = ~ var3). This requires the ancillary parameters to be outright specified, which is distribution specific.

Value

A flexsurv-ready distribution object.

References

flexsurv vignette by Christopher H. Jackson https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=flexsurv

Examples

fssg_dist(
  name = 'betapr',
  pars= c('shape1','shape2','scale'),
  location='scale',
  transforms= c(log,log,log),
  inv.transforms= c(exp,exp,exp),
  inits= function(t){c(3, 2, 1)},  # can be improved
  d = extraDistr::dbetapr,
  p = extraDistr::pbetapr,
  fullname='beta_prime'
)

Compiles list of available distributions

Description

Compiles list of available distributions

Usage

fssg_dist_list()

Details

For details on all distributions, please see vignette("Distributions").

Value

a list of all possible distributions

Examples


fdl <- fssg_dist_list()

Collect fit statistics for a parametric survival model

Description

Collect fit statistics for a parametric survival model

Usage

get_fit_stats(model, ibs = FALSE)

Arguments

model

Model object. Currently formatted to work with flexsurvreg objects, and may work for other types of models.

ibs

Logical. If True, calculates the integrated Brier Score, which is a helpful fit statistic but is much slower to calculate than all other statistics.

Details

For a table of fit statistics and their sources, please see the vignette vignette("Fit_Statistics") for more details.

Value

List of fit statistics for the model.

Please note that for concordance and AUC statistics, the ranks are arbitrarily sorted in one direction regardless of PH/AFT specification of the model. To account for this, the statistics returned are the max of (statistic, 1-statistic), which should always provide the correct value regardless of rank sort order.

Examples

library(survival)
library(flexsurv)

flexsurvreg(Surv(time,status) ~ age +sex, data=cancer, dist= 'weibull') -> model
get_fit_stats(model = model, ibs = FALSE)

Function to return a specific distribution object.

Description

Function to return a specific distribution object.

Usage

get_fssg_dist(dist_name)

Arguments

dist_name

Name of the distribution.

Value

Distribution object.

Examples

get_fssg_dist('weibull')
get_fssg_dist('frechet')
get_fssg_dist('gamma_gompertz')

fssg Helper Functions

Description

Functions that extrapolate the quantile, Survival, hazard, and cumulative hazard functions for a distribution based on the provided density and/or distribution function(s). These functions assume you have a p and d function formatted in the standard format found in native R distribution functions (such as pnorm and dnorm).

Usage

survivify(p_function)

hazardify(d_function, p_function)

cumhazardify(p_function)

quantilify(p_function)

Arguments

p_function

Distribution function. E.g. pnorm.

d_function

Density function. E.g. dnorm.

Details

survivify creates a function for 1-p(t). hazardify creates a function for d(t)/S(t). cumhazardify creates a function for -log(S(t)). quantilify approximates a quantile function based on p(t) using numeric root (uniroot).

Value

A new function of the desired type with the same parameters as the input functions.

survivify returns the survival function S(t).

hazardify returns the hazard function h(t).

cumhazardify returns the cumulative hazard function H(t)

quantilify returns an estimated quantile function q(t).

Examples

survivify(pnorm)
hazardify(dnorm, pnorm)
cumhazardify(pnorm)
quantilify(pnorm)

Erlang Cumulative Density Function

Description

Provides the cumulative density function at point q for an erlang distribution of parameters k and lambda. X, k, and l can be vectors.

Usage

perlang(q, k, l, lower.tail = TRUE, log.p = FALSE)

Arguments

q

vector of quantiles.

k

shape parameter, positive integer.

l

short for lambda, rate parameter, must be greater than zero.

lower.tail

logical: if TRUE, returns densities from 0 to q, otherwise q to 1.

log.p

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

The cumulative probability of the Erlang probability distribution at based on quantile q with parameters K and lambda.

References

https://quarto.wessa.net/erlang.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlang_distribution

Examples

perlang(1, 1, 1)

Gamma-Gompertz Cumulative Distribution Function

Description

Provides cumulative density function for Gamma-Gompertz distribution.

Usage

pgamgomp(q, b, sigma, beta, lower.tail = TRUE, log.p = FALSE)

Arguments

q

vector of quantiles.

b

scale paramater, must be greater than 0.

sigma, beta

shape parameters, must be greater than 0.

lower.tail

logical: if TRUE, returns densities from 0 to q, otherwise q to 1.

log.p

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles q.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma/Gompertz_distribution

Examples

pgamgomp(1,1,1,1)

Hypertabastic Cumulative Distribution Function

Description

Provides cumulative distribution function for Hypertabastic distribution.

Usage

phypertab(q, a, b, lower.tail = TRUE, log.p = FALSE)

Arguments

q

vector of quantiles.

a

alpha parameter. Must be greater than 0.

b

beta parameter. Must be greater than 0.

lower.tail

logical: if TRUE, returns densities from 0 to q, otherwise q to 1.

log.p

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles q.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertabastic_survival_models

Examples

phypertab(1,1,1)

Inverse Lindley Distribution Function

Description

Providers probability distribution function for Inverse Lindley distribution.

Usage

pinvlind(q, theta, lower.tail = TRUE, log.p = FALSE)

Arguments

q

vector of quantiles.

theta

paramater, must be greater than 0.

lower.tail

logical: if TRUE, returns densities from 0 to q, otherwise q to 1.

log.p

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles q.

References

Sharma, V. K., Singh, S. K., Singh, U., & Agiwal, V. (2015). The inverse Lindley distribution: a stress-strength reliability model with application to head and neck cancer data. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering, 32(3), 162-173. doi:10.1080/21681015.2015.1025901

Asgharzadeh, Akbar & Alizadeh Sangtarashani, Mojtaba. (2023). Inverse Lindley distribution: different methods for estimating their PDF and CDF. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation. 94. 1-20. doi:10.1080/21681015.2015.1025901

Examples

pinvlind(1,1)

Log Cauchy Cumulative Distribution Functions

Description

Provides cumulative distribution function for Log Cauchy distribution.

Usage

plogcauchy(q, mu, sigma, lower.tail = TRUE, log.p = FALSE)

Arguments

q

vector of quantiles.

mu

location parameter, must be real.

sigma

scale parameter, must be greater than 0.

lower.tail

logical: if TRUE, returns densities from 0 to q, otherwise q to 1.

log.p

logical: if TRUE, log of probability is returned.

Value

Probabilities for quantiles q.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-Cauchy_distribution

Examples

plogcauchy(1,1,1)

Pseudo: Simulated data for experimentation

Description

This data is entirely fabricated. The source code for creating this data set can be found in the data-raw folder of the github repository.

Usage

pseudo

Format

time

Time until event.

death

Indicator for death. If TRUE, the patient died at corresponding time.

gender, age, region, surgery, drug, comorb, comorb_cat

Arbitrary covariates.

Source

fssg

Examples

head(pseudo)

Simple add-in which lets you keyboard map the writing of pipe + newline. Intended to make functional programming pipelines a little easier on the hands.

Description

Simple add-in which lets you keyboard map the writing of pipe + newline. Intended to make functional programming pipelines a little easier on the hands.

Usage

quick_pipe()