Endpoints: Class of Endpoint

In TrialSimulator: Clinical Trial Simulator

Class of Endpoint

Description

Create a class of endpoint to specify its name, type, readout time (optional) and assign a random number generator.

Public methods in this R6 class are used in developing this package. Thus, I have to export the whole R6 class which exposures all public methods. However, none of the public methods is useful to end users except for the one below.

• $print()

Methods

Public methods

• Endpoints$new()

• Endpoints$test_generator()

• Endpoints$get_generator()

• Endpoints$get_readout()

• Endpoints$get_uid()

• Endpoints$get_name()

• Endpoints$get_type()

• Endpoints$print()

• Endpoints$clone()

---

Method new()

initialize an endpoint.

Usage

Endpoints$new(name, type = c("tte", "non-tte"), readout = NULL, generator, ...)

Arguments

name

character vector. Name(s) of endpoint(s)

type

character vector. Type(s) of endpoint(s). It supports "tte" for time-to-event endpoints, and "non-tte" for all other types of endpoints (e.g., continous, binary, categorical, or repeated measurement. TrialSimulator will do some verification if an endpoint is of type "tte". However, no special manipulation is done for non-tte endpoints.

readout

a named numeric vector with name to be non-tte endpoint(s). readout must be specified for every non-tte endpoint. For example, c(endpoint1 = 6, endpoint2 = 3), which means that it takes 6 and 3 unit time to get readout of endpoint1 and endpoint2 of a patient since being randomized. Error message would be prompted if readout is not named or readout is not specified for some non-tte endpoint. If all endpoints are tte, readout should be NULL as default.

generator

a random number generation (RNG) function. It supports all built-in random number generators in stats, e.g., stats::rnorm, stats::rexp, etc. that with n as the argument for number of observations and returns a vector. A custom RNG function is also supported. generator could be any functions as long as (1) its first argument is n; and (2) it returns a vector of length n (univariate endpoint) or a data frame of n rows (multiple endpoints), i.e., custom RNG can return data of more than one endpoint. This is useful when users need to simulate correlated endpoints or longitudinal data. The column names of returned data frame should match to name exactly, although order of columns does not matter. If an endpoint is of type "tte", the custom generator should also return a column as its event indicator. For example, if "pfs" is "tte", then custom generator should return at least two columns "pfs" and "pfs_event". Usually pfs_event can be all 1s if no censoring. Some RNG functions, e.g., TrialSimulator::PiecewiseConstantExponentialRNG() and TrialSimulator::CorrelatedPfsAndOs4(), simulate TTE endpoint data with censoring simultaneously, thus 0 exists in the columns of event indicators. Users can implement censorship in their own RNG. Censoring can also be specified later when defining a trial object through argument dropout. See ?trial. Note that if covariates, e.g., biomarker, subgroup, are needed in generating and analyzing trial data, they can and should be defined as endpoints in endpoint() as well.

...

optional arguments for generator.

---

Method test_generator()

test random number generator of the endpoints. It returns an example dataset of an endpoint object. Note that users of TrialSimulator does not need to call this function to generate trial data; instead, the package will call this function at milestone automatically. Users may see example in vignette where this function is called. However, it is for illustration purpose only. In practice, this function may be used for debugging if users suspect some issues in custom generator, otherwise, this function should never been called in formal simulation.

Usage

Endpoints$test_generator(n = 1000)

Arguments

n

integer. Number of random numbers generated from the generator.

---

Method get_generator()

return random number generator of an endpoint

Usage

Endpoints$get_generator()

---

Method get_readout()

return readout function

Usage

Endpoints$get_readout()

---

Method get_uid()

return uid

Usage

Endpoints$get_uid()

---

Method get_name()

return endpoints' name

Usage

Endpoints$get_name()

---

Method get_type()

return endpoints' type

Usage

Endpoints$get_type()

---

Method print()

print an endpoint object

Usage

Endpoints$print(categorical_vars = NULL)

Arguments

categorical_vars

a character vector of endpoints. This can be used to force variables with limited distinct values as categorical variables in summary report. For example, a numeric endpoint may take integer values 0, 1, 2. Instead of computing mean and standard derivation in the summary report, put this endpoint in categorical_vars can force it be a categorical variable and a barplot is generated in summary report instead.

Examples

rng <- function(n){
  data.frame(x = sample(1:3, n, replace = TRUE),
             y = sample(1:3, n, replace = TRUE)
            )
}
ep <- endpoint(name = c('x', 'y'),
               type = c('non-tte', 'non-tte'),
               readout = c(x = 0, y = 0),
               generator = rng)

## x and y as continuous endpoints, thus mean and sd are reported
ep

## force y to be categorical to create barplot of it
print(ep, categorical_vars = 'y')

---

Method clone()

The objects of this class are cloneable with this method.

Usage

Endpoints$clone(deep = FALSE)

Arguments

deep

Whether to make a deep clone.

Examples

# Instead of using Endpoints$new(), please use endpoint(), a user-friendly
# wrapper to define endpoints. See examples in ?endpoint.


## ------------------------------------------------
## Method `Endpoints$print`
## ------------------------------------------------


rng <- function(n){
  data.frame(x = sample(1:3, n, replace = TRUE),
             y = sample(1:3, n, replace = TRUE)
            )
}
ep <- endpoint(name = c('x', 'y'),
               type = c('non-tte', 'non-tte'),
               readout = c(x = 0, y = 0),
               generator = rng)

## x and y as continuous endpoints, thus mean and sd are reported
ep

## force y to be categorical to create barplot of it
print(ep, categorical_vars = 'y')

TrialSimulator documentation built on Nov. 5, 2025, 7:22 p.m.