gs: GS Algorithm for Causal Discovery

In causalDisco: Tools for Causal Discovery on Observational Data

GS Algorithm for Causal Discovery

Description

Run the Grow-Shrink algorithm for causal discovery using one of several engines.

Usage

gs(engine = c("bnlearn"), test, alpha = 0.05, ...)

Arguments

engine	Character; which engine to use. Must be one of: "bnlearn" bnlearn R package.
test	Character; name of the conditional‐independence test.
alpha	Numeric; significance level for the CI tests.
...	Additional arguments passed to the chosen engine (e.g. test or algorithm parameters).

Details

For specific details on the supported tests and parameters for each engine, see:

• BnlearnSearch for bnlearn.

Recommendation

While it is possible to call the function returned directly with a data frame, we recommend using disco(). This provides a consistent interface and handles knowledge integration.

Value

A function that takes a single argument data (a data frame). When called, this function returns a list containing:

• knowledge A Knowledge object with the background knowledge used in the causal discovery algorithm. See knowledge() for how to construct it.

• caugi A caugi::caugi object (of class PDAG) representing the learned causal graph from the causal discovery algorithm.

References

Margaritis, D., Thrun, S.: Bayesian network induction via local neighborhoods. Tech. rep., DTIC Document (2000).

See Also

Other causal discovery algorithms: boss(), boss_fci(), fci(), ges(), gfci(), grasp(), grasp_fci(), iamb-family, pc(), sp_fci(), tfci(), tges(), tpc()

Examples

data(tpc_example)

kn <- knowledge(
  tpc_example,
  starts_with("child") %-->% starts_with("youth")
)


# Recommended path using disco()
gs_bnlearn <- gs(
  engine = "bnlearn",
  test = "fisher_z",
  alpha = 0.05
)
disco(tpc_example, gs_bnlearn, knowledge = kn)

# or using gs_bnlearn directly
gs_bnlearn <- gs_bnlearn |> set_knowledge(kn)
gs_bnlearn(tpc_example)


# With all algorithm arguments specified
gs_bnlearn <- gs(
  engine = "bnlearn",
  test = "fisher_z",
  alpha = 0.05,
  max.sx = 2,
  debug = FALSE,
  undirected = TRUE
)

disco(tpc_example, gs_bnlearn)

causalDisco documentation built on April 13, 2026, 5:06 p.m.