evaluate: Performance of a survival learner

In survalis: Interpretable Survival Machine Learning Framework

Performance of a survival learner

Description

Scores survival predictions in one of three ways:

Resampled

evaluate(fit) or evaluate(formula, data, model) refits the learner on each training split of resampling and scores it on the held-out split (internal validation).

New data

evaluate(fit, newdata = test) scores a fitted learner on data it was not trained on (external or temporal validation).

Supplied predictions

evaluate(S, y = Surv(time, status)) scores an ⁠n x length(times)⁠ matrix of survival probabilities produced elsewhere, for example by another package.

Usage

evaluate(object, ...)

## S3 method for class 'survalis_fit'
evaluate(
  object,
  newdata = NULL,
  times = NULL,
  resampling = cv(),
  metrics = c("cindex", "ibs"),
  ncores = 1,
  ...
)

## S3 method for class 'formula'
evaluate(
  object,
  data,
  model,
  spec = list(),
  times = NULL,
  resampling = cv(),
  metrics = c("cindex", "ibs"),
  ncores = 1,
  ...
)

## S3 method for class 'matrix'
evaluate(object, y, times = NULL, metrics = c("cindex", "ibs"), ...)

Arguments

object	A survalis_fit from fit(), a survival formula, or a numeric matrix of survival probabilities (rows = subjects, columns = times).
...	Unused.
newdata	When object is a survalis_fit: optional data frame with the outcome columns. If given, the fit is scored on it once and resampling is ignored.
times	Evaluation grid. NULL picks a grid from the data quantiles and records it; for a matrix, NULL reads the "times" attribute or column names of the form "t=<time>".
resampling	A resampling spec from cv(), holdout(), groupcv() or bootstrap() (default cv()).
metrics	Character vector from listmetrics()$metric. "brier", "ece", "survacc" and range scores such as "range:0.05-0.20" require a single times value (see dwscore()).
ncores	Cores for the split loop (default 1).
data	When object is a formula: the data frame.
model	When object is a formula: a learner id (listlearners()$learner) or a custom learner (see fit()).
spec	When object is a formula: engine arguments (named list).
y	When object is a matrix: a survival::Surv() object with one entry per row of object.

Value

A survalis_eval object: per_split (long data frame), summary (mean / sd / se / 95% interval per metric), times, resampling (NULL when scored once), metrics, model.

Examples

m <- fit(Surv(time, status) ~ age + karno + celltype, veteran, "ranger",
         spec = list(num.trees = 100))
evaluate(m, times = c(90, 180, 365), resampling = cv(3))

# train / test split
idx <- seq_len(100)
m_tr <- fit(Surv(time, status) ~ age + karno, veteran[idx, ], "coxph")
evaluate(m_tr, newdata = veteran[-idx, ], times = c(90, 180))

# predictions from anywhere
S <- predict(m_tr, veteran[-idx, ], times = c(90, 180))
evaluate(S, y = Surv(veteran$time[-idx], veteran$status[-idx]))

survalis documentation built on Nov. 14, 2026, 5:10 p.m.