R: Create a Survival Object

Surv {survival} | R Documentation

## Create a Survival Object

### Description

Create a survival object, usually used as a response variable in a model formula. Argument matching is special for this function, see Details below.

### Usage

    Surv(time, time2, event,
        type=c('right', 'left', 'interval', 'counting', 'interval2'),
        origin=0)
    is.Surv(x)

### Arguments

`time` | for right censored data, this is the follow up time. For interval data, the first argument is the starting time for the interval.
`event` | The status indicator, normally 0=alive, 1=dead. Other choices are `TRUE`/`FALSE` (`TRUE` = death) or 1/2 (2=death). For interval censored data, the status indicator is 0=right censored, 1=event at `time`, 2=left censored, 3=interval censored. Although unusual, the event indicator can be omitted, in which case all subjects are assumed to have an event.
`time2` | ending time of the interval for interval censored or counting process data only. Intervals are assumed to be open on the left and closed on the right, `(start, end]`. For counting process data, `event` indicates whether an event occurred at the end of the interval.
`type` | character string specifying the type of censoring. Possible values are `"right"`, `"left"`, `"counting"`, `"interval"`, or `"interval2"`. The default is `"right"` or `"counting"` depending on whether the `time2` argument is absent or present, respectively.
`origin` | for counting process data, the hazard function origin. This option was intended to be used in conjunction with a model containing time dependent strata in order to align the subjects properly when they cross over from one strata to another, but it has rarely proven useful.
`x` | any R object.

### Details

Typical usages are

    Surv(time, event)
    Surv(time, time2, event, type= )

The `time`,`time2` and `event` arguments are matched by position, not by name, so use, eg, `Surv(time, dead)` rather than `Surv(time, event=dead)` In theory it is possible to represent interval censored data without a third column containing the explicit status. Exact, right censored, left censored and interval censored observation would be represented as intervals of [a,a], (a, infinity), (-infinity,b), and [a,b] respectively; each interval is a pair of time points within which the event is known to have occurred. If `type="interval2"` then the representation given above is assumed, with `NA` taking the place of infinity. If `type="interval"` then `event` must be given. If `event` is `0`, `1`, or `2`, the relevant information is assumed to be contained in `time`, the value in `time2` is ignored, and the second column of the internal representation contains a placeholder value. Presently, the only methods allowing interval censored data are the parametric models computed by `survreg` and survival curves computed by `survfit`; for both of these, the distinction between open and closed intervals is unimportant. The distinction is important for counting process data and the Cox model. The function tries to distinguish between the use of 0/1 and 1/2 coding for left and right censored data using `if (max(status)==2)`. If 1/2 coding is used and all the subjects are censored, it will guess wrong. In any questionable case it is safer to use logical coding, e.g., `Surv(time, status==3)` would indicate that a `3` is the code for an event. Surv objects can be subscripted either as an object, e.g. `x[1:3]` using a single subscript; in which case the `drop` argument is ignored; or as a matrix, using two arguments. If the second subscript is missing and `drop=F` (the default), the result of the subscripting will be a Surv object, e.g., `x[1:3,,drop=F]`, otherwise the result will be a matrix (or vector), in accordance with the default behavior for subscripting matrices.

### Value

An object of class `Surv`. There are methods for `print`, `is.na`, and subscripting survival objects. `Surv` objects are implemented as a matrix of 2 or 3 columns.

In the case of `is.Surv`, a logical value `TRUE` if `x` inherits from class `"Surv"`, otherwise an `FALSE`.

### See Also

`coxph`, `survfit`, `survreg`.

### Examples

    with(lung, Surv(time, status))
    Surv(heart$start, heart$stop, heart$event)

[Package survival version 2.36-14 Index]