Cheat sheet: Inputs/outputs for user-defined functions

Overview of inputs and outputs for user-defined functions when running a simChef Experiment. Dotted boxes denote optional input arguments that are automatically passed through in a run_experiment() call if specified.

DGP

• Inputs
  • Any number of named parameters (e.g., dgp_param1, dgp_param2, …)
• Outputs
  • A list of named elements to be passed onto the method(s) (e.g., dgp_out1, dgp_out2, …)

Method

• Inputs
  • Named parameters matching all names in the list returned by the DGP function (e.g., dgp_out1, dgp_out2, …)
  • Any number of additional named parameters (e.g., method_param1, method_param2, …)
• Outputs
  • A list of named elements (e.g., method_out1, method_out2, …)

Evaluator

• Inputs
  • fit_results (optional): output of fit_experiment()
  • vary_params (optional): character vector of parameter names that are varied across in the experiment
  • Any number of additional named parameters (e.g., eval_param1, eval_param2, …)
• Outputs
  • Typically a tibble or data.frame

Visualizer

• Inputs
  • fit_results (optional): output of fit_experiment()
  • eval_results (optional): output of evaluate_experiment()
  • vary_params (optional): character vector of parameter names that are varied across in the experiment
  • Any number of additional named parameters (e.g., viz_param1, viz_param2, …)
• Outputs
  • Typically a plot (e.g., a ggplot or plotly object). Can also return tables or more generally, any R Markdown snippet (e.g., verbatim text)

Outputs of *_experiment

• fit_results: output of fit_experiment()
  • A tibble of results from each (replicate, DGP, Method) combination with the following columns:
    • .rep: replicate ID
    • .dgp_name: name of DGP
    • .method_name: name of Method
    • vary_across parameter columns (if applicable): value of the specified vary_across parameter
    • A column corresponding to each named component in the list returned by Method (e.g., method_out1, method_out2, …)
• eval_results: output of evaluate_experiment()
  • A named list of elements, with one element for each Evaluator in the Experiment
    • The list names correspond to the names given to each Evaluator in create_evaluator(.name = ...)
    • The list elements are exactly the return values from each Evaluator function
• viz_results: output of visualize_experiment()
  • A named list of elements, with one element for each Visualizer in the Experiment
    • The list names correspond to the names given to each Visualizer in create_visualizer(.name = ...)
    • The list elements are exactly the return values from each Visualizer function