covarsearchauto not working with categorical variables

[danieleboaretti]

Hello,

I am reporting a possible issue with covarsearch auto.
I tested the code in the documentation:

one.cmt <- function() {
  ini({
    ## You may label each parameter with a comment
    tka <- 0.45 # Log Ka
    tcl <- log(c(0, 2.7, 100)) # Log Cl
    ## This works with interactive models
    ## You may also label the preceding line with label("label text")
    tv <- 3.45; label("log V")
    ## the label("Label name") works with all models
    eta.ka ~ 0.6
    eta.cl ~ 0.3
    eta.v ~ 0.1
    add.sd <- 0.7
  })
  model({
    ka <- exp(tka + eta.ka)
    cl <- exp(tcl + eta.cl)
    v <- exp(tv + eta.v)
    linCmt() ~ add(add.sd)
  })
}

d <- theo_sd
d$SEX <-0
d$SEX[d$ID<=6] <-1



fit <- nlmixr2(one.cmt, d, "focei")

fitcovarWT <- covarSearchAuto(fit, varsVec = c("ka", "cl"),
    covarsVec = c("WT"))
covarSearchAuto(fit, varsVec = c("ka", "cl"),
    covarsVec = c("SEX"), catvarsVec = c("SEX"))

The code runs fine when using WT as covariate, while for SEX it gives me an error.

The covarsearchauto gives me this error:

── starting forward search... ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Error in .foceiPreProcessData(.data, .ret, .ui, .control$rxControl) :
  Assertion on 'names(data)' failed: Names must include the elements {'ID','DV','TIME','SEX'}, but is missing elements {'SEX'}.

I don't understand why, in d there is the SEX column:

head(d)
  ID TIME    DV     AMT EVID CMT   WT SEX
1  1 0.00  0.00 319.992  101   1 79.6   1
2  1 0.00  0.74   0.000    0   2 79.6   1
3  1 0.25  2.84   0.000    0   2 79.6   1
4  1 0.57  6.57   0.000    0   2 79.6   1
5  1 1.12 10.50   0.000    0   2 79.6   1
6  1 2.02  9.66   0.000    0   2 79.6   1

I wonder if the categorical variable might cause the problem here.

Thank you for your support.

Daniele

[mattfidler]

Hi @danieleboaretti

This is currently broken.

I guess the best thing to do is turn it off for now (no longer export it).