Structures With Difference Columns

Many standard tables call for a set of difference columns to be added alongside the main tabulation; this, combined with the spanning column labels favored by Johnson&Johnson shells, results in a complex final column structure.

To ease the creation of these structures, particularly in the presence of virtual combination arms, we provide the grouped_cols_w_diffs function. It provides the flexibility to be used in standard template scripts, as we will see below.

Basic Usage

At it’s most basic, grouped_cols_w_diffs takes a column-span treatment map, as created by create_colspan_map. This creates a column structure with spanning labels over active and non-active treatment groups, as well as difference columns comparing each active treatments individually against each non-active treatment:

library(junco)
adsl <- create_colspan_var(pharmaverseadamjnj::adsl)
adae <- create_colspan_var(pharmaverseadamjnj::adae)
trt_map <- create_colspan_map(adsl)
print(trt_map)
#>          colspan_trt               TRT01A
#> 1 Active Study Agent Xanomeline High Dose
#> 2 Active Study Agent  Xanomeline Low Dose
#> 3                                 Placebo
lyt <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map)


build_table(lyt, adsl)
#>                Active Study Agent                                                 Risk Differences                        
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   Placebo   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Placebo
#> ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

A Note About Types Of Differences

grouped_cols_w_diffs creates only the column structure; the contents of the difference columns are calculated by the analysis function used in the layout. The structure for the various types of difference columns (risk, mean, eair, etc) differs only in the spanning label for the difference columns. grouped_cols_w_diffs accepts diffs_label for this purpose:

lyt2 <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, diffs_label = "Mean Differences")


build_table(lyt2, adsl)
#>                Active Study Agent                                                 Mean Differences                        
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   Placebo   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Placebo
#> ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Care should be taken to choose the correct analysis function to create the types of differences required by your shell.

Turning Off The Difference Columns

Despite the function’s name, we can turn off difference columns when using grouped_cols_w_diffs via the diff_cols argument. This allows us to use the function unconditionally in our layouts while retaining the ability to turn off difference columns , e.g., in shells where they are optional.

lyt_nodiff <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, diff_cols = FALSE)


build_table(lyt_nodiff, adsl)
#>                Active Study Agent                      
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   Placebo
#> ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Advanced Usage

Beyond the basic usage, grouped_cols_w_diffs offers fine-grained control over both the arms (notably the addition of combination arms) and comparisons between arms displayed in your table.

Including Virtual Combination Arms

Combination levels are declared via a “combo data.frame” similar to those accepted by rtables::add_combo_levels. In particular, we use a data.frame with the following columns:

  • valname - (character) Name of the combination level (as it will appear in paths)
  • label - (character) Label for the combination level (as it will appear in the table)
  • levelcombo - (list of characters) The levels which should be combined into the combination level
  • exargs - (list) Extra arguments to be passed to a/cfuns associated with the combination level
  • is_control Optional (logical) When TRUE, the combination level will be added to the second (non-active) group of treatments. Assumed FALSE if not specified.
  • compare_against Optional (list of characters) The levels the combination level should be compared against (as the first/active element). Assumed to be select_all_levels if not specified.

Thus at its most basic, we use this argument like so:

library(tibble)
combodf1 <- tribble(
  ~valname, ~label, ~levelcombo, ~exargs,
  "all_active", "All Xanomeline", c("Xanomeline High Dose", "Xanomeline Low Dose"), list()
)

lyt3 <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, combo_map_df = combodf1)
#> none of the combination levels appeared in the colspan treatment map; adding them automatically.

build_table(lyt3, adsl)
#>                        Active Study Agent                                                                        Risk Differences                                      
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   All Xanomeline   Placebo   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Placebo   All Xanomeline vs Placebo
#> ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

We can instead add a second virtual control or referene group by including the is_control column and setting it to TRUE for some or all of our combination levels:

combodf2 <- tribble(
  ~valname, ~label, ~levelcombo, ~exargs, ~is_control,
  "all_active", "All Xanomeline", c("Xanomeline High Dose", "Xanomeline Low Dose"), list(), FALSE,
  "placebo_redux", "Double Placebo!!", c("Placebo"), list(), TRUE
)

lyt4 <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, combo_map_df = combodf2)
#> none of the combination levels appeared in the colspan treatment map; adding them automatically.

build_table(lyt4, adsl)
#>                        Active Study Agent                                                                                                                                                        Risk Differences                                                                                                   
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   All Xanomeline   Placebo   Double Placebo!!   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Placebo   All Xanomeline vs Placebo   Xanomeline High Dose vs Double Placebo!!   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Double Placebo!!   All Xanomeline vs Double Placebo!!
#> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

As we can see, this allows us full flexibility to include combination levels as both active and non-active virtual arms, including using them in both sides of comparisons (even simultaneously).

Direct Control Of Comparisons

Finally, we have complete control over which comparisons appear in our table via the comp_map argument. When non-null, the exact set of comparisons specified in comp_map will appear in our table.

comp_map accepts a data.frame with the columns active, and comparator, as well optional active_is_combo and comparator_is_combo columns. The values in active and comparator should be the names (as opposed to labels) of the respective arms:

comp_map1 <- tribble(
  ~active, ~comparator,
  "Xanomeline High Dose", "Placebo",
  "Xanomeline Low Dose", "placebo_redux",
  "all_active", "placebo_redux"
)


lyt5 <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, combo_map_df = combodf2, comp_map = comp_map1)
#> none of the combination levels appeared in the colspan treatment map; adding them automatically.

build_table(lyt5, adsl)
#>                        Active Study Agent                                                                                                    Risk Differences                                               
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   All Xanomeline   Placebo   Double Placebo!!   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Double Placebo!!   All Xanomeline vs Double Placebo!!
#> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

We can also use comp_map to compare one active treatment to another:

comp_map2 <- tribble(
  ~active, ~comparator,
  "Xanomeline High Dose", "Xanomeline Low Dose",
  "Xanomeline High Dose", "Placebo",
  "Xanomeline Low Dose", "Placebo"
)


lyt6 <- basic_table() |>
  grouped_cols_w_diffs(trt_map, comp_map = comp_map2)

build_table(lyt6, adsl)
#>                Active Study Agent                                                                        Risk Differences                                               
#>    Xanomeline High Dose   Xanomeline Low Dose   Placebo   Xanomeline High Dose vs Xanomeline Low Dose   Xanomeline High Dose vs Placebo   Xanomeline Low Dose vs Placebo
#> ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————