states = c(1,2,3,4) # e.g. if code 99 could mean either state 1, 2, 3 or 4
                         # defaults to all non-absorbing states
)</code></pre>
<p>Two common examples</p>
<ul>
<li><p>censored survival times when multi-state model includes death as a state. We know someone is alive at the end of the study, but we don’t know their clinical state at this time.</p></li>
<li><p>(as in the example here) time-dependent intensities that change at a common time. We know the value of the “time period”