Issue 286: Allow family to be set to a string (#297)

* Clean up merge conflict

* Fix bug with epdist_prior accepting family as string

* Correction to string test

* Lint package

R/prior.R

@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 #' @export
 epidist_prior <- function(data, family, formula, prior) {
   epidist_validate(data)
+  family <- brms:::validate_family(family)
   class(family) <- c(class(family), family$family)
   default <- brms::default_prior(formula, data = data)
   model <- epidist_model_prior(data, formula)

tests/testthat/test-int-latent_individual.R

@@ -97,6 +97,25 @@ test_that("epidist.epidist_latent_individual fit and the MCMC converges when set
   expect_convergence(fit_constant)
 })
 
+test_that("epidist.epidist_latent_individual Stan code has no syntax errors and compiles with lognormal family as a string", { # nolint: line_length_linter.
+  # Note: this test is stochastic. See note at the top of this script
+  skip_on_cran()
+  set.seed(1)
+  stancode_string <- epidist(
+    data = prep_obs,
+    family = "lognormal",
+    seed = 1,
+    silent = 2,
+    output_dir = fs::dir_create(tempfile()),
+    fn = brms::make_stancode
+  )
+  mod_string <- cmdstanr::cmdstan_model(
+    stan_file = cmdstanr::write_stan_file(stancode_string), compile = FALSE
+  )
+  expect_true(mod_string$check_syntax())
+  expect_no_error(mod_string$compile())
+})
+
 test_that("epidist.epidist_latent_individual recovers the simulation settings for the delay distribution in the default case", { # nolint: line_length_linter.
   # Note: this test is stochastic. See note at the top of this script
   skip_on_cran()