Decision trees with categorical variables support

• The ID3 algorithm creates a decision tree, finding for each node the feature that will yield the largest information gain for categorical targets. However, scikit-learn implementation of this algorithm does not support categorical variables.
• A random forest is an ensemble learning method for classification that operates by constructing a multitude of decision trees at training time and outputting the class that is the mode of the classes of the individual trees.

Quick start

If you just want to quickly build and test a random forest on your CSV dataset containing categorical variables, you can run the main.py script. It can be used with the following parameters:

• -d Path of the CSV dataset
• -l The name of the label attribute
• -od Path of the directory where the results will be saved
• -tf The fraction of records reserved for the training dataset (the fraction of records reserved for the test dataset will be set accordingly)
• -nt Number of tree to be trained
• -f Number of features to consider when looking for the best split

For example, to predict the price in the Car Evaluation dataset:

python main.py --dataset=car.data --label=price

Docs

The classifiers.py file contains the main functions:

• random_forest(dataset, n_of_trees, max_features)

  Return a list of decision trees, built using random samples of the dataset.

  Arguments:

  • dataset: Dataset used to train the classifier.
  • n_of_trees: Number of trees that have to be trained.
  • max_features: Number of features to consider when looking for the best split.

• ID3(dataset, max_features)

  Return a list of decision trees, built using random samples of the dataset.

  Arguments:

  • dataset: Dataset used to train the classifier.
  • max_features: Number of features to consider when looking for the best split.

• random_forest_classify(forest, dataset)

  Return the target value that the random forest associates to the given instance.

  Arguments:

  • forest: Random forest that determines which target is associated to the instance
  • dataset: Dataset used to train the classifier.

• id3_classify(forest, dataset)

  Return the target value that the decision tree associates to the given instance.

  Arguments:

  • decision_tree: Decision tree that determines which target is associated to the instance
  • dataset: Dataset used to train the classifier.