weka.filters.supervised.attribute
Class NominalToBinary

java.lang.Object
  extended by weka.filters.Filter
      extended by weka.filters.supervised.attribute.NominalToBinary
All Implemented Interfaces:
java.io.Serializable, CapabilitiesHandler, OptionHandler, RevisionHandler, TechnicalInformationHandler, SupervisedFilter

public class NominalToBinary
extends Filter
implements SupervisedFilter, OptionHandler, TechnicalInformationHandler

Converts all nominal attributes into binary numeric attributes. An attribute with k values is transformed into k binary attributes if the class is nominal (using the one-attribute-per-value approach). Binary attributes are left binary, if option '-A' is not given.If the class is numeric, k - 1 new binary attributes are generated in the manner described in "Classification and Regression Trees" by Breiman et al. (i.e. taking the average class value associated with each attribute value into account)

For more information, see:

L. Breiman, J.H. Friedman, R.A. Olshen, C.J. Stone (1984). Classification and Regression Trees. Wadsworth Inc.

BibTeX:

 @book{Breiman1984,
    author = {L. Breiman and J.H. Friedman and R.A. Olshen and C.J. Stone},
    publisher = {Wadsworth Inc},
    title = {Classification and Regression Trees},
    year = {1984},
    ISBN = {0412048418}
 }
 

Valid options are:

 -N
  Sets if binary attributes are to be coded as nominal ones.
 -A
  For each nominal value a new attribute is created, 
  not only if there are more than 2 values.

Version:
$Revision: 5541 $
Author:
Eibe Frank (eibe@cs.waikato.ac.nz)
See Also:
Serialized Form

Constructor Summary
NominalToBinary()
           
 
Method Summary
 boolean batchFinished()
          Signify that this batch of input to the filter is finished.
 java.lang.String binaryAttributesNominalTipText()
          Returns the tip text for this property
 boolean getBinaryAttributesNominal()
          Gets if binary attributes are to be treated as nominal ones.
 Capabilities getCapabilities()
          Returns the Capabilities of this filter.
 java.lang.String[] getOptions()
          Gets the current settings of the filter.
 java.lang.String getRevision()
          Returns the revision string.
 TechnicalInformation getTechnicalInformation()
          Returns an instance of a TechnicalInformation object, containing detailed information about the technical background of this class, e.g., paper reference or book this class is based on.
 boolean getTransformAllValues()
          Gets if all nominal values are turned into new attributes, not only if there are more than 2.
 java.lang.String globalInfo()
          Returns a string describing this filter
 boolean input(Instance instance)
          Input an instance for filtering.
 java.util.Enumeration listOptions()
          Returns an enumeration describing the available options.
static void main(java.lang.String[] argv)
          Main method for testing this class.
 void setBinaryAttributesNominal(boolean bool)
          Sets if binary attributes are to be treates as nominal ones.
 boolean setInputFormat(Instances instanceInfo)
          Sets the format of the input instances.
 void setOptions(java.lang.String[] options)
          Parses a given list of options.
 void setTransformAllValues(boolean bool)
          Sets whether all nominal values are transformed into new attributes, not just if there are more than 2.
 java.lang.String transformAllValuesTipText()
          Returns the tip text for this property
 
Methods inherited from class weka.filters.Filter
batchFilterFile, filterFile, getCapabilities, getOutputFormat, isFirstBatchDone, isNewBatch, isOutputFormatDefined, makeCopies, makeCopy, numPendingOutput, output, outputPeek, toString, useFilter, wekaStaticWrapper
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

NominalToBinary

public NominalToBinary()
Method Detail

globalInfo

public java.lang.String globalInfo()
Returns a string describing this filter

Returns:
a description of the filter suitable for displaying in the explorer/experimenter gui

getTechnicalInformation

public TechnicalInformation getTechnicalInformation()
Returns an instance of a TechnicalInformation object, containing detailed information about the technical background of this class, e.g., paper reference or book this class is based on.

Specified by:
getTechnicalInformation in interface TechnicalInformationHandler
Returns:
the technical information about this class

getCapabilities

public Capabilities getCapabilities()
Returns the Capabilities of this filter.

Specified by:
getCapabilities in interface CapabilitiesHandler
Overrides:
getCapabilities in class Filter
Returns:
the capabilities of this object
See Also:
Capabilities

setInputFormat

public boolean setInputFormat(Instances instanceInfo)
                       throws java.lang.Exception
Sets the format of the input instances.

Overrides:
setInputFormat in class Filter
Parameters:
instanceInfo - an Instances object containing the input instance structure (any instances contained in the object are ignored - only the structure is required).
Returns:
true if the outputFormat may be collected immediately
Throws:
java.lang.Exception - if the input format can't be set successfully

input

public boolean input(Instance instance)
Input an instance for filtering. Filter requires all training instances be read before producing output.

Overrides:
input in class Filter
Parameters:
instance - the input instance
Returns:
true if the filtered instance may now be collected with output().
Throws:
java.lang.IllegalStateException - if no input format has been set

batchFinished

public boolean batchFinished()
Signify that this batch of input to the filter is finished. If the filter requires all instances prior to filtering, output() may now be called to retrieve the filtered instances.

Overrides:
batchFinished in class Filter
Returns:
true if there are instances pending output
Throws:
java.lang.IllegalStateException - if no input structure has been defined

listOptions

public java.util.Enumeration listOptions()
Returns an enumeration describing the available options.

Specified by:
listOptions in interface OptionHandler
Returns:
an enumeration of all the available options.

setOptions

public void setOptions(java.lang.String[] options)
                throws java.lang.Exception
Parses a given list of options.

Valid options are:

 -N
  Sets if binary attributes are to be coded as nominal ones.
 -A
  For each nominal value a new attribute is created, 
  not only if there are more than 2 values.

Specified by:
setOptions in interface OptionHandler
Parameters:
options - the list of options as an array of strings
Throws:
java.lang.Exception - if an option is not supported

getOptions

public java.lang.String[] getOptions()
Gets the current settings of the filter.

Specified by:
getOptions in interface OptionHandler
Returns:
an array of strings suitable for passing to setOptions

binaryAttributesNominalTipText

public java.lang.String binaryAttributesNominalTipText()
Returns the tip text for this property

Returns:
tip text for this property suitable for displaying in the explorer/experimenter gui

getBinaryAttributesNominal

public boolean getBinaryAttributesNominal()
Gets if binary attributes are to be treated as nominal ones.

Returns:
true if binary attributes are to be treated as nominal ones

setBinaryAttributesNominal

public void setBinaryAttributesNominal(boolean bool)
Sets if binary attributes are to be treates as nominal ones.

Parameters:
bool - true if binary attributes are to be treated as nominal ones

transformAllValuesTipText

public java.lang.String transformAllValuesTipText()
Returns the tip text for this property

Returns:
tip text for this property suitable for displaying in the explorer/experimenter gui

getTransformAllValues

public boolean getTransformAllValues()
Gets if all nominal values are turned into new attributes, not only if there are more than 2.

Returns:
true all nominal values are transformed into new attributes

setTransformAllValues

public void setTransformAllValues(boolean bool)
Sets whether all nominal values are transformed into new attributes, not just if there are more than 2.

Parameters:
bool - true if all nominal value are transformed into new attributes

getRevision

public java.lang.String getRevision()
Returns the revision string.

Specified by:
getRevision in interface RevisionHandler
Overrides:
getRevision in class Filter
Returns:
the revision

main

public static void main(java.lang.String[] argv)
Main method for testing this class.

Parameters:
argv - should contain arguments to the filter: use -h for help