16  Factorial Variables

Until now, we have considered continuous variables. However, in many applications, the variables are not continuous, but rather discrete or categorical. For example, the number of layers in a neural network, the number of trees in a random forest, or the type of kernel in a support vector machine are all discrete variables. In the following, we will consider a simple example with two numerical variables and one categorical variable.

from spotpython.design.spacefilling import SpaceFilling
from spotpython.build.kriging import Kriging
from spotpython.fun.objectivefunctions import Analytical
import numpy as np

First, we generate the test data set for fitting the Kriging model. We use the SpaceFilling class to generate the first two diemnsion of \(n=30\) design points. The third dimension is a categorical variable, which can take the values \(0\), \(1\), or \(2\).

gen = SpaceFilling(2)
n = 30
rng = np.random.RandomState(1)
lower = np.array([-5,-0])
upper = np.array([10,15])
fun_orig = Analytical().fun_branin
fun = Analytical().fun_branin_factor

X0 = gen.scipy_lhd(n, lower=lower, upper = upper)
X1 = np.random.randint(low=0, high=3, size=(n,))
X = np.c_[X0, X1]
print(X[:5,:])
[[-2.84117593  5.97308949  1.        ]
 [-3.61017994  6.90781409  2.        ]
 [ 9.91204705  5.09395275  2.        ]
 [-4.4616725   1.3617128   1.        ]
 [-2.40987728  8.05505365  0.        ]]

The objective function is the fun_branin_factor in the analytical class [SOURCE]. It calculates the Branin function of \((x_1, x_2)\) with an additional factor based on the value of \(x_3\). If \(x_3 = 1\), the value of the Branin function is increased by 10. If \(x_3 = 2\), the value of the Branin function is decreased by 10. Otherwise, the value of the Branin function is not changed.

y = fun(X)
y_orig = fun_orig(X0)
data = np.c_[X, y_orig, y]
print(data[:5,:])
[[ -2.84117593   5.97308949   1.          32.09388125  42.09388125]
 [ -3.61017994   6.90781409   2.          43.965223    33.965223  ]
 [  9.91204705   5.09395275   2.           6.25588575  -3.74411425]
 [ -4.4616725    1.3617128    1.         212.41884106 222.41884106]
 [ -2.40987728   8.05505365   0.           9.25981051   9.25981051]]

We fit two Kriging models, one with three numerical variables and one with two numerical variables and one categorical variable. We then compare the predictions of the two models.

S = Kriging(name='kriging',  seed=123, log_level=50, n_theta=3, noise=False, var_type=["num", "num", "num"])
S.fit(X, y)
Sf = Kriging(name='kriging',  seed=123, log_level=50, n_theta=3, noise=False, var_type=["num", "num", "factor"])
Sf.fit(X, y)

We can now compare the predictions of the two models. We generate a new test data set and calculate the sum of the absolute differences between the predictions of the two models and the true values of the objective function. If the categorical variable is important, the sum of the absolute differences should be smaller than if the categorical variable is not important.

n = 100
k = 100
y_true = np.zeros(n*k)
y_pred= np.zeros(n*k)
y_factor_pred= np.zeros(n*k)
for i in range(k):
  X0 = gen.scipy_lhd(n, lower=lower, upper = upper)
  X1 = np.random.randint(low=0, high=3, size=(n,))
  X = np.c_[X0, X1]
  a = i*n
  b = (i+1)*n
  y_true[a:b] = fun(X)
  y_pred[a:b] = S.predict(X)
  y_factor_pred[a:b] = Sf.predict(X)
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({"y":y_true, "Prediction":y_pred, "Prediction_factor":y_factor_pred})
df.head()
y Prediction Prediction_factor
0 -3.315251 7.957527 1.802812
1 95.865258 96.843412 96.007256
2 39.811774 42.131252 39.989527
3 -1.822850 -5.931912 -4.010864
4 0.968377 2.042777 0.691470 
df.tail()
y Prediction Prediction_factor
9995 93.620503 94.349635 93.683482
9996 86.187178 86.185671 86.112915
9997 29.494401 29.861521 30.005196
9998 15.390268 5.551371 0.541706
9999 36.261264 33.957481 35.280226 
s=np.sum(np.abs(y_pred - y_true))
sf=np.sum(np.abs(y_factor_pred - y_true))
res = (sf - s)
print(res)
-32451.530579698458
from spotpython.plot.validation import plot_actual_vs_predicted
plot_actual_vs_predicted(y_test=df["y"], y_pred=df["Prediction"], title="Default")
plot_actual_vs_predicted(y_test=df["y"], y_pred=df["Prediction_factor"], title="Factor")

16.1 Jupyter Notebook

Note