Converting categorical variables
Because sklearn
requires numerical features as inputs for models, it is important to encode categorical variables into numerical ones. The most common technique, called "one-hot encoding", is straightforward but has high memory consumption. To that end, you will use the technique of hashing, which maps categorical inputs into numerical ones, for each categorical column.
The pandas module is available as pd
in your workspace and the sample DataFrame is loaded as df
.
Cet exercice fait partie du cours
Predicting CTR with Machine Learning in Python
Instructions
- Select the categorical columns by filtering for data type.
- Apply a hash function over each of the categorical columns.
Exercice interactif pratique
Essayez cet exercice en complétant cet exemple de code.
# Get categorical columns
categorical_cols = df.____(
include = [____]).columns.tolist()
print("Categorical columns: ")
print(categorical_cols)
# Iterate over categorical columns and apply hash function
for col in ____:
df[col] = df[col].____(lambda x: ____(x))
# Print examples of new output
print(df.head(5))