Class CheckAssociator

  • All Implemented Interfaces:
    OptionHandler, RevisionHandler

    public class CheckAssociator
    extends CheckScheme
    implements RevisionHandler
    Class for examining the capabilities and finding problems with associators. If you implement an associators using the WEKA.libraries, you should run the checks on it to ensure robustness and correct operation. Passing all the tests of this object does not mean bugs in the associators don't exist, but this will help find some common ones.

    Typical usage:

    java weka.associations.CheckAssociator -W associator_name -- associator_options

    CheckAssociator reports on the following:

    • Associator abilities
      • Possible command line options to the associators
      • Whether the associators can predict nominal, numeric, string, date or relational class attributes.
      • Whether the associators can handle numeric predictor attributes
      • Whether the associators can handle nominal predictor attributes
      • Whether the associators can handle string predictor attributes
      • Whether the associators can handle date predictor attributes
      • Whether the associators can handle relational predictor attributes
      • Whether the associators can handle multi-instance data
      • Whether the associators can handle missing predictor values
      • Whether the associators can handle missing class values
      • Whether a nominal associators only handles 2 class problems
      • Whether the associators can handle instance weights
    • Correct functioning
      • Correct initialisation during buildAssociations (i.e. no result changes when buildAssociations called repeatedly)
      • Whether the associators alters the data pased to it (number of instances, instance order, instance weights, etc)
    • Degenerate cases
      • building associators with zero training instances
      • all but one predictor attribute values missing
      • all predictor attribute values missing
      • all but one class values missing
      • all class values missing
    Running CheckAssociator with the debug option set will output the training dataset for any failed tests.

    The weka.associations.AbstractAssociatorTest uses this class to test all the associators. Any changes here, have to be checked in that abstract test class, too.

    Valid options are:

     -D
      Turn on debugging output.
     -S
      Silent mode - prints nothing to stdout.
     -N <num>
      The number of instances in the datasets (default 20).
     -nominal <num>
      The number of nominal attributes (default 2).
     -nominal-values <num>
      The number of values for nominal attributes (default 1).
     -numeric <num>
      The number of numeric attributes (default 1).
     -string <num>
      The number of string attributes (default 1).
     -date <num>
      The number of date attributes (default 1).
     -relational <num>
      The number of relational attributes (default 1).
     -num-instances-relational <num>
      The number of instances in relational/bag attributes (default 10).
     -words <comma-separated-list>
      The words to use in string attributes.
     -word-separators <chars>
      The word separators to use in string attributes.
     -W
      Full name of the associator analysed.
      eg: weka.associations.Apriori
      (default weka.associations.Apriori)
     
     Options specific to associator weka.associations.Apriori:
     
     -N <required number of rules output>
      The required number of rules. (default = 10)
     -T <0=confidence | 1=lift | 2=leverage | 3=Conviction>
      The metric type by which to rank rules. (default = confidence)
     -C <minimum metric score of a rule>
      The minimum confidence of a rule. (default = 0.9)
     -D <delta for minimum support>
      The delta by which the minimum support is decreased in
      each iteration. (default = 0.05)
     -U <upper bound for minimum support>
      Upper bound for minimum support. (default = 1.0)
     -M <lower bound for minimum support>
      The lower bound for the minimum support. (default = 0.1)
     -S <significance level>
      If used, rules are tested for significance at
      the given level. Slower. (default = no significance testing)
     -I
      If set the itemsets found are also output. (default = no)
     -R
      Remove columns that contain all missing values (default = no)
     -V
      Report progress iteratively. (default = no)
     -A
      If set class association rules are mined. (default = no)
     -c <the class index>
      The class index. (default = last)
    Options after -- are passed to the designated associator.

    Version:
    $Revision: 1.7 $
    Author:
    Len Trigg (trigg@cs.waikato.ac.nz), FracPete (fracpete at waikato dot ac dot nz)
    See Also:
    TestInstances
    • Constructor Detail

      • CheckAssociator

        public CheckAssociator()
    • Method Detail

      • listOptions

        public java.util.Enumeration listOptions()
        Returns an enumeration describing the available options.
        Specified by:
        listOptions in interface OptionHandler
        Overrides:
        listOptions in class CheckScheme
        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:

         -D
          Turn on debugging output.
         -S
          Silent mode - prints nothing to stdout.
         -N <num>
          The number of instances in the datasets (default 20).
         -nominal <num>
          The number of nominal attributes (default 2).
         -nominal-values <num>
          The number of values for nominal attributes (default 1).
         -numeric <num>
          The number of numeric attributes (default 1).
         -string <num>
          The number of string attributes (default 1).
         -date <num>
          The number of date attributes (default 1).
         -relational <num>
          The number of relational attributes (default 1).
         -num-instances-relational <num>
          The number of instances in relational/bag attributes (default 10).
         -words <comma-separated-list>
          The words to use in string attributes.
         -word-separators <chars>
          The word separators to use in string attributes.
         -W
          Full name of the associator analysed.
          eg: weka.associations.Apriori
          (default weka.associations.Apriori)
         
         Options specific to associator weka.associations.Apriori:
         
         -N <required number of rules output>
          The required number of rules. (default = 10)
         -T <0=confidence | 1=lift | 2=leverage | 3=Conviction>
          The metric type by which to rank rules. (default = confidence)
         -C <minimum metric score of a rule>
          The minimum confidence of a rule. (default = 0.9)
         -D <delta for minimum support>
          The delta by which the minimum support is decreased in
          each iteration. (default = 0.05)
         -U <upper bound for minimum support>
          Upper bound for minimum support. (default = 1.0)
         -M <lower bound for minimum support>
          The lower bound for the minimum support. (default = 0.1)
         -S <significance level>
          If used, rules are tested for significance at
          the given level. Slower. (default = no significance testing)
         -I
          If set the itemsets found are also output. (default = no)
         -R
          Remove columns that contain all missing values (default = no)
         -V
          Report progress iteratively. (default = no)
         -A
          If set class association rules are mined. (default = no)
         -c <the class index>
          The class index. (default = last)
        Specified by:
        setOptions in interface OptionHandler
        Overrides:
        setOptions in class CheckScheme
        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 CheckAssociator.
        Specified by:
        getOptions in interface OptionHandler
        Overrides:
        getOptions in class CheckScheme
        Returns:
        an array of strings suitable for passing to setOptions
      • doTests

        public void doTests()
        Begin the tests, reporting results to System.out
        Specified by:
        doTests in class CheckScheme
      • setAssociator

        public void setAssociator​(Associator newAssociator)
        Set the associator to test.
        Parameters:
        newAssociator - the Associator to use.
      • getAssociator

        public Associator getAssociator()
        Get the associator being tested
        Returns:
        the associator being tested
      • getRevision

        public java.lang.String getRevision()
        Returns the revision string.
        Specified by:
        getRevision in interface RevisionHandler
        Returns:
        the revision
      • main

        public static void main​(java.lang.String[] args)
        Test method for this class
        Parameters:
        args - the commandline parameters