# Quick Start Guide: Optimal Feature Selection for Classification

In this example we will use optimal feature selection on the Mushroom dataset, where the goal is to distinguish poisonous from edible mushrooms.

First we load in the data and split into training and test datasets:

using CSV, DataFrames
pool=true,
header=[:target, :cap_shape, :cap_surface, :cap_color, :bruises, :odor,
:gill_attachment, :gill_spacing, :gill_size, :gill_color,
:stalk_shape, :stalk_root, :stalk_surface_above,
:stalk_surface_below, :stalk_color_above, :stalk_color_below,
:veil_type, :veil_color, :ring_number, :ring_type, :spore_color,
:population, :habitat],
)
8124×23 DataFrame
Row │ target  cap_shape  cap_surface  cap_color  bruises  odor    gill_attac ⋯
│ String  String     String       String     String   String  String     ⋯
──────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 │ p       x          s            n          t        p       f          ⋯
2 │ e       x          s            y          t        a       f
3 │ e       b          s            w          t        l       f
4 │ p       x          y            w          t        p       f
5 │ e       x          s            g          f        n       f          ⋯
6 │ e       x          y            y          t        a       f
7 │ e       b          s            w          t        a       f
8 │ e       b          y            w          t        l       f
⋮   │   ⋮         ⋮           ⋮           ⋮         ⋮       ⋮            ⋮   ⋱
8118 │ p       k          s            e          f        y       f          ⋯
8119 │ p       k          y            n          f        f       f
8120 │ e       k          s            n          f        n       a
8121 │ e       x          s            n          f        n       a
8122 │ e       f          s            n          f        n       a          ⋯
8123 │ p       k          y            n          f        y       f
8124 │ e       x          s            n          f        n       a
17 columns and 8109 rows omitted
X = df[:, 2:end]
y = df.target
(train_X, train_y), (test_X, test_y) = IAI.split_data(:classification, X, y,
seed=1)

### Model Fitting

We will use a GridSearch to fit an OptimalFeatureSelectionClassifier:

grid = IAI.GridSearch(
IAI.OptimalFeatureSelectionClassifier(
random_seed=1,
),
sparsity=1:10,
)
IAI.fit!(grid, train_X, train_y, validation_criterion=:auc)
All Grid Results:

Row │ sparsity  train_score  valid_score  rank_valid_score
│ Int64     Float64      Float64      Int64
─────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 │        1     0.530592     0.883816                10
2 │        2     0.666962     0.958933                 9
3 │        3     0.852881     0.97677                  8
4 │        4     0.886338     0.989837                 6
5 │        5     0.8786       0.989776                 7
6 │        6     0.918052     0.999586                 4
7 │        7     0.921551     0.999586                 5
8 │        8     0.930723     0.999783                 1
9 │        9     0.933428     0.999783                 2
10 │       10     0.933968     0.999755                 3

Best Params:
sparsity => 8

Best Model - Fitted OptimalFeatureSelectionClassifier:
Constant: -0.102149
Weights:
gill_color=b:           1.30099
gill_size=n:            2.15205
odor=a:                -3.56147
odor=f:                 2.41679
odor=l:                -3.57161
odor=n:                -3.58869
spore_color=r:          6.1136
stalk_surface_above=k:  1.56583
(Higher score indicates stronger prediction for class p)

The model selected a sparsity of 8 as the best parameter, but we observe that the validation scores are close for many of the parameters. We can use the results of the grid search to explore the tradeoff between the complexity of the regression and the quality of predictions:

using Plots
plot(grid, type=:validation)

We see that the quality of the model quickly increases with as features are adding, reaching AUC 0.98 with 3 features. After this, additional features increase the quality more slowly, eventually reaching AUC close to 1 with 6 features. Depending on the application, we might decide to choose a lower sparsity for the final model than the value chosen by the grid search.

We can see the relative importance of the selected features with variable_importance:

IAI.variable_importance(IAI.get_learner(grid))
112×2 DataFrame
Row │ Feature                Importance
│ Symbol                 Float64
─────┼───────────────────────────────────
1 │ odor=n                  0.247412
2 │ odor=f                  0.148001
3 │ gill_size=n             0.138891
4 │ odor=l                  0.109303
5 │ odor=a                  0.105547
6 │ stalk_surface_above=k   0.0986795
7 │ spore_color=r           0.0778057
8 │ gill_color=b            0.0743607
⋮  │           ⋮                ⋮
106 │ stalk_surface_below=s   0.0
107 │ stalk_surface_below=y   0.0
108 │ veil_color=n            0.0
109 │ veil_color=o            0.0
110 │ veil_color=w            0.0
111 │ veil_color=y            0.0
112 │ veil_type=p             0.0
97 rows omitted

We can also look at the feature importance across all sparsity levels:

plot(grid, type=:importance)

We can make predictions on new data using predict:

IAI.predict(grid, test_X)
2437-element Vector{String}:
"e"
"e"
"e"
"e"
"e"
"e"
"e"
"p"
"e"
"e"
⋮
"e"
"p"
"e"
"e"
"p"
"p"
"p"
"p"
"e"

We can evaluate the quality of the model using score with any of the supported loss functions. For example, the misclassification on the training set:

IAI.score(grid, train_X, train_y, criterion=:misclassification)
0.9982416036574644

Or the AUC on the test set:

IAI.score(grid, test_X, test_y, criterion=:auc)
0.9997835249688102

We can plot the ROC curve on the test set as an interactive visualization:

roc = IAI.ROCCurve(grid, test_X, test_y, positive_label="p")
ROC

We can also plot the same ROC curve as a static image:

plot(roc)