encoding categorical variable
Encoding categorical variables: one-hot and beyond
R has "one-hot" encoding hidden in most of its modeling paths. Asking an R user where one-hot encoding is used is like asking a fish where there is water; they can't point to it as it is everywhere. Much of the encoding in R is essentially based on "contrasts" implemented in stats::model.matrix() Note: do not use base::data.matrix() The above mal-coding can be a critical flaw when you are building a model and then later using the model on new data (be it cross-validation data, test data, or future application data). Many R users are not familiar with the above issue as encoding is hidden in model training, and how to encode new data is stored as part of the model.
Encoding categorical variables: one-hot and beyond
R has "one-hot" encoding hidden in most of its modeling paths. Asking an R user where one-hot encoding is used is like asking a fish where there is water; they can't point to it as it is everywhere. Much of the encoding in R is essentially based on "contrasts" implemented in stats::model.matrix() Note: do not use base::data.matrix() The above mal-coding can be a critical flaw when you are building a model and then later using the model on new data (be it cross-validation data, test data, or future application data).