one_hot_encoder

This library helps machine learning practicionnes to easily encode categorical variables when working with pandas datafames. Here are the added values of this library:

• The value returned by the get_dummies method is a pandas dataframe: The sklearn encoders return arrays.
• The get_dummies method ensures uniqueness of column names and returns clear column names so that it's easy to link the category to the column that represents it: That's not the case of the library category_encoders.
• Thanks to the fit method, you are always have the guarantee that test and train data have the same columns: Pandas get_dummies method has not a fit method, so if for example test data and train data has different categories for a certain column, you will get different columns.

To use it, run in your terminal:

pip install one_hot_encoder

If you want to develop and contribute, you are welcome. Here are the different steps to follow:

Create a virtualenv

mkvirtualenv virtualenv_name
workon virtualenv_name

# install dependencies
pip install -r requirements/dev.txt

Run tests

pytest

Use Case:

The use of this library is very easy. There are only two methods to use: fit and get_dummies.

from one_hot_encoder.encoder import Encoder

encoder = Encoder(prefix_sep='_', drop_first=False, dummy_na=False, verbose=0)
encoder.fit(train_data)

train_data_with_dummies = encoder.get_dummies(train_data)
test_data_with_dummies = encoder.get_dummies(test_data)

Here we suppose that train_data and test_data are pandas Dataframes. With those few lines. This library is very useful for production environments. As a matter of fact:

• You do not need to encode column by column: You encode all the columns you need just once.
• When predicting on one row, you cannot use the pandas method get_dummies because you will not get the same columns which make predictions impossible to do (unless you use some tricky manipulations).