Integrating categorical variables with multiobjective genetic programming for classifier construction

Abstract

Genetic programming (GP) has proved successful at evolving pattern classifiers and although the paradigm lends itself easily to continuous pattern attributes, incorporating categorical attributes is little studied. Here we construct two synthetic datasets specifically to investigate the use of categorical attributes in GP and consider two possible approaches: indicator variables and integer mapping. We conclude that for ordered attributes, integer mapping yields the lowest errors. For purely nominal attributes, indicator variables give the best misclassification errors. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.