

0.985 is the entropy when Humidity = “high” In this case, the number of values where humidity equals “high” is the same as the number of values where humidity equals “normal”. 7/14 represents the proportion of values where humidity equals “high” to the total number of humidity values.

For example, the information gain for the attribute, “Humidity” would be the following: We can then compute the information gain for each of the attributes individually.

Then, these values can be plugged into the entropy formula above.Įntropy (Tennis) = -(9/14) log2(9/14) – (5/14) log2 (5/14) = 0.94 This can be calculated by finding the proportion of days where “Play Tennis” is “Yes”, which is 9/14, and the proportion of days where “Play Tennis” is “No”, which is 5/14. When evaluating using Gini impurity, a lower value is more ideal.įor this dataset, the entropy is 0.94. Gini impurity measures how often a randomly chosen attribute is misclassified. This algorithm typically utilizes Gini impurity to identify the ideal attribute to split on. CART: The term, CART, is an abbreviation for “classification and regression trees” and was introduced by Leo Breiman. It can use information gain or gain ratios to evaluate split points within the decision trees. C4.5: This algorithm is considered a later iteration of ID3, which was also developed by Quinlan. Some of Quinlan’s research on this algorithm from 1986 can be found here (PDF, 1.4 MB) (link resides outside of ibm.com). ID3: Ross Quinlan is credited within the development of ID3, which is shorthand for “Iterative Dichotomiser 3.” This algorithm leverages entropy and information gain as metrics to evaluate candidate splits. Hunt’s algorithm, which was developed in the 1960s to model human learning in Psychology, forms the foundation of many popular decision tree algorithms, such as the following: Another way that decision trees can maintain their accuracy is by forming an ensemble via a random forest algorithm this classifier predicts more accurate results, particularly when the individual trees are uncorrelated with each other. The model’s fit can then be evaluated through the process of cross-validation. To reduce complexity and prevent overfitting, pruning is usually employed this is a process, which removes branches that split on features with low importance. As a result, decision trees have preference for small trees, which is consistent with the principle of parsimony in Occam’s Razor that is, “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” Said differently, decision trees should add complexity only if necessary, as the simplest explanation is often the best. When this occurs, it is known as data fragmentation, and it can often lead to overfitting. However, as a tree grows in size, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain this purity, and it usually results in too little data falling within a given subtree. Smaller trees are more easily able to attain pure leaf nodes-i.e. Whether or not all data points are classified as homogenous sets is largely dependent on the complexity of the decision tree. This process of splitting is then repeated in a top-down, recursive manner until all, or the majority of records have been classified under specific class labels. This type of flowchart structure also creates an easy to digest representation of decision-making, allowing different groups across an organization to better understand why a decision was made.ĭecision tree learning employs a divide and conquer strategy by conducting a greedy search to identify the optimal split points within a tree.
