varbin.factor {varbin}

varbin.factor

Description

Binning of categorical variable

Usage

varbin.factor(df, x, y, custom_vec=NA)

Arguments

df

A data frame

x

String. Name of factor variable in data frame.

y

String. Name of binary response variable (0,1) in data frame.

custom_vec

Character input vector with custom cutpoints. E.g. custom_vec=c("STUDENT", "UNEMP,RETIRED", "EMPLOYED") for a variable representing occupation, will result in the cutpoints ["STUDENT", "UNEMP,RETIRED", "EMPLOYED"]. NA results in default binning (no binning) i.e. the cutpoints ["STUDENT", "UNEMP", "RETIRED", "EMPLOYED"] corresponding to the levels of the factor variable.

Value

The command varbin generates a data frame with necessary info and utilities for binning. The user should save the output result so it can be used with e.g. varbin.plot, or varbin.convert.

Examples

# Set seed and generate data
set.seed(1337)
target <- as.numeric(runif(10000, 0, 1)<0.2)
age <- round(rnorm(10000, 40, 15), 0)
age[age<20] <- round(rnorm(sum(age<20), 40, 5), 0)
age[age>95] <- round(rnorm(sum(age>95), 40, 5), 0)
inc <- round(rnorm(10000, 100000, 10000), 0)
educ <- sample(c("MSC", "BSC", "SELF", "PHD", "OTHER"), 10000, replace=TRUE)
df <- data.frame(target=target, age=age, inc=inc, educ=educ)

# Perform unrestricted binning
result <- varbin.factor(df, "educ", "target")

# Perform custom binning
result2 <- varbin.factor(df, "educ", "target", custom_vec=c("MSC,BSC,PHD", "SELF", "OTHER"))