topic Categorical inputs and standardisation in Neural Networks in SAS Academy for Data Science

Categorical inputs and standardisation in Neural Networks

pvareschi — Tue, 12 May 2020 05:14:40 GMT

Re: Applied Analytics Using SAS Enterprise Miner

1. Are categorical inputs represented as dummy indicator variables in a Neural Network (Chapter 5 of course notes)? If so, are those indicators standardised based on the setting of property "Network -> Input Standardisation" (see page 5-8 of course notes)?

2. In what scenarios would it make sense to use the other options in property "Input Standardization" (i.e. Range and MidRange)? (see page 5-8 of course notes)

Re: Categorical inputs and standardisation in Neural Networks

gcjfernandez — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 03:02:05 GMT

Unfortunately the answer is not simple. It depends on the complexity of the data, type of neural network structure and the type of activation function etc, My recommendation is do a simple experiment with the your data with different standardization methods and determine which method is appropriate. Build a standard process flow diagram with this comparison (comparing different standardization) in SAS EM and routinely run this as a preliminary step before developing your NN.