topic Decision Tree Outcome = Yes in SAS Data Science

Decision Tree Outcome = Yes

LB3 — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 22:25:31 GMT

I'm using Enterprise Miner for the first time and am trying to create a Decision Tree that will select records that have the highest propensity to become a conversion of a prospect to a customer. If I have a binary Yes/No target variable and I want a decision tree to show me the variable values that point to a Yes decision, how do I modify the Decision Tree so that the model will ultimately select those records that are most likely to me a Yes. Since most of my training data is a No, the tree seems to favor the decisions that lead to No. Does that make sense? Let me know if you need any clarification.

Re: Decision Tree Outcome = Yes

DougWielenga — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:43:16 GMT

When you are fitting a Decision Tree model to a categorical outcome, the Tree will calculate probabilities for each possible outcome. You can change the level associated with the event by changing the sort order of the target variable but this will not yield a different model. You seem to be describing a rare event scenario where the event of interest happens far less frequently. There is another thread in this community re: your options in this scenario at

https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Data-Mining-and-Machine/A-Question-on-Modeling-Rare-Events-Data/m-p/374048#M5561

Hope this helps!

Doug