CARMA Node Fields Options

Before executing a CARMA node, you must specify input fields on the Fields tab of the CARMA node. While most modeling nodes share identical Fields tab options, the CARMA node contains several unique options. All options are discussed below.

Use Type node settings. This option tells the node to use field information from an upstream type node. This is the default.

Use custom settings. This option tells the node to use field information specified here instead of that given in any upstream Type node(s). After selecting this option, specify fields below according to whether you are reading data in transactional or tabular format.

Use transactional format. This option changes the field controls in the rest of this dialog box depending on whether your data are in transactional or tabular format. If you use multiple fields with transactional data, the items specified in these fields for a particular record are assumed to represent items found in a single transaction with a single timestamp. See the topic Tabular versus Transactional Data for more information.

Tabular data

If Use transactional format is not selected, the following fields are displayed.

• Inputs. Select the input field or fields. This is similar to setting the field role to Input in a Type node.

• Partition. This field allows you to specify a field used to partition the data into separate samples for the training, testing, and validation stages of model building. By using one sample to generate the model and a different sample to test it, you can get a good indication of how well the model will generalize to larger datasets that are similar to the current data. If multiple partition fields have been defined by using Type or Partition nodes, a single partition field must be selected on the Fields tab in each modeling node that uses partitioning. (If only one partition is present, it is automatically used whenever partitioning is enabled.) Also note that to apply the selected partition in your analysis, partitioning must also be enabled in the Model Options tab for the node. (Deselecting this option makes it possible to disable partitioning without changing field settings.)

Transactional data

If you select Use transactional format, the following fields are displayed.

• ID. For transactional data, select an ID field from the list. Numeric or symbolic fields can be used as the ID field. Each unique value of this field should indicate a specific unit of analysis. For example, in a market basket application, each ID might represent a single customer. For a Web log analysis application, each ID might represent a computer (by IP address) or a user (by login data).

• IDs are contiguous. (Apriori and CARMA nodes only) If your data are presorted so that all records with the same ID are grouped together in the data stream, select this option to speed up processing. If your data are not presorted (or you are not sure), leave this option unselected and the node will sort the data automatically.
  Note: If your data are not sorted and you select this option, you may get invalid results in your model.
• Content. Specify the content field(s) for the model. These fields contain the items of interest in association modeling. You can specify multiple flag fields (if data are in tabular format) or a single nominal field (if data are in transactional format).