Setting general options for streams

The general options are a set of miscellaneous options that apply to various aspects of the current stream.

The Basic section includes the following basic options:

Decimal symbol. Select either a comma (,) or a period (.) as a decimal separator.
Grouping symbol. For number display formats, select the symbol used to group values (for example, the comma in 3,000.00). Options include none, period, comma, space, and locale-defined (in which case the default for the current locale is used).
Encoding. Specify the stream default method for text encoding. (Note: Applies to Var. File source node and Flat File export node only. No other nodes use this setting; most data files have embedded encoding information.) You can choose either the system default or UTF-8. The system default is specified in the Windows Control Panel or, if running in distributed mode, on the server computer. See the topic Unicode Support in IBM SPSS Modeler for more information.
Ruleset Evaluation. Determines how rule set models are evaluated. By default, rule sets use Voting to combine predictions from individual rules and determine the final prediction. To ensure that rule sets use the first hit rule by default, select First Hit. Note that this option does not apply to Decision List models, which always use the first hit as defined by the algorithm.

Maximum number of rows to show in Data Preview. Specify the number of rows to be shown when a preview of the data is requested for a node. See the topic Previewing data in nodes for more information.

Maximum members for nominal fields. Select to specify a maximum number of members for nominal (set) fields after which the data type of the field becomes Typeless. This option is useful when working with large nominal fields. Note: When the measurement level of a field is set to Typeless, its role is automatically set to None. This means that the fields are not available for modeling.

Limit set size for Kohonen, and K-Means modeling. Select to specify a maximum number of members for nominal fields used in Kohonen nets and K-Means modeling. The default set size is 20, after which the field is ignored and a warning is raised, providing information on the field in question.

Note that, for compatibility, this option also applies to the old Neural Network node that was replaced in version 14 of IBM® SPSS® Modeler; some legacy streams may still contain this node.

Refresh source nodes on execution. Select to automatically refresh all source nodes when running the current stream. This action is analogous to clicking the Refresh button on a source node, except that this option automatically refreshes all source nodes (except User Input nodes) for the current stream.

Note: Selecting this option flushes the caches of downstream nodes even if the data has not changed. If you use the Run the current stream option from the toolbar, flushing occurs only once per running of the stream, though, which means that you can still use downstream caches as temporary storage for a single running. For example, say that you have set a cache midstream after a complex derive operation and that you have several graphs and reports attached downstream of this Derive node. When running the stream, the cache at the Derive node will be flushed and refilled but only for the first graph or report. Subsequent terminal nodes will read data from the Derive node cache. Note that if you choose to execute each terminal node individually (when you have more than one terminal node), instead of using the Run the current streamoption, cache flushing occurs every time you execute a terminal node.

Display field and value labels in output. Displays field and value labels in tables, charts, and other output. If labels do not exist, the field names and data values will be displayed instead. Labels are turned off by default; however, you can toggle labels on an individual basis elsewhere in IBM SPSS Modeler. You can also choose to display labels on the output window using a toggle button available on the toolbar.

Display execution times. Displays individual execution times for stream nodes on the Execution Times tab after the stream is run. See the topic Viewing node execution times for more information.

The Automatic Node Creation section includes the following options for creating nodes automatically in individual streams. These options control whether or not to insert the modeling nuggets onto the stream canvas when generating new nuggets. By default, these options only apply to streams created in version 16 or later. In IBM SPSS Modeler 16 or later, if you open a stream created in version 15 or earlier and execute a modeling node, the nugget will not be placed onto the stream canvas as it used to be in previous releases. If you create a new stream using IBM SPSS Modeler 16 or later and execute a modeling node, the nugget generated is placed onto the stream canvas. This is as designed because, for example, the Create model apply nodes for new model output option would likely break pre-16 streams that run in batch, in IBM SPSS Collaboration and Deployment Services, and in other environments where the IBM SPSS Modeler Server client user interface is not present.

Create model apply nodes for new model output. Automatically creates model apply nodes for the new model output. If you select this option, you can also choose from the Create model update links whether to set the links as enabled, disabled, or not to create them.
When a new model applier or source node is created, the link options in the drop-downs control whether the update links between the builder node and the new node are created and, if so, what mode they are in. If links are created, chances are you want them enabled, but these options provide the user with complete control.
Create source nodes from source builders. Automatically creates source nodes from the source builders. Similar to the previous option, if you select this option you can also choose from the Create source refresh links drop-down whether to set the refresh links as enabled, disabled, or not to create them.

Save As Default. The options specified apply only to the current stream. Click this button to set these options as the default for all streams.