Distributed Uplift Random Forest (Uplift DRF)¶

Introduction¶

Distributed Uplift Random Forest (Uplift DRF) is a classification tool for modeling uplift - the incremental impact of a treatment. Only binomial classification (distribution="bernoulli") is currently supported.

Uplift DRF can be applied in fields where we operate with two groups of subjects. First group, let’s call it treatment, receive some kind of treatment (e.g. marketing campaign, medicine,…), and a second group, let’s call it control, is separated from the treatment. We also gather information about their response, whether they bought a product, recover from disease, or similar. Then, Uplift DRF trains so-called uplift trees. Uplift trees take information about treatment/control group assignment and information about response directly into a decision about splitting a node. The output of the uplift model is the probability of change in user behavior which helps to decide if treatment impacts the desired behavior (e.g. buy a product, recover from disease,…). In other words, if a user responds because the user was treated. This leads to proper campaign targeting on a subject that genuinely needs to be treated and avoids wasting resources on subjects that respond/do not respond anyway.

The current version of Uplift DRF is based on the implementation of DRF because the principle of training is similar to DRF. When given a set of data, Uplift DRF generates a forest of classification uplift trees, rather than a single classification tree. Each of these trees is a weak learner built on a subset of rows and columns. More trees will reduce the variance. Classification take the average prediction over all of their trees to make a final prediction. (Note: For a categorical response column, Uplift DRF maps factors (e.g. ‘dog’, ‘cat’, ‘mouse) in lexicographic order to a name lookup array with integer indices (e.g. ‘cat -> 0, ‘dog’ -> 1, ‘mouse’ -> 2.)

Uplift DRF demo¶

Here is a Jupyter notebook where H2O Uplift DRF is compared to implementation Uplift RF from CausalML library.

Uplift metric¶

In Uplift Tree-based algorithms, every tree takes information about treatment/control group assignment and information about response directly into the decision about splitting a node. This means there is only one tree for both groups instead of separate trees for the treatment group’s data and the control group’s data.

Uplift DRF differentiates itself from DRF because it finds the best split using both response_column and treatment_column. The goal is to split the training observations into a group which gets an offer (i.e. treatment group) and a group which does not (i.e. control group). This information (treatment_column) with features and response_column are used for training. The uplift_metric is calculated to decide which point from the histogram is selected to split the data in the tree node (instead of calculation squared error or Gini coefficient like in other tree algorithms).

The goal is to maximize the differences between the class distributions in the treatment and control sets, so the splitting criteria are based on distribution divergences. The distribution divergence is calculated based on the uplift_metric parameter. In H2O-3, three uplift_metric types are supported:

Kullback-Leibler divergence (uplift_metric="KL") - uses logarithms to calculate divergence, asymmetric, widely used, tends to infinity values (if treatment or control group distributions contain zero values). \(KL(P, Q) = \sum_{i=0}^{N} p_i \log{\frac{p_i}{q_i}}\)
Squared Euclidean distance (uplift_metric="euclidean") - symmetric and stable distribution, does not tend to infinity values. \(E(P, Q) = \sum_{i=0}^{N} \sqrt{p_i-q_i}\)
Chi-squared divergence (uplift_metric="chi_squared") - Euclidean divergence normalized by control group distribution. Asymmetric and also tends to infinity values (if control group distribution contains zero values). \(\sqrt{X}(P, Q) = \sum_{i=0}^{N} \frac{\sqrt{p_i-q_i}}{q_i}\)

where:

\(P\) is treatment group distribution
\(Q\) is control group distribution

In a tree node the result value for a split is sum \(metric(P, Q) + metric(1-P, 1-Q)\). For the split gain value, the result within the node is normalized using the Gini coefficient (Euclidean or ChiSquared) or entropy (KL) for each distribution before and after the split.

You can read more information about uplift_metric on parameter specification page: uplift_metric.

Uplift tree and prediction¶

The uplift score is used as prediction of the leaf. Every leaf in a tree holds two predictions that are calculated based on a distribution of response between treatment and control group observations:

\(TP_l = (TY1_l + 1) / (T_l + 2)\)
\(CP_l = (CY1_l + 1) / (C_l + 2)\)

where:

\(l\) leaf of a tree
\(T_cl\) how many observations in a leaf are from the treatment group (how many data rows in a leaf have treatment_column label == 1)
\(C_cl\) how many observations in a leaf are from the control group (how many data rows in the leaf have treatment_column label == 0)
\(TY1_cl\) how many observations in a leaf are from the treatment group and respond to the offer (how many data rows in the leaf have treatment_column label == 1 and response_column label == 1)
\(CY1_cl\) how many observations in a leaf are from the control group and respond to the offer (how many data rows in the leaf have treatment_column label == 0 and response_column label == 1)
\(TP_cl\) treatment prediction of a leaf
\(CP_cl\) control prediction of a leaf

The uplift score for the leaf is calculated as the difference between the treatment prediction and the control prediction:

\[uplift_score_cl = TP_cl - CP_cl\]

A higher uplift score means more observations from the treatment group responded to the offer than from the control group. This means the offered treatment has a positive effect. The uplift score can also be negative if more observations from the control group respond to the offer without treatment.

The final prediction is calculated in the same way as the DRF algorithm. Predictions for each observation are collected from all trees from an ensemble and the mean prediction is returned.

When the predict method is called on the test data, the result frame has these columns:

uplift_predict: result uplift prediction score, which is calculated as \(p_y1_ct1 - p_y1_ct0\)
p_y1_ct1: probability the response is 1 if the row is from the treatment group
p_y1_ct0: probability the response is 1 if the row is from the control group

Extremely Randomized Trees¶

The same goes for Uplift DRF as does for random forests: a random subset of candidate features is used to determine the most discriminative thresholds that are picked as the splitting rule. In extremely randomized trees (XRT), randomness goes one step further in the way that splits are computed. As in random forests, a random subset of candidate features is used, but instead of looking for the most discriminative thresholds, thresholds are drawn at random for each candidate feature, and the best of these randomly generated thresholds is picked as the splitting rule. This usually allows to reduce the variance of the model a bit more, at the expense of a slightly greater increase in bias.

H2O supports extremely randomized trees (XRT) via histogram_type="Random". When this is specified, the algorithm will sample N-1 points from min…max and use the sorted list of those to find the best split. The cut points are random rather than uniform. For example, to generate 4 bins for some feature ranging from 0-100, 3 random numbers would be generated in this range (13.2, 89.12, 45.0). The sorted list of these random numbers forms the histogram bin boundaries e.g. (0-13.2, 13.2-45.0, 45.0-89.12, 89.12-100).

Defining a Uplift DRF Model¶

model_id: (Optional) Specify a custom name for the model to use as a reference. By default, H2O automatically generates a destination key.
training_frame: (Required) Specify the dataset used to build the model. NOTE: In Flow, if you click the Build a model button from the Parse cell, the training frame is entered automatically.
validation_frame: (Optional) Specify the dataset used to evaluate the accuracy of the model.
y: (Required) Specify the column to use as the dependent variable. The data can be only categorical (only binomial classification is currently supported).
x: Specify a vector containing the names or indices of the predictor variables to use when building the model. If x is missing, then all columns except y are used.
treatment_column: Specify the column which contains information about group dividing. The data must be categorical and have two categories: 0 means the observation is in control group and 1 means the observation is in treatment group.
uplift_metric: The type of divergence distribution to select the best split. Specify one of the following metrics:

auto or AUTO: Allow the algorithm to decide (default). In Uplift DRF, the algorithm will automatically perform KL metric.

kl or KL: Uses logarithms to calculate divergence, asymmetric, widely used, tends to infinity values (if treatment or control group distributions contain zero values).

euclidean or Euclidean: Symmetric and stable distribution (does not tend to infinity values).

chi_squared or ChiSquared: Euclidean divergence normalized by control group distribution. Asymmetric and also tends to infinity values (if control group distribution contains zero values).

auuc_type: The type of metric to calculate incremental uplift and then Area Under Uplift Curve (AUUC). Specify one of the following AUUC types:

auto or AUTO: Allow the algorithm to decide (default). In Uplift DRF, the algorithm will automatically perform qini type.

qini or Qini

lift or Lift

gain or Gain

auuc_nbins: Specify number of bins in a histogram to calculate Area Under Uplift Curve (AUUC). This option defaults to -1 which means 1000.
score_each_iteration: (Optional) Enable this option to score during each iteration of the model training. This option is defaults to false (not enabled).
score_tree_interval: Score the model after every so many trees. Disabled if set to 0 (default).
ignored_columns: (Optional, Python and Flow only) Specify the column or columns to be excluded from the model. In Flow, click the checkbox next to a column name to add it to the list of columns excluded from the model. To add all columns, click the All button. To remove a column from the list of ignored columns, click the X next to the column name. To remove all columns from the list of ignored columns, click the None button. To search for a specific column, type the column name in the Search field above the column list. To only show columns with a specific percentage of missing values, specify the percentage in the Only show columns with more than 0% missing values field. To change the selections for the hidden columns, use the Select Visible or Deselect Visible buttons.
ignore_const_cols: Specify whether to ignore constant training columns, since no information can be gained from them. This option is defaults to true (enabled).
ntrees: Specify the number of trees (defaults to 50).
max_depth: Specify the maximum tree depth. Higher values will make the model more complex and can lead to overfitting. Setting this value to 0 specifies no limit. This value defaults to 20.
min_rows: Specify the minimum number of observations for a leaf (nodesize in R). This value defaults to 1.
nbins: (Numerical/real/int only) Specify the number of bins for the histogram to build, then split at the best point. This option defaults to 20.
nbins_top_level: (For numerical/real/int columns only) Specify the minimum number of bins at the root level to use to build the histogram. This number will then be decreased by a factor of two per level. This option defaults to 1024.
nbins_cats: (Categorical/enums only) Specify the maximum number of bins for the histogram to build, then split at the best point. Higher values can lead to more overfitting. The levels are ordered alphabetically; if there are more levels than bins, adjacent levels share bins. This value has a more significant impact on model fitness than nbins. Larger values may increase runtime, especially for deep trees and large clusters, so tuning may be required to find the optimal value for your configuration. This option defaults to 1024.
max_runtime_secs: Maximum allowed runtime in seconds for model training. Use 0 (default) to disable.
seed: Specify the random number generator (RNG) seed for algorithm components dependent on randomization. The seed is consistent for each H2O instance so that you can create models with the same starting conditions in alternative configurations. This value defaults to -1 (time-based random number).
build_tree_one_node: Specify whether to run on a single node. This is suitable for small datasets as there is no network overhead but fewer CPUs are used. This option is defaults to false (not enabled).
mtries: Specify the columns to randomly select at each level. If the default value of -1 is used, the number of variables is the square root of the number of columns for classification and p/3 for regression (where p is the number of predictors). If -2 is specified, all features of DRF are used. Valid values for this option are -2, -1 (default), and any value >= 1.
sample_rate: Specify the row sampling rate (x-axis). (Note that this method is sample without replacement.) The range is 0.0 to 1.0, and this value defaults to 0.6320000291. Higher values may improve training accuracy. Test accuracy improves when either columns or rows are sampled. For details, refer to “Stochastic Gradient Boosting” (Friedman, 1999).
sample_rate_per_class: When building models from imbalanced datasets, this option specifies that each tree in the ensemble should sample from the full training dataset using a per-class-specific sampling rate rather than a global sample factor (as with sample_rate). The range for this option is 0.0 to 1.0. Note that this method is sample without replacement.
col_sample_rate_change_per_level: This option specifies to change the column sampling rate as a function of the depth in the tree. This can be a value > 0.0 and <= 2.0 and defaults to 1. (Note that this method is sample without replacement.) For example:

level 1: col_sample_rate

level 2: col_sample_rate * factor

level 3: col_sample_rate * factor^2

level 4: col_sample_rate * factor^3

etc.
col_sample_rate_per_tree: Specify the column sample rate per tree. This can be a value from 0.0 to 1.0 and defaults to 1. Note that this method is sample without replacement.
min_split_improvement: The value of this option specifies the minimum relative improvement in squared error reduction in order for a split to happen. When properly tuned, this option can help reduce overfitting. Optimal values would be in the 1e-10…1e-3 range. This value defaults to 1e-05.
histogram_type: By default (AUTO) Uplift DRF bins from min…max in steps of (max-min)/N. Random split points or quantile-based split points can be selected as well. RoundRobin can be specified to cycle through all histogram types (one per tree). Use this option to specify the type of histogram to use for finding optimal split points:
- AUTO (default)
- UniformAdaptive
- Random
- QuantilesGlobal
- RoundRobin
categorical_encoding: Specify one of the following encoding schemes for handling categorical features:
- auto or AUTO: Allow the algorithm to decide (default). In Uplift DRF, the algorithm will automatically perform enum encoding.
- enum or Enum: 1 column per categorical feature
- enum_limited or EnumLimited: Automatically reduce categorical levels to the most prevalent ones during training and only keep the T (10) most frequent levels.
- one_hot_explicit or OneHotExplicit: N+1 new columns for categorical features with N levels
- binary or Binary: No more than 32 columns per categorical feature
- eigen or Eigen: k columns per categorical feature, keeping projections of one-hot-encoded matrix onto k-dim eigen space only
- label_encoder or LabelEncoder: Convert every enum into the integer of its index (for example, level 0 -> 0, level 1 -> 1, etc.)
- sort_by_response or SortByResponse: Reorders the levels by the mean response (for example, the level with lowest response -> 0, the level with second-lowest response -> 1, etc.). This is useful in GBM/DRF, for example, when you have more levels than nbins_cats, and where the top level splits now have a chance at separating the data with a split. Note that this requires a specified response column.
check_constant_response: Check if the response column is a constant value. If enabled (default), then an exception is thrown if the response column is a constant value. If disabled, then the model will train regardless of the response column being a constant value or not. This option is defaults to false (not enabled).

Leaf Node Assignment¶

Leaf Node assignment is not currently supported.

Interpreting an Uplift DRF Model¶

By default, the following output displays:

Model parameters (hidden)
A graph of the scoring history (number of trees vs. training AUUC)
A graph of the AUUC curve (Number of observations vs. Uplift)
Output (model category, validation metrics)
Model summary (number of trees, min. depth, max. depth, mean depth, min. leaves, max. leaves, mean leaves)
Scoring history in tabular format
Training metrics (model name, checksum name, frame name, frame checksum name, description, model category, duration in ms, scoring time, predictions, AUUC, all AUUC types table, Thresholds and metric scores, table)
Validation metrics (model name, checksum name, frame name, frame checksum name, description, model category, duration in ms, scoring time, predictions, AUUC, all AUUC types table, Thresholds and metric scores table)
Default AUUC metric calculated based on auuc_type parameter
Default normalized AUUC metric calculated based on auuc_type parameter
AUUC table which contains all computed AUUC types and normalized AUUC (qini, lift, gain)
Qini value Average excess cumulative uplift (AECU) for qini metric type
AECU table which contains all computed AECU values types (qini, lift, gain)
Thresholds and metric scores table which contains thresholds of predictions, cumulative number of observations for each bin and cumulative uplift values for all metrics (qini, lift, gain).
Uplift Curve plot for given metric type (qini, lift, gain)

Uplift Curve and Area Under Uplift Curve (AUUC) calculation¶

To calculate AUUC for big data, the predictions are binned to histograms. Due to this feature the results should be different compared to exact computation.

To define AUUC, binned predictions are sorted from largest to smallest value. For every group the cumulative sum of observations statistic is calculated. The uplift is defined based on these statistics.

The statistics of every group are:

\(T\) how many observations are in the treatment group (how many data rows in the bin have treatment_column label == 1)
\(C\) how many observations are in the control group (how many data rows in the bin have treatment_column label == 0)
\(TY1\) how many observations are in the treatment group and respond to the offer (how many data rows in the bin have treatment_column label == 1 and response_column label == 1)
\(CY1\) how many observations are in the control group and respond to the offer (how many data rows in the bin have treatment_column label == 0 and response_column label == 1)

You can set the AUUC type to be computed:

Qini (auuc_type="qini") \(TY1 - CY1 * \frac{T}{C}\)
Lift (auuc_type="lift") \(\frac{TY1}{T} - \frac{CY1}{C}\)
Gain (auuc_type="gain") \((\frac{TY1}{T} - \frac{CY1}{C}) * (T + C)\)

In auuc the default AUUC is stored, however you can see also AUUC values for other AUUC types in auuc_table.

The resulting AUUC value is not normalized, so the result could be a positive number, but also a negative number. A higher number means better model.

To get normalized AUUC, you have to call auuc_normalized method. The normalized AUUC is calculated from uplift values which are normalized by uplift value from maximal treated number of observations. So if you have for example uplift values [10, 20, 30] the normalized uplift is [1/3, 2/3, 1]. If the maximal value is negative, the normalization factor is the absolute value from this number. The normalized AUUC can be again negative and positive and can be outside of (0, 1) interval. The normalized AUUC for auuc_metric="lift" is not defined, so the normalized AUUC = AUUC for this case. Also the plot_uplift with metric="lift" is the same for normalize=False and normalize=True.

From the threshold_and_metric_scores table you can select the highest uplift to decide the optimal threshold for the final prediction. The number of bins in the table depends on auuc_nbins parameter, but should be less (it depends on distribution of predictions). The thresholds are created based on quantiles of predictions and are sorted from highest value to lowest.

For some observation groups the results should be NaN. In this case, the results from NaN groups are linearly interpolated to calculate AUUC and plot uplift curve.

Note: To speed up the calculation of AUUC, the predictions are binned into quantile histograms. To calculate precision AUUC the more bins the better. The more trees usually produce more various predictions and then the algorithm creates histograms with more bins. So the algorithm needs more iterations to get meaningful AUUC results. You can see in the scoring history table the number of bins as well as the result AUUC. There is also Qini value metric, which reflects the number of bins and then is a better pointer of the model improvement. In the picture below you can see the algorithm stabilized after building 6 trees. But it depends on data and model settings on how many trees are necessary.

Qini value calculation¶

Qini value is calculated as the difference between the Qini AUUC and area under the random uplift curve (random AUUC). The random AUUC is computed as diagonal from zero to overall gain uplift. See the plot below.

Average Excess Cumulative Uplift (AECU)¶

The Qini value can be generalized for all AUUC metric types. So AECU for Qini metric is the same as Qini value, but the AECU can be also calculated for Gain and Lift metric type. These values are stored in aecu_table.

Examples¶

Below is a simple example showing how to build an Uplift Random Forest model and see its metrics:

library(h2o)
h2o.init()

# Import the uplift dataset into H2O:
data <- h2o.importFile("https://s3.amazonaws.com/h2o-public-test-data/smalldata/uplift/criteo_uplift_13k.csv")

# Set the predictors, response, and treatment column:
# set the predictors
predictors <- c("f1", "f2", "f3", "f4", "f5", "f6","f7", "f8")
# set the response as a factor
data$conversion <- as.factor(data$conversion)
# set the treatment column as a factor
data$treatment <- as.factor(data$treatment)

# Split the dataset into a train and valid set:
data_split <- h2o.splitFrame(data = data, ratios = 0.8, seed = 1234)
train <- data_split[[1]]
valid <- data_split[[2]]

# Build and train the model:
uplift.model <- h2o.upliftRandomForest(training_frame = train,
                                       validation_frame=valid,
                                       x=predictors,
                                       y="conversion",
                                       ntrees=10,
                                       max_depth=5,
                                       treatment_column="treatment",
                                       uplift_metric="KL",
                                       min_rows=10,
                                       seed=1234,
                                       auuc_type="qini")
# Eval performance:
perf <- h2o.performance(uplift.model)

# Generate predictions on a validation set (if necessary)
predict <- h2o.predict(uplift.model, newdata = valid)

# Plot Uplift Curve
plot(perf, metric="gain")

# Plot Normalized Uplift Curve
plot(perf, metric="gain", normalize=TRUE)

# Get default AUUC value
print(h2o.auuc(perf))

# Get AUUC value by AUUC type (metric)
print(h2o.auuc(perf, metric="lift"))

# Get normalized AUUC value by AUUC type (metric)
print(h2o.auuc_normalized(perf, metric="lift"))

# Get all AUUC types in a table
print(h2o.auuc_table(perf))

# Get threshold and metric scores
print(h2o.thresholds_and_metric_scores(perf))

# Get Qini value
print(h2o.qini(perf))

# Get AECU value
print(h2o.aecu(perf))

# Get all AECU values in a table
print(h2o.aecu_table(perf))

import h2o
from h2o.estimators import H2OUpliftRandomForestEstimator
h2o.init()

# Import the cars dataset into H2O:
data = h2o.import_file("https://s3.amazonaws.com/h2o-public-test-data/smalldata/uplift/criteo_uplift_13k.csv")

# Set the predictors, response, and treatment column:
predictors = ["f1", "f2", "f3", "f4", "f5", "f6","f7", "f8"]
# set the response as a factor
response = "conversion"
data[response] = data[response].asfactor()
# set the treatment as a factor
treatment_column = "treatment"
data[treatment_column] = data[treatment_column].asfactor()

# Split the dataset into a train and valid set:
train, valid = data.split_frame(ratios=[.8], seed=1234)

# Build and train the model:
uplift_model = H2OUpliftRandomForestEstimator(ntrees=10,
                                              max_depth=5,
                                              treatment_column=treatment_column,
                                              uplift_metric="KL",
                                              min_rows=10,
                                              seed=1234,
                                              auuc_type="qini")
uplift_model.train(x=predictors,
                   y=response,
                   training_frame=train,
                   validation_frame=valid)

# Eval performance:
perf = uplift_model.model_performance()

# Generate predictions on a validation set (if necessary)
pred = uplift_model.predict(valid)

# Plot Uplift curve from performance
perf.plot_uplift(metric="gain", plot=True)

# Plot Normalized Uplift Curve from performance
perf.plot_uplift(metric="gain", plot=True, normalize=True)

# Get default AUUC (in this case Qini AUUC because auuc_type=qini)
print(perf.auuc())

# Get AUUC value by AUUC type (metric)
print(perf.auuc(metric="lift"))

# Get normalized AUUC value by AUUC type (metric)
print(perf.auuc_normalized(metric="lift"))

# Get all AUUC values in a table
print(perf.auuc_table())

# Get thresholds and metric scores
print(perf.thresholds_and_metric_scores())

# Get Qini value
print(perf.qini())

# Get AECU value
print(perf.aecu())

# Get AECU values in a table
print(perf.aecu_table())

FAQ¶

How does the algorithm handle missing values during training?

Missing values are interpreted as containing information (i.e. missing for a reason), rather than missing at random. During tree building, split decisions for every node are found by minimizing the loss function and treating missing values as a separate category that can go either left or right.

Note: Unlike in GLM, in DRF as well as in Uplift DRF numerical values are handled the same way as categorical values. Missing values are not imputed with the mean, as is done by default in GLM.

How does the algorithm handle missing values during testing?

During scoring, missing values follow the optimal path that was determined for them during training (minimized loss function).

What happens if the response has missing values?

No errors will occur, but nothing will be learned from rows containing missing values in the response column.

What happens when you try to predict on a categorical level not seen during training?

Uplift DRF converts a new categorical level to a NA value in the test set, and then splits left on the NA value during scoring. The algorithm splits left on NA values because, during training, NA values are grouped with the outliers in the left-most bin.

Does it matter if the data is sorted?

No.

Should data be shuffled before training?

No.

What if there are a large number of columns?

Uplift DRFs are best for datasets with fewer than a few thousand columns.

What if there are a large number of categorical factor levels?

Large numbers of categoricals are handled very efficiently - there is never any one-hot encoding.

Does the algo stop splitting when all the possible splits lead to worse error measures?

It does if you use min_split_improvement (which is turned ON by default (0.00001).) When properly tuned, this option can help reduce overfitting.

When does the algo stop splitting on an internal node?

A single tree will stop splitting when there are no more splits that satisfy the minimum rows parameter, if it reaches max_depth, or if there are no splits that satisfy the min_split_improvement parameter.

How does Uplift DRF decide which feature to split on?

It splits on the column and level that results in the highest uplift gain (based on uplift_metric parameter type) in the subtree at that point. It considers all fields available from the algorithm. Note that any use of column sampling and row sampling will cause each decision to not consider all data points, and that this is on purpose to generate more robust trees. To find the best level, the histogram binning process is used to quickly compute the potential uplift gain of each possible split. The number of bins is controlled via nbins_cats for categoricals, the pair of nbins (the number of bins for the histogram to build, then split at the best point), and nbins_top_level (the minimum number of bins at the root level to use to build the histogram). This number will then be decreased by a factor of two per level.

For nbins_top_level, higher = more precise, but potentially more prone to overfitting. Higher also takes more memory and possibly longer to run.

What is the difference between nbins and nbins_top_level ?

nbins and nbins_top_level are both for numerics (real and integer). nbins_top_level is the number of bins Uplift DRF uses at the top of each tree. It then divides by 2 at each ensuing level to find a new number. nbins controls when Uplift DRF stops dividing by 2.

How is variable importance calculated for Uplift DRF?

Variable importance is not supported for Uplift DRF.

How is column sampling implemented for Uplift DRF?

For an example model using:

100 columns

col_sample_rate_per_tree is 0.602

mtries is -1 or 7 (refers to the number of active predictor columns for the dataset)

For each tree, the floor is used to determine the number of columns that are randomly picked (for this example, (0.602*100)=60 out of the 100 columns).

For classification cases where mtries=-1, the square root is randomly chosen for each split decision (out of the total 60 - for this example, (\(\sqrt{100}\) = 10 columns).

mtries is configured independently of col_sample_rate_per_tree, but it can be limited by it. For example, if col_sample_rate_per_tree=0.01, then there’s only one column left for each split, regardless of how large the value for mtries is.

Why does performance appear slower in Uplift DRF than in GBM?

With DRF as well as Uplift DRF, depth and size of trees can result in speed tradeoffs.

By default, Uplift DRF will go to depth 20, which can lead to up to 1+2+4+8+…+2^19 ~ 1M nodes to be split, and for every one of them, mtries=sqrt(4600)=67 columns need to be considered for splitting. This results in a total work of finding up to 1M*67 ~ 67M split points per tree. Usually, many of the leaves don’t go to depth 20, so the actual number is less. (You can inspect the model to see that value.)

By default, GBM will go to depth 5, so there’s only 1+2+4+8+16 = 31 nodes to be split, and for every one of them, all 4600 columns need to be considered. This results in a total work of finding up to 31*4600 ~ 143k split points (often all are needed) per tree.

This is why the shallow depth of GBM is one of the reasons it’s great for wide (for tree purposes) datasets. To make Uplift DRF faster, consider decreasing max_depth and/or mtries and/or ntrees.

For both algorithms, finding one split requires a pass over one column and all rows. Assume a dataset with 250k rows and 500 columns. GBM can take minutes, while Uplift DRF may take hours. This is because:

Assuming the above, GBM needs to pass over up to 31*500*250k = 4 billion numbers per tree, and assuming 50 trees, that’s up to (typically equal to) 200 billion numbers in 11 minutes, or 300M per second, which is pretty fast;

Uplift DRF needs to pass over up to 1M*22*250k = 5500 billion numbers per tree, and assuming 50 trees, that’s up to 275 trillion numbers, which can take a few hours.

Uplift trees modeling sources:¶

N. J. Radcliffe, and P. D. Surry, “Real-World Uplift Modelling withSignificance-Based Uplift Trees”, Stochastic Solutions White Paper, 2011.

P. D. Surry, and N. J. Radcliffe, “Quality measures for uplift models”, 2011.

References¶

P. Rzepakowski, and S. Jaroszewicz, “Decision trees for uplift modeling with single and multiple treatments”, 2012.

Huigang Chen, Totte Harinen, Jeong-Yoon Lee, Mike Yung, Zhenyu Zhao, “CausalML: Python Package for Causal Machine Learning”, 2020.