Convert CSV to Vowpal Wabbit’s Input Format

I’ve created a Python script called csv2vw which, as the name implies, converts CSV data to Vowpall Wabbit’s input format. csv2vw is available on GitHub in my dsutils repository.

Here are some examples to give you an idea of what it can do:

Leave label values as is:

$ csv2vw spam.csv --label target

Relabel values ‘ham’ to 0 and ‘spam’ to 1:

$ csv2vw spam.csv --label target --classes ham,spam

Relabel values ‘ham’ to -1 and ‘spam’ to +1 (needed for logistic loss):

$ csv2vw spam.csv --label target --classes ham,spam --minus-plus-one

Relabel first label value to 0, second to 1, and ignore the rest:

$ csv2vw iris.csv -lspecies --auto-relabel --ignore-extra-classes

Relabel first label value to 1, second to 2, and so on:

$ < iris.csv csv2vw -lspecies --multiclass --auto-relabel

Relabel ‘versicolor’ to 1, ‘virginica’ to 2, and ‘setosa’ to 3:

$ < iris.csv csv2vw -lspecies --multiclass -cversicolor,virginica,setosa

Note that csv2vw does not support namespaces.

— Jeroen

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