Value error: Cannot convert string to float

Question

from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder
enc=OneHotEncoder(handle_unknown='ignore')
X=[['gender', 1], ['NationalITy', 2], ['PlaceofBirth', 3],['StageID', 4], ['GradeID', 5], ['SectionID', 6],['Topic', 7], ['Semester', 8], ['Relation', 9],['raisedhands', 1], ['VisITedResources', 2], ['AnnouncementsView', 3],['Discussion', 4], ['ParentAnsweringSurvey', 5], ['ParentschoolSatisfaction', 6],['Class',7]]
enc.fit_transform(X)

I get

ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-144-0d483a4c15a5> in <module>()
----> 1 enc.fit_transform(X)

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\sklearn\preprocessing\data.py in fit_transform(self, X, y)    2017         """    2018         return
_transform_selected(X, self._fit_transform,
-> 2019                                    self.categorical_features, copy=True)    2020     2021     def _transform(self, X):

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\sklearn\preprocessing\data.py in
_transform_selected(X, transform, selected, copy)    1807     X : array or sparse matrix, shape=(n_samples, n_features_new)    1808     """
-> 1809     X = check_array(X, accept_sparse='csc', copy=copy, dtype=FLOAT_DTYPES)    1810     1811     if isinstance(selected, six.string_types) and selected == "all":

~\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\sklearn\utils\validation.py in check_array(array, accept_sparse, dtype, order, copy, force_all_finite, ensure_2d, allow_nd, ensure_min_samples, ensure_min_features, warn_on_dtype, estimator)
    431                                       force_all_finite)
    432     else:
--> 433         array = np.array(array, dtype=dtype, order=order, copy=copy)
    434 
    435         if ensure_2d:

ValueError: could not convert string to float: 'gender'

It works for me using scikit-learn-0.20.3 and scipy-1.2.1 — Devesh Kumar Singh
– Devesh Kumar Singh, Commented Apr 22, 2019 at 9:55

BCJuan · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-10 07:04:26Z

1

From this post,

OneHotEncoder Error: cannot convert string to float

you can see that it does not work but with integers. However, now, the documentation says that it works with integers.

Maybe you should update your version, because it should be able to convert strings.

For me the piece of code from the edit has worked perfectly.

answered Apr 10, 2019 at 7:04

BCJuan

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