Chi2: feature selection and discretization of numeric attributes

Abstract

Discretization can turn numeric attributes into discrete ones. Feature selection can eliminate some irrelevant attributes. This paper describes Chi2 a simple and general algorithm that uses the /spl chi//sup 2/ statistic to discretize numeric attributes repeatedly until some inconsistencies are found in the data, and achieves feature selection via discretization. The empirical results demonstrate that Chi/sup 2/ is effective in feature selection and discretization of numeric and ordinal attributes.