Encoding Categorical Variables

Summary

Converting text categories into numbers a model can use — one-hot encoding for nominal categories, label/ordinal encoding when there's a genuine order, and more advanced methods for high-cardinality features.

• 1One-hot encode a categorical column and inspect the resulting feature columns.
• 2Learn when label encoding is appropriate (ordinal data) versus misleading (nominal data).
• 3Research target encoding as an option for high-cardinality categorical features.