VSURF: An R Package for Variable Selection Using Random Forests

Robin Genuer (1, 2) , Jean-Michel Poggi (3) , Christine Tuleau-Malot (4)

1 ISPED - Institut de Santé Publique, d'Epidémiologie et de Développement
2 SISTM - Statistics In System biology and Translational Medicine
3 LM-Orsay - Laboratoire de Mathématiques d'Orsay
4 LJAD - Laboratoire Jean Alexandre Dieudonné

This paper describes the R package VSURF. Based on random forests, and for both regression and classification problems, it returns two subsets of variables. The first is a subset of important variables including some redundancy which can be relevant for interpretation, and the second one is a smaller subset corresponding to a model trying to avoid redundancy focusing more closely on prediction objective. The two-stage strategy is based on a preliminary ranking of the explanatory variables using the random forests permutation-based score of importance and proceeds using a stepwise forward strategy for variable introduction. The two proposals can be obtained automatically using data-driven default values, good enough to provide interesting results, but can also be tuned by the user. The algorithm is illustrated on a simulated example and its applications to real datasets are presented.

Domaines: Statistiques [math.ST]

Robin Genuer, Jean-Michel Poggi, Christine Tuleau-Malot. VSURF: An R Package for Variable Selection Using Random Forests. The R Journal, 2015, 7 (2), pp.19-33. ⟨hal-01251924⟩