find_categorical_and_numerical_variables

feature_engine.variable_handling.find_categorical_and_numerical_variables(X, variables=None, return_empty=False)

Find numerical and categorical variables in a dataframe or from a list.

The function returns two lists: the first with categorical variables and the second with numerical variables.

More details in the User Guide.

Parameters

Xpandas dataframe of shape = [n_samples, n_features]

The dataset.

variableslist, default=None

If None, the function finds all categorical and numerical variables in X. Alternatively, it finds categorical and numerical variables in X, selecting from the given list.

return_emptybool, default=False

Whether to return empty lists when no variables are found. If False, the function raises an error.

Returns

variables: tuple

Tuple containing a list with the categorical variables and a list with the numerical variables.

Examples

>>> import pandas as pd
>>> from feature_engine.variable_handling import (
>>>   find_categorical_and_numerical_variables
>>>)
>>> X = pd.DataFrame({
>>>     "var_num": [1, 2, 3],
>>>     "var_cat": ["A", "B", "C"],
>>>     "var_date": pd.date_range("2020-02-24", periods=3, freq="T")
>>> })
>>> var_cat, var_num = find_categorical_and_numerical_variables(X)
>>> var_cat, var_num
(['var_cat'], ['var_num'])

Return type

Tuple[List[Union[str, int]], List[Union[str, int]]]