# Defining Category encoders for Network configuration

**URL:** <https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650>\
**Category:** NuPIC\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [October 1, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650 "2019-10-01T17:21:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quense](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/quense/32/4550_2.png) [@Quense](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Quense)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 5:21pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650/1 "2019-10-01T17:21:08Z")

</div>

Dear all,  
Thanks for your work on the documentation and tutorials !

However, I’m trying to build a network based on the tutorial available [here](http://nupic.docs.numenta.org/1.0.5/quick-start/network.html) but I’m kind of stuck. I want to build a network for anomaly detection purposes and I have a problem with the model configuration file. (model.yaml)

I’ve been looking everywhere on the documentation and the forums but cannot find any information on how to define encoders for categories ( **inside the yaml file** ). The tutorials only show us how to build RSDR of Datetime encoders as follows :

```
encoders:
     encoders:
  kw_energy_consumption:
    fieldname: kw_energy_consumption
    name: kw_energy_consumption
    resolution: 0.88
    seed: 1
    type: RandomDistributedScalarEncoder
  timestamp_timeOfDay:
    fieldname: timestamp
    name: timestamp_timeOfDay
    timeOfDay: [21, 1]
    type: DateEncoder
  timestamp_weekend:
    fieldname: timestamp
    name: timestamp_weekend
    type: DateEncoder
    weekend: 21

```

How can I define an CategoryEncoder ? I tried the following :

```
  category:
    fieldname: category
    name: bookcategory
    type: CategoryEncoder

```

But it seems something is missing (I guess its the categories but I don’t know how to define them in this file.  
Any ideas would be really appreciated thanks !

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhyolight](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/rhyolight/32/3922_2.png) [@rhyolight](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/rhyolight)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650/2 "2019-10-01T18:39:28Z")

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Try using `type: SDRCategoryEncoder`. Does that help?

https://player.twitch.tv/?video=v488952273&autoplay=false

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quense](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/quense/32/4550_2.png) [@Quense](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Quense)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 9:25am UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650/3 "2019-10-02T09:25:16Z")

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Hey Matt,  
thanks for your reply, you are right I needed to use SDRCategoryEncoder. (omg mom i’m on tv)

So, I managed to make it work using this syntax (for posterity here’s how to completely define it:

```
fieldname: categoryE
name: categoryE
categoryList: [‘CAT1’, ‘CAT2’, ‘CAT3’, ‘CAT4’]
n: 2048
w: 21
type: SDRCategoryEncoder

```

However, I’m getting weird behavior from the network. I’m reading a large csv file that has roughly 70 columns (some containing category strings). I have not set an encoder for all columns as I only use some of them. Nevertheless, the FileRecordStream appears to read the entire file :  
dataSource = FileRecordStream(streamID=\_INPUT\_FILE\_PATH)

And I get the following error if strings are present in my data:

```
File "detection_network.py", line 156, in <module>
anomaly_detection(_NUM_RECORDS)
File "detection_network.py", line 140, in anomaly_detection
network.run(N)
File "/home/dse/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nupic/engine/ __init__.py", line 673, in run
engine_internal.Network.run(self, n)
File "/home/dse/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nupic/bindings/engine_internal.py", line 1282, in run
return _engine_internal.Network_run(self, *args, **kwargs)
File "/home/dse/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nupic/bindings/regions/PyRegion.py", line 186, in guardedCompute
return self.compute(inputs, DictReadOnlyWrapper(outputs))
  File "/home/dse/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nupic/regions/record_sensor.py", line 430, in compute
self.populateCategoriesOut(categories, outputs['categoryOut'])
  File "/home/dse/.local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/nupic/regions/record_sensor.py", line 357, in populateCategoriesOut
output[i] = cat
ValueError: could not convert string to float: N

```

The only way to get rid of this error is to delete the columns that contain strings from the file, but then I cannot perform anomaly detection based on the categories

Do you have an Idea of what’s wrong ? My code is exactly the same as the HotGym example (except the features names and the file source).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhyolight](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/rhyolight/32/3922_2.png) [@rhyolight](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/rhyolight)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650/4 "2019-10-02T18:16:25Z")

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If you are reading from a file, you should ensure you have a header that defines the fields in the file. See [docs](http://nupic.docs.numenta.org/stable/quick-start/example-data.html) if you haven’t already. The format is:

```auto
f1,f2,f3,....fN
int,string,datetime,bool,...
R,S,T,,,,....

```

Here is an [example](http://nupic.docs.numenta.org/stable/quick-start/example-data.html).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Quense](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.numenta.org/quense/32/4550_2.png) [@Quense](https://discourse.numenta.org/u/Quense)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 6:45pm UTC](https://discourse.numenta.org/t/defining-category-encoders-for-network-configuration/6650/5 "2019-10-02T18:45:44Z")

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Thank you again for your response.  
I am familliar with the format of the data, however, when I use a file format as follows

```
f1, f2, f3, ..., fn
int, string, string, bool, ...
R, S, T, **C** , ...

```

Then it does not work the problem appears to be coming from the Category metatype **C** field. I think the problem comes from the Network api because I managed to make it work following this [anomaly detection example](https://github.com/numenta/nupic/blob/master/examples/opf/clients/hotgym/anomaly/one_gym/run.py) while keeping the category metatype field.

I’d rather use the network-API as I find it more convenient to build the network with other features.

I got no idea on where to go from there though