Clip Values

This article describes a component of Azure Machine Learning designer.

Use the Clip Values component to identify and optionally replace data values that are above or below a specified threshold with a mean, a constant, or other substitute value.

You connect the component to a dataset that has the numbers you want to clip, choose the columns to work with, and then set a threshold or range of values, and a replacement method. The component can output either just the results, or the changed values appended to the original dataset.

How to configure Clip Values

Before you begin, identify the columns you want to clip, and the method to use. We recommend that you test any clipping method on a small subset of data first.

The component applies the same criteria and replacement method to all columns that you include in the selection. Therefore, be sure to exclude columns that you don't want to change.

If you need to apply clipping methods or different criteria to some columns, you must use a new instance of Clip Values for each set of similar columns.

1. Add the Clip Values component to your pipeline and connect it to the dataset you want to modify. You can find this component under Data Transformation, in the Scale and Reduce category.

2. In List of columns, use the Column Selector to choose the columns to which Clip Values will be applied.

3. For Set of thresholds, choose one of the following options from the dropdown list. These options determine how you set the upper and lower boundaries for acceptable values vs. values that must be clipped.

   • ClipPeaks: When you clip values by peaks, you specify only an upper boundary. Values greater than that boundary value are replaced.

   • ClipSubpeaks: When you clip values by subpeaks, you specify only a lower boundary. Values that are less than that boundary value are replaced.

   • ClipPeaksAndSubpeaks: When you clip values by peaks and subpeaks, you can specify both the upper and lower boundaries. Values that are outside that range are replaced. Values that match the boundary values are not changed.

4. Depending on your selection in the preceding step, you can set the following threshold values:

   • Lower threshold: Displayed only if you choose ClipSubPeaks
   • Upper threshold: Displayed only if you choose ClipPeaks
   • Threshold: Displayed only if you choose ClipPeaksAndSubPeaks

   For each threshold type, choose either Constant or Percentile.

5. If you select Constant, type the maximum or minimum value in the text box. For example, assume that you know the value 999 was used as a placeholder value. You could choose Constant for the upper threshold, and type 999 in Constant value for upper threshold.

6. If you choose Percentile, you constrain the column values to a percentile range.

   For example, assume you want to keep only the values in the 10-80 percentile range, and replace all others. You would choose Percentile, and then type 10 for Percentile value for lower threshold, and type 80 for Percentile value for upper threshold.

   See the section on percentiles for some examples of how to use percentile ranges.

7. Define a substitute value.

   Numbers that exactly match the boundaries you specified are considered to be inside the allowed range of values, and thus are not replaced. All numbers that fall outside the specified range are replaced with the substitute value.

   • Substitute value for peaks: Defines the value to substitute for all column values that are greater than the specified threshold.
   • Substitute value for subpeaks: Defines the value to use as a substitute for all column values that are less than the specified threshold.
   • If you use the ClipPeaksAndSubpeaks option, you can specify separate replacement values for the upper and lower clipped values.

   The following replacement values are supported:

   • Threshold: Replaces clipped values with the specified threshold value.

   • Mean: Replaces clipped values with the mean of the column values. The mean is computed before values are clipped.

   • Median: Replaces clipped values with the median of the column values. The median is computed before values are clipped.

   • Missing. Replaces clipped values with the missing (empty) value.

8. Add indicator columns: Select this option if you want to generate a new column that tells you whether or not the specified clipping operation applied to the data in that row. This option is useful when you are testing a new set of clipping and substitution values.

9. Overwrite flag: Indicate how you want the new values to be generated. By default, Clip Values constructs a new column with the peak values clipped to the desired threshold. New values overwrite the original column.

   To keep the original column and add a new column with the clipped values, deselect this option.

10. Submit the pipeline.

    Right-click the Clip Values component and select Visualize or select the component and switch to the Outputs tab in the right panel, click on the histogram icon in the Port outputs, to review the values and make sure the clipping operation met your expectations.

Examples for clipping using percentiles

To understand how clipping by percentiles works, consider a dataset with 10 rows, which have one instance each of the values 1-10.

• If you are using percentile as the upper threshold, at the value for the 90th percentile, 90 percent of all values in the dataset must be less than that value.

• If you are using percentile as the lower threshold, at the value for the 10th percentile, 10 percent of all values in the dataset must be less than that value.

1. For Set of thresholds, choose ClipPeaksAndSubPeaks.

2. For Upper threshold, choose Percentile, and for Percentile number, type 90.

3. For Upper substitute value, choose Missing Value.

4. For Lower threshold, choose Percentile, and for Percentile number, type 10.

5. For Lower substitute value, choose Missing Value.

6. Deselect the option Overwrite flag, and select the option, Add indicator column.

Now try the same pipeline using 60 as the upper percentile threshold and 30 as the lower percentile threshold, and use the threshold value as the replacement value. The following table compares these two results:

1. Replace with missing; Upper threshold = 90; Lower threshold = 20

2. Replace with threshold; Upper percentile = 60; Lower percentile = 40

Original data	Replace with missing	Replace with threshold
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10	TRUE TRUE 3, FALSE 4, FALSE 5, FALSE 6, FALSE 7, FALSE 8, FALSE 9, FALSE TRUE	4, TRUE 4, TRUE 4, TRUE 4, TRUE 5, FALSE 6, FALSE 7, TRUE 7, TRUE 7, TRUE 7, TRUE

Next steps

See the set of components available to Azure Machine Learning.