This article is a reference for: http://support.emcien.com/help/article/link/using-bandit
An overview of the command line parameters can be seen by simply calling Bandit with the “-h” parameter (bandit -h), in which you will get something like this:
-h help: Emcien Bandit version 50 (www.emcien.com) -d CHAR dependent: name of the dependent category -f CHAR form: form of output file (W for wide or R for receipt) -s CHAR separator: Separator character -t CHAR table: name of table file -b CHAR bands: name of bands file -r INT randomize: 1 for 10pct test; 2 for 20pct test -v INT verbosity: Print out lots of extra information on stderr
There are 9 commands you can pass (7 numerical banding and 2 transformational):
- freq – Similar frequency bands – five bands are chosen to divide frequency of transactions into similar sizes. This command can include the number of bands you wish to have. (i.e. “freq8” would create 8 bands based on frequency)
- wide – Equal width bands – range of numerical values is divided evenly into five bands. This command can include the number of bands you wish to have. (i.e. “wide7” would create 7 equal width bands)
- fuzz – Fuzzy bands organizes the data into five bands with sizes of approximately 10%, 20%, 40%, 20%, 10% of the transactions. Starts with the highest value, places that into the middle 40% and builds left and right of that to create the other bands.
- stat – builds bands based on the standard deviation
- half – builds bands based on half of the standard deviation
- info – Information Banding – based on “information theory”, recursively breaks down the data into chunks with the goal to reduce the entropy/disorder (basically trying to cleanly organize bands such that predictability is maximized). This banding type REQUIRES the dependent parameter (“-d”) to be passed in the command line.
- user – User defined bands allow for custom banding of the numeric ranges and assigning them names. “User” type bands REQUIRE the use of a “bands.csv” input file. See section on User Defined Banding for more information.
- cat – Categorical Data command tells bandit to leave the data alone and pass it onto the output file as is.
- skip – Skips the column of data and does not include it in the output file at all.
