screen_predictors: Choose predictors for every target column by association...

In cellsynth: Cell-Wise Synthetic Copies of De-Identified Tables

Choose predictors for every target column by association screening

Description

Association between two columns is the largest absolute Pearson correlation between any of their screening signals (values, missingness indicators, level dummies). Screening runs once, on the original table.

Usage

screen_predictors(
  raw,
  roles,
  targets,
  keep = 100,
  lock_threshold = 0.95,
  block_cells = 2e+07
)

Arguments

raw	Character data.frame of all candidate columns.
roles	Roles of raw columns.
targets	Indices of target columns.
keep	Candidates kept per target, best first (truncated to max_predictors at use; extra ones serve row mode and lock blocking).
lock_threshold	Score at or above which two targets form a lock pair.
block_cells	Size budget (in matrix cells) of one block.

Details

Memory use is bounded for very wide tables: the column x column score is computed in blocks of columns and only each target's keep best candidates and the near-deterministic pairs are retained, never the full matrix (a 9,000-column sheet would need about 0.7 GB for it).

Value

List, for each target, the indices of its candidate predictor columns, best first; attribute lock_pairs is a two-column matrix of target index pairs with score >= lock_threshold.

cellsynth documentation built on Oct. 31, 2026, 1:07 a.m.