Avoid negative predictions when forecasting¶

When training a forecasting model, even though none of the training observations is negative, some predictions may turn out to be negative. To avoid this, it is possible to model the series on a logarithmic scale.

Libraries¶

In [1]:

# Libraries
# ==============================================================================
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.style.use('fivethirtyeight')
plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 1.5
from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge
from sklearn.preprocessing import FunctionTransformer
from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error
from skforecast.ForecasterAutoreg import ForecasterAutoreg
from skforecast.model_selection import backtesting_forecaster

# Libraries # ============================================================================== import numpy as np import pandas as pd import matplotlib.pyplot as plt plt.style.use('fivethirtyeight') plt.rcParams['lines.linewidth'] = 1.5 from sklearn.linear_model import Ridge from sklearn.preprocessing import FunctionTransformer from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error from skforecast.ForecasterAutoreg import ForecasterAutoreg from skforecast.model_selection import backtesting_forecaster

Data¶

In [2]:

# Downloading data
# ==============================================================================
url = ('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoaquinAmatRodrigo/Estadistica-machine-'
       'learning-python/master/data/bike_sharing_dataset_clean.csv')
data = pd.read_csv(url, usecols=['date_time', 'users'], nrows=1000)
data['date_time'] = pd.to_datetime(data['date_time'], format='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
data = data.set_index('date_time')
data = data.asfreq('H')
data = data.sort_index()

# Downloading data # ============================================================================== url = ('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoaquinAmatRodrigo/Estadistica-machine-' 'learning-python/master/data/bike_sharing_dataset_clean.csv') data = pd.read_csv(url, usecols=['date_time', 'users'], nrows=1000) data['date_time'] = pd.to_datetime(data['date_time'], format='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S') data = data.set_index('date_time') data = data.asfreq('H') data = data.sort_index()

In [3]:

# Split train-test
# ==============================================================================
end_train = '2011-01-31 23:59:00'
data_train = data.loc[: end_train, :]
data_test  = data.loc[end_train:, :]

print(f"Dates train: {data_train.index.min()} --- {data_train.index.max()}  (n={len(data_train)})")
print(f"Dates test : {data_test.index.min()} --- {data_test.index.max()}  (n={len(data_test)})")

# Split train-test # ============================================================================== end_train = '2011-01-31 23:59:00' data_train = data.loc[: end_train, :] data_test = data.loc[end_train:, :] print(f"Dates train: {data_train.index.min()} --- {data_train.index.max()} (n={len(data_train)})") print(f"Dates test : {data_test.index.min()} --- {data_test.index.max()} (n={len(data_test)})")

Dates train: 2011-01-01 00:00:00 --- 2011-01-31 23:00:00  (n=744)
Dates test : 2011-02-01 00:00:00 --- 2011-02-11 15:00:00  (n=256)

In [4]:

# Plot time series
# ==============================================================================
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4))
data_train['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='train')
data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test')
ax.set_title('Number of users')
ax.legend();

# Plot time series # ============================================================================== fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4)) data_train['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='train') data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test') ax.set_title('Number of users') ax.legend();

Forecaster¶

In [5]:

# Create forecaster and train
# ==============================================================================
forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg(
                 regressor = Ridge(random_state=123),
                 lags      = 24
             )

# Create forecaster and train # ============================================================================== forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg( regressor = Ridge(random_state=123), lags = 24 )

In [6]:

# Backtesting predictions on test data
# ==============================================================================
metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster(
                          forecaster            = forecaster,
                          y                     = data['users'],
                          steps                 = 24,
                          metric                = 'mean_squared_error',
                          initial_train_size    = len(data.loc[:end_train]),
                          fixed_train_size      = False,
                          gap                   = 0,
                          allow_incomplete_fold = True,
                          refit                 = False,
                          verbose               = False,
                          show_progress         = True  
                      )

# Backtesting predictions on test data # ============================================================================== metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster( forecaster = forecaster, y = data['users'], steps = 24, metric = 'mean_squared_error', initial_train_size = len(data.loc[:end_train]), fixed_train_size = False, gap = 0, allow_incomplete_fold = True, refit = False, verbose = False, show_progress = True )

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In [7]:

# Plot predictions
# ==============================================================================
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4))
data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test')
predictions['pred'].plot(ax=ax, label='predictions')
ax.legend();

# Plot predictions # ============================================================================== fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4)) data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test') predictions['pred'].plot(ax=ax, label='predictions') ax.legend();

The graph above shows that some predictions are negative.

In [8]:

# Negative predictions
predictions[predictions.pred < 0]

# Negative predictions predictions[predictions.pred < 0]

Out[8]:

	pred
2011-02-01 00:00:00	-23.337236
2011-02-01 01:00:00	-17.691405
2011-02-02 00:00:00	-5.243456
2011-02-02 01:00:00	-19.363139
2011-02-03 01:00:00	-6.441943
2011-02-04 01:00:00	-10.579940
2011-02-05 00:00:00	-6.026119
2011-02-05 01:00:00	-21.396841
2011-02-07 04:00:00	-3.412043
2011-02-07 05:00:00	-3.701964
2011-02-08 00:00:00	-17.045913
2011-02-08 01:00:00	-13.233004
2011-02-09 00:00:00	-25.315228
2011-02-09 01:00:00	-24.743686
2011-02-10 01:00:00	-5.704407
2011-02-11 01:00:00	-11.758940

Modeling time series in logarithmic scale¶

In [9]:

# Transform data into logarithmic scale
# =============================================================================
data_log = np.log1p(data)
data_train_log = np.log1p(data_train)
data_test_log  = np.log1p(data_test)

# Transform data into logarithmic scale # ============================================================================= data_log = np.log1p(data) data_train_log = np.log1p(data_train) data_test_log = np.log1p(data_test)

In [10]:

# Create forecaster and train
# ==============================================================================
forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg(
                 regressor     = Ridge(random_state=123),
                 lags          = 24,
             )

# Backtesting predictions on test data
# ==============================================================================
metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster(
                          forecaster            = forecaster,
                          y                     = data_log['users'],
                          steps                 = 24,
                          metric                = 'mean_squared_error',
                          initial_train_size    = len(data_log.loc[:end_train]),
                          fixed_train_size      = False,
                          gap                   = 0,
                          allow_incomplete_fold = True,
                          refit                 = False,
                          verbose               = False,
                          show_progress         = True  
                      )

# Create forecaster and train # ============================================================================== forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg( regressor = Ridge(random_state=123), lags = 24, ) # Backtesting predictions on test data # ============================================================================== metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster( forecaster = forecaster, y = data_log['users'], steps = 24, metric = 'mean_squared_error', initial_train_size = len(data_log.loc[:end_train]), fixed_train_size = False, gap = 0, allow_incomplete_fold = True, refit = False, verbose = False, show_progress = True )

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In [11]:

# Revert the transformation
# ==============================================================================
predictions = np.expm1(predictions)
predictions.head(4)

# Revert the transformation # ============================================================================== predictions = np.expm1(predictions) predictions.head(4)

Out[11]:

	pred
2011-02-01 00:00:00	7.936823
2011-02-01 01:00:00	4.210682
2011-02-01 02:00:00	3.009993
2011-02-01 03:00:00	3.083922

In [12]:

metric = mean_squared_error(y_true=data_test['users'], y_pred=predictions)
print(f"Backtesting metric: {metric}")

metric = mean_squared_error(y_true=data_test['users'], y_pred=predictions) print(f"Backtesting metric: {metric}")

Backtesting metric: 1991.9332571759892

In [13]:

# Plot predictions
# ==============================================================================
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4))
data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test')
predictions['pred'].plot(ax=ax, label='predictions')
ax.legend();

# Plot predictions # ============================================================================== fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(11, 4)) data_test['users'].plot(ax=ax, label='test') predictions['pred'].plot(ax=ax, label='predictions') ax.legend();

Include a logarithmic transformer as part of the forecaster¶

Using scikit-learn FunctionTransformer it is possible to include custom transformers in the forecaster object, for example, a logarithmic transformation. If the FunctionTransformer has an inverse function, the output of the predict method is automatically transformed back to the original scale.

In [14]:

# Create custom transformer
# =============================================================================
transformer_y = FunctionTransformer(func=np.log1p, inverse_func=np.expm1)

# Create forecaster and train
# ==============================================================================
forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg(
                 regressor        = Ridge(random_state=123),
                 lags             = 24,
                 transformer_y    = transformer_y,
                 transformer_exog = None
             )
forecaster.fit(data['users'])

# Backtesting predictions on test data
# ==============================================================================
metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster(
                          forecaster            = forecaster,
                          y                     = data['users'],
                          steps                 = 24,
                          metric                = 'mean_squared_error',
                          initial_train_size    = len(data.loc[:end_train]),
                          fixed_train_size      = False,
                          gap                   = 0,
                          allow_incomplete_fold = True,
                          refit                 = False,
                          verbose               = False,
                          show_progress         = True  
                      )

print(f"Backtesting metric: {metric}")
predictions.head()

# Create custom transformer # ============================================================================= transformer_y = FunctionTransformer(func=np.log1p, inverse_func=np.expm1) # Create forecaster and train # ============================================================================== forecaster = ForecasterAutoreg( regressor = Ridge(random_state=123), lags = 24, transformer_y = transformer_y, transformer_exog = None ) forecaster.fit(data['users']) # Backtesting predictions on test data # ============================================================================== metric, predictions = backtesting_forecaster( forecaster = forecaster, y = data['users'], steps = 24, metric = 'mean_squared_error', initial_train_size = len(data.loc[:end_train]), fixed_train_size = False, gap = 0, allow_incomplete_fold = True, refit = False, verbose = False, show_progress = True ) print(f"Backtesting metric: {metric}") predictions.head()

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Backtesting metric: 1991.9332571759892

Out[14]:

	pred
2011-02-01 00:00:00	7.936823
2011-02-01 01:00:00	4.210682
2011-02-01 02:00:00	3.009993
2011-02-01 03:00:00	3.083922
2011-02-01 04:00:00	3.865169

In [15]:

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