Description: Target encoding is a technique used in supervised learning to transform categorical variables into numerical variables based on their relationship with the target variable. This technique is particularly useful in machine learning models, where categorical variables can hinder the training process due to their non-numeric nature. Target encoding assigns each category a numerical value that reflects the mean of the target variable for that category. For example, if there is a categorical variable like ‘color’ with categories ‘red’, ‘green’, and ‘blue’, target encoding would calculate the mean of the target variable for each color and assign those values to the corresponding categories. This technique not only simplifies data handling but can also improve model accuracy by capturing the relationship between categorical variables and the target variable. However, it is important to be cautious of overfitting, as target encoding can lead to misleading results if applied incorrectly, especially in small datasets or situations where the target variable has an uneven distribution across categories.
