Ordfeature
Ordfeature is a term used in data representation and machine learning to describe features that have a natural, intrinsic order. An ordfeature encodes categorical or ordinal data in a way that preserves the relative ranking among categories, facilitating models that benefit from order information without treating categories as purely nominal.
Common approaches include ordinal mapping, where categories are assigned consecutive integers according to their rank (e.g.,
Usage and considerations: Ordfeatures are particularly useful when the category order encodes meaningful information, such as
The concept is widely used in feature engineering workflows, and is related to ordinal encoding, monotone regression,