# fatf.transparency.predictions.counterfactuals.CounterfactualExplainer¶

class fatf.transparency.predictions.counterfactuals.CounterfactualExplainer(model: object = None, predictive_function: Optional[Callable] = None, dataset: Optional[numpy.ndarray] = None, categorical_indices: Optional[List[Union[str, int]]] = None, numerical_indices: Optional[List[Union[str, int]]] = None, counterfactual_feature_indices: Optional[List[Union[str, int]]] = None, max_counterfactual_length: int = 2, feature_ranges: Optional[Dict[Union[int, str], Union[Tuple[float, float], List[Union[float, str]]]]] = None, distance_functions: Optional[Dict[Union[int, str], Callable]] = None, step_sizes: Optional[Dict[Union[int, str], float]] = None, default_numerical_step_size: float = 1.0)[source]

Generates counterfactual explanations of black-box classifier predictions.

Finds counterfactual explanations for an arbitrary black-box classifier by a brute-force grid search with a specified step size for a selected range of values for selected features in the dataset.

In order to generate the counterfactuals either a model or a predictive_function must be given.

If a dataset is given, then only one of the two column indices parameters is required: categorical_indices or numerical_indices. If a dataset is not given, both these parameters need to be specified.

If only some of the features are desired to appear in the counterfactuals, then these may be specified in the counterfactual_feature_indices parameter.

Note

Valid feature (column) indices are either strings for structured arrays or integers for normal numpy arrays.

The user may also wish to restrict the length of any generated counterfactual by providing the max_counterfactual_length parameter.

If a dataset is given, then the feature ranges will be obtained by taking the minimum and the maximum value for numerical features and all the unique values for categorical (textual) features. Alternatively, the user may wish to define feature ranges by using the feature_ranges parameter. All undefined feature ranges will be filled in automatically given that a dataset is provided. If some of the feature ranges are not defined and a dataset is not given an exception will be raised. Counterfactuals will only be search for within these feature ranges. Ranges are only required for features specified by the counterfactual_feature_indices parameter or all features if this parameter is not given.

For a given feature combination only the counterfactual(s) closest to the specified data point will be retrieved. By default the distance for every numerical feature is taken to be $$abs(x_i - \hat{x}_i)$$ and for every categorical feature it is an identity function, i.e. $$1$$ if the value does not agree and $$0$$ if it agrees. If custom distance functions are desired, the user may specify these via the distance_functions parameter. Each distance function has to be a Callable with two input parameters. Finally, the distance can be normalised, please see the documentation of the _get_distance method for details.

Last but not least, when doing grid search through the features to discover counterfactual data points the user may define the step size between the minimum and the maximum value for the numerical features. This can be done selectively for every single feature separately via the step_sizes parameter. For all of the features that step size is not defined the default value ($$1$$) will be taken – this can be changed via the default_numerical_step_size parameter.

Parameters
modelobject, optional (default=None)

A predictive model object that has a predict method.

predictive_functionCallable, optional (default=None)

A function that takes in a 2-dimensional data array and returns class predictions. (Alternative to the model parameter.)

datasetnumpy.ndarray, optional (default=None)

A 2-dimensional data array representing a dataset used for the problem modeling. It is advised to use the same dataset as for the training of the model object.

categorical_indicesList[column indices], optional (default=None)

A list of column indices indicating which columns are categorical.

numerical_indicesList[column indices], optional (default=None)

A list of column indices indicating which columns are numerical.

counterfactual_feature_indicesList[column indices], optional (default=None)

A list of column indices indicating which features should be used to compose counterfactual examples. If None all of the features will be used to generate counterfactuals.

max_counterfactual_lengthinteger, optional (default=2)

The maximum length of counterfactuals – the number of features altered to compose a counterfactual instance. By default it is set to 2. If set to 0, all available features will be used.

feature_rangesDictionary[column indices, ranges], optional (default=None)

A dictionary with keys representing the column (feature) indices and the values representing feature ranges. Numerical feature ranges are represented as a pair of numbers (min, max) where the first number is the lower bound of the range and the second number is the upper bound of the range. For categorical features this should be a list of all the values that to be tested for this feature. If set to None, a dataset has to be provided to calculate these ranges.

distance_functionsDictionary[column indices, Callable], optional (default=None)

A dictionary with keys representing the column (feature) indices and the values representing Python functions – a Callable that takes two arguments – that will be used to calculate the distance for this particular feature.

step_sizesDictionary[column indices, Number], optional (default=None)

A dictionary with keys representing the column (feature) indices and the values representing step size for the grid search of this feature. It is only required for the numerical features.

default_numerical_step_sizeNumber, optional (default=1)

The default step size used with the grid search of numerical features when generating counterfactuals.

Attributes
predictCallable

A function used to predict the class of counterfactuals.

all_indicesSet[column indices]

A set of all the column (feature) indices in the data set from which counterfactuals are generated.

categorical_indicesSet[column indices]

A set of categorical columns (feature) indices in the data set.

numerical_indicesSet[column indices]

A set of numerical columns (feature) indices in the data set.

cf_feature_indicesSet[column indices]

A set of column (feature) indices that will be used to generate counterfactuals – only alterations of these features will be searched to generate counterfactuals.

feature_rangesDictionary[column indices, ranges]

A dictionary with ranges for all of the cf_feature_indices.

max_counterfactual_lengthNumber

The maximum length – the number of features altered – of a counterfactual instance.

distance_functionsDictionary[column indices, Callable]

A dictionary with distance functions for all of the cf_feature_indices.

step_sizesDictionary[column indices, Numbers]

A dictionary with step sizes for all of the numerical features in the cf_feature_indices.

Raises
AttributeError

The predictive_function parameter, if given, does not require 2 non-optional parameters. One of the distance functions provided via the distance_functions parameter does not require 2 non-optional parameters.

IncorrectShapeError

The dataset array is not 2-dimensional.

IndexError

Some of the categorical_indices or numerical_indices are not valid for the input dataset, when the latter is given. When both categorical_indices and numerical_indices parameters are given alongside a dataset they do not cover all of the dataset arrays’ column indices. The union of categorical and numerical indices does not form a series of consecutive integers when the dataset array is a classic numpy array. Some of the counterfactual_feature_indices are not valid. Some of the indices (dictionary keys) in the feature_ranges, distance_functions or step_sizes parameters are not valid (consistent with the provided column indices).

RuntimeError

The model object, if provided, lacks a predict method. Neither model nor predictive_function was specified – one of these is required.

TypeError

The predictive_function parameter is not Python callable, i.e. a Python function. The categorical_indices parameter is neither a list nor None. The numerical_indices parameter is neither a list nor None. Some of the indices given in these two lists do not share a common type – only all strings or all integers are allowed. The counterfactual_feature_indices parameter is neither a list nor None. The max_counterfactual_length parameter is not an integer. The feature_ranges parameter is neither a dictionary nor nor None. A feature range is not a list for a categorical feature or a feature range is not a tuple for a numerical feature. One of the numerical range tuple elements is not a number or all of the elements of a categorical feature range do not share the same type. The distance_functions parameter is not a dictionary. One of the distance functions defined via the distance_functions parameter is not a Python callable. The step_sizes parameter is not dictionary. One of the step sizes defined via the step_sizes parameter is not a number. The default_numerical_step_size parameter is not a number.

ValueError

Some of the categorical (textual) features in the dataset array (when given) are not indicated by the user – given via the categorical_indices parameter – to be categorical (it is not possible to treat textual fields as numerical features. Some of the categorical features in the dataset array are selected to be numerical via the numerical_indices parameter. Some of the feature ranges are missing and need to be computed from a dataset but none is given. categorical_indices and numerical_indices parameters were not provided in the absence of a dataset. The dataset array is not of a base type (strings and/or numbers). Both categorical_indices and numerical_indices parameters are empty lists. Both of these lists share some common indices. The counterfactual_feature_indices parameter is an empty list. The max_counterfactual_length parameter is not a non-negative integer. The feature_ranges parameter is an empty dictionary. One of the categorical ranges provided is an empty list. One of the numerical ranges is a tuple of length different than 2 or the second element of the range tuple is not strictly larger than the first one. The distance_functions parameter is an empty dictionary. The step_sizes parameter is an empty dictionary. Some of the step sizes specified via the step_sizes dictionary are not strictly positive numbers. The default_numerical_step_size parameter is not a strictly positive number. When discovering feature ranges from the dataset there is only one value for a numerical feature meaning that a range cannot be created.

Warns
UserWarning

The value of the max_counterfactual_length parameter is larger than the number of features. A step size (via the step_sizes parameter) is provided for one of the categorical features. Both a model and a predictive_function parameters are supplied. When discovering categorical feature ranges from the dataset there is only one unique value for any particular feature.

Methods

 explain_instance(instance, numpy.void], …) Finds counterfactual data points, their class and distance.
explain_instance(instance: Union[numpy.ndarray, numpy.void], counterfactual_class: Union[int, str, None] = None, normalise_distance: bool = False) → Tuple[numpy.ndarray, numpy.ndarray, numpy.ndarray][source]

Finds counterfactual data points, their class and distance.

Returns a numpy array with counterfactual instances, their predicted classes and distances for a given data instance. The counterfactual class can be selected by the user, otherwise all possible classes are considered.

Parameters
instancenumpy.ndarray or numpy.void

A 1-dimensional numpy array representing a data point for which counterfactuals are desired.

counterfactual_classstring or integer, optional (default=None)

A class of counterfactual instances. If None counterfactuals of all classes other than the predicted class of the input instance will be returned.

normalise_distanceboolean, optional (default=False)

Whether to normalise the distance, cf. the _get_distance method for more details.

Returns
counterfactualsnumpy.ndarray

A 2-dimensional numpy array with counterfactual data points.

counterfactuals_distancesnumpy.ndarray

A 1-dimensional numpy array with distances from the input instance to every counterfactual data point.

counterfactuals_predictionsnumpy.ndarray

A 1-dimensional numpy array with predictions for every counterfactual data point.

Raises
IncorrectShapeError

The input instance is not a 1-dimensional numpy array.

IndexError

The indices that were used to initialise this class are not valid for the given input instance.

TypeError

The counterfactual_class parameter is neither string not integer. The normalise_distance parameter is not a boolean.

ValueError

The input instance is not of a base type (string and/or integer).

Warns
UserWarning

When generating counterfactuals the value of one of the features for the specified input instance is outside of the specified range for this feature.