A permutational-based Differential Evolution algorithm for feature subset selection

Abstract This paper describes a permutational-based Differential Evolution algorithm implemented in a wrapper scheme to find a feature subset to be applied in the construction of a near-optimal classifier. In this approach, the relevance of a feature chosen to build a better classifier is represented through its relative position in an integer-valued vector, and by using a permutational-based mutation operator, it is possible to create new feasible candidate solutions only. Furthermore, to provide a controlled diversity rate in the population, a straightforward repair-based recombination operator is utilized to evolve a population of candidate solutions. Unlike the other approaches in the existing literature using integer-valued vectors and requiring a predefined subset size, in this approach, this size is determined by an additional element included in the encoding scheme, allowing to find an adequate feature subset size to each specific dataset. Experimental results show that this approach is an effective way to create more accurate classifiers as they are compared with those obtained by other similar approaches.