Clean Outlier Data

Find, fill, or remove outliers in the Live Editor

Description

The Clean Outlier Data task lets you interactively handle outliers in data. The task automatically generates MATLAB^® code for your live script.

Using this task, you can:

• Find, fill, or remove outliers from data in a workspace variable.

• Customize the methods for finding and filling outliers.

• Visualize the outlier data and cleaned data.

For more information on Live Editor tasks, see Add Interactive Tasks to a Live Script.

Related Functions

Clean Outlier Data generates code that uses the isoutlier, filloutliers, and rmoutliers functions.

Open the Task

To add the Clean Outlier Data task to a live script in the MATLAB Editor:

• On the Live Editor tab, select Task > Clean Outlier Data.

• In a code block in the script, type a relevant keyword, such as outlier, clean, fill, or remove. Select Clean Outlier Data from the suggested command completions. For some keywords, the task automatically updates one or more corresponding parameters.

Examples

Remove Outliers from Table

Interactively remove outliers from a table using the Clean Outlier Data task in the Live Editor.

Create a table using patient height and weight data from a sample file.

load("patients.mat","Height","Weight")
T = table(Height,Weight);
head(T)

    Height    Weight
    ______    ______

      71       176  
      69       163  
      64       131  
      67       133  
      64       119  
      68       142  
      64       142  
      68       180  

Open the Clean Outlier Data task in the Live Editor. To clean the patient data, select T as the input data. Then, compute on the Height and Weight variables by selecting All supported variables.

The Clean Outlier Data task can fill or remove outlier data. To remove the table rows corresponding to patients with outlier height or weight measurements, use the Cleaning method field to select Remove outliers. Then, to define outliers as elements below the 10th percentile or above the 90th percentile, use the Detection method field to select Percentiles.

Then, to visualize the cleaned height and weight data, use the Variable to display field to select all variables.

This task returns a table of the cleaned data and a logical vector indicating the rows removed from the input table. Use outlierIndices to determine the number of rows removed from the table.

nrows = sum(outlierIndices)

nrows = 
24

Related Examples

• Add Interactive Tasks to a Live Script
• Clean Messy Data and Locate Extrema Using Live Editor Tasks
• Data Smoothing and Outlier Detection

Parameters

Input data — Valid input data from workspace

vector | table | timetable

This task operates on input data contained in a vector, table, or timetable. The data can be of type single or double.

For table or timetable input data, to clean all variables with type single or double, select All supported variables. To choose which single or double variables to clean, select Specified variables.

Cleaning method — Cleaning method for filling outliers

Linear interpolation (default) | Constant value | Convert to missing | ...

Specify the method for filling outliers as one of these options.

Fill Method	Description
Linear interpolation	Linear interpolation of neighboring, nonoutlier values
Constant value	Specified scalar value, which is 0 by default
Convert to missing	Convert to default definition of standard missing value
Center value	Center value determined by the detection method
Clip to threshold value	Lower threshold value for elements smaller than the lower threshold determined by the detection method; upper threshold value for elements larger than the upper threshold determined by the detection method
Previous value	Previous nonoutlier value
Next value	Next nonoutlier value
Nearest value	Nearest nonoutlier value
Spline interpolation	Piecewise cubic spline interpolation
Shape-preserving cubic interpolation (PCHIP)	Shape-preserving piecewise cubic spline interpolation
Modified Akima cubic interpolation	Modified Akima cubic Hermite interpolation

Detection method — Method for detecting outliers

Moving median (default) | Median | Mean | ...

Specify the detection method for finding outliers as one of these options.

Method	Description
Moving median	Define outliers as elements more than the specified threshold of local scaled median absolute deviations (MAD) from the local median over a specified window. The default threshold is 3.
Median	Define outliers as elements more than the specified threshold of scaled MAD from the median. The default threshold is 3. For input data A, the scaled MAD is defined as c*median(abs(A-median(A))), where c=-1/(sqrt(2)*erfcinv(3/2)).
Mean	Define outliers as elements more than the specified threshold of standard deviations from the mean. The default threshold is 3. This method is faster but less robust than Median.
Quartiles	Define outliers as elements more than the specified threshold of interquartile ranges above the upper quartile (75 percent) or below the lower quartile (25 percent). The default threshold is 1.5. This method is useful when the input data is not normally distributed.
Grubbs	Define outliers using Grubbs’ test, which removes one outlier per iteration based on hypothesis testing. This method assumes that the input data is normally distributed.
Generalized extreme studentized deviate (GESD)	Define outliers using the generalized extreme studentized deviate test for outliers. This iterative method is similar to Grubbs but can perform better when multiple outliers are masking each other.
Moving mean	Define outliers as elements more than the specified threshold of local standard deviations from the local mean over a specified window. The default threshold is 3.
Percentiles	Define outliers as elements outside of the percentile range specified by an upper and lower threshold. The default lower percentile threshold is 10, and the default upper percentile threshold is 90. Valid threshold values are in the interval [0, 100].
Range (since R2024b)	Define outliers as elements outside of the range specified by an upper and lower threshold. Specify the thresholds as scalars or vectors matching the width of the input data.
Workspace variable (since R2024b)	Define outlier locations using a workspace variable. Specify a logical array or table with logical variables, where elements with a value of 1 (true) correspond to outliers.

Moving window — Window for moving methods

Centered (default) | Asymmetric

Specify the window type and size when the method for detecting outliers is Moving median or Moving mean.

Window	Description
Centered	Specified window length centered about the current point
Asymmetric	Specified window containing the number of elements before the current point and the number of elements after the current point

Window sizes are relative to the X-axis variable units.

Version History

Introduced in R2019b

R2024b: Detect outliers using range or workspace variable

You can define outliers as elements outside of a range defined by an upper and lower threshold or as elements indicated by a value of 1 (true) in a workspace variable. Select the Range or Workspace variable detection method, respectively.

R2022b: Plot multiple table variables

Simultaneously plot multiple table variables in the display of this Live Editor task. For table or timetable data, to visualize all selected table variables at once in a tiled chart layout, set the Variable to display field.

R2022b: Convert outliers to missing

You can convert outlier data to missing data indicated by the value NaN. Set the Cleaning method field to Fill outliers and select the Convert to missing option.

R2022b: Append cleaned table variables

Append input table variables with table variables containing cleaned data. For table or timetable input data, to append the cleaned data, set the Output format field.

R2022a: Live Editor task does not run automatically if inputs have more than 1 million elements

This Live Editor task does not run automatically if the inputs have more than 1 million elements. In previous releases, the task always ran automatically for inputs of any size. If the inputs have a large number of elements, then the code generated by this task can take a noticeable amount of time to run (more than a few seconds).

When a task does not run automatically, the Autorun indicator is disabled. You can either run the task manually when needed or choose to enable the task to run automatically.

R2021a: Operate on multiple table variables

This Live Editor task can operate on multiple table variables at the same time. For table or timetable input data, to operate on multiple variables, select All supported variables or Specified variables. Return all of the variables or only the modified variables, and specify which variable to visualize.

R2021a: Visualize results with histogram

Visualize results with a histogram plot for most detection methods. The histogram can summarize the input data, outliers, cleaned data with outliers filled, and outlier detection thresholds and center value.