loss

R2026b

Loss of k-nearest neighbor classifier

Syntax

L = loss(Mdl,Tbl,ResponseVarName)

L = loss(Mdl,Tbl,Y)

L = loss(Mdl,X,Y)

L = loss(___,Name=Value)

Description

L = loss(Mdl,Tbl,ResponseVarName) returns a scalar representing how well Mdl classifies the data in Tbl when Tbl.ResponseVarName contains the true classifications. If Tbl contains the response variable used to train Mdl, then you do not need to specify ResponseVarName.

The meaning of the classification loss (L) depends on the loss function and weighting scheme, but, in general, better classifiers yield smaller classification loss values. For more details, see Classification Loss.

L = loss(Mdl,Tbl,Y) returns a scalar representing how well Mdl classifies the data in Tbl when Y contains the true classifications.

L = loss(Mdl,X,Y) returns a scalar representing how well Mdl classifies the data in X when Y contains the true classifications.

L = loss(___,Name=Value) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments in addition to the input arguments in previous syntaxes. For example, you can specify the loss function and the classification weights.

Examples

Loss Calculation

Create a k-nearest neighbor classifier for the Fisher iris data, where k = 5.

Load the Fisher iris data set.

load fisheriris

Create a classifier for five nearest neighbors.

Mdl = fitcknn(meas,species,NumNeighbors=5);

Examine the loss of the classifier for a mean observation classified as versicolor.

X = mean(meas);
Y = "versicolor";
L = loss(Mdl,X,Y)

L = 
0

All five nearest neighbors classify as versicolor.

Input Arguments

Mdl — k-nearest neighbor classifier model

ClassificationKNN object

k-nearest neighbor classifier model, specified as a ClassificationKNN object.

Tbl — Sample data

table

Sample data used to train the model, specified as a table. Each row of Tbl corresponds to one observation, and each column corresponds to one predictor variable. Optionally, Tbl can contain one additional column for the response variable. Multicolumn variables and cell arrays other than cell arrays of character vectors are not allowed.

If Tbl contains the response variable used to train Mdl, then you do not need to specify ResponseVarName or Y.

If you train Mdl using sample data contained in a table, then the input data for loss must also be in a table.

Data Types: table

ResponseVarName — Response variable name

name of a variable in Tbl

Response variable name, specified as the name of a variable in Tbl. If Tbl contains the response variable used to train Mdl, then you do not need to specify ResponseVarName.

You must specify ResponseVarName as a character vector or string scalar. For example, if the response variable is stored as Tbl.response, then specify it as "response". Otherwise, the software treats all columns of Tbl, including Tbl.response, as predictors.

The response variable must be a categorical, character, or string array, logical or numeric vector, or cell array of character vectors. If the response variable is a character array, then each element must correspond to one row of the array.

Data Types: char | string

X — Predictor data

numeric matrix

Predictor data, specified as a numeric matrix. Each row of X represents one observation, and each column represents one variable.

Data Types: single | double

Y — Class labels

categorical array | character array | string array | logical vector | numeric vector | cell array of character vectors

Class labels, specified as a categorical, character, or string array, logical or numeric vector, or cell array of character vectors. Each row of Y represents the classification of the corresponding row of X.

Data Types: categorical | char | string | logical | single | double | cell

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: loss(Mdl,Tbl,"response",LossFun="exponential",Weights="w") returns the weighted exponential loss of Mdl classifying the data in Tbl. Here, Tbl.response is the response variable, and Tbl.w is the weight variable.

LossFun — Loss function

"mincost" (default) | "binodeviance" | "classifcost" | "classiferror" | "exponential" | "hinge" | "logit" | "quadratic" | function handle

Loss function, specified as a built-in loss function name or a function handle.

• The following table lists the available loss functions.

  Value	Description
  "binodeviance"	Binomial deviance
  "classifcost"	Observed misclassification cost
  "classiferror"	Misclassified rate in decimal
  "exponential"	Exponential loss
  "hinge"	Hinge loss
  "logit"	Logistic loss
  "mincost"	Minimal expected misclassification cost (for classification scores that are posterior probabilities)
  "quadratic"	Quadratic loss

  "mincost" is appropriate for classification scores that are posterior probabilities. By default, k-nearest neighbor models return posterior probabilities as classification scores (see predict).

• You can specify a function handle for a custom loss function using @ (for example, @lossfun). Let n be the number of observations in X and K be the number of distinct classes (numel(Mdl.ClassNames)). Your custom loss function must have this form:

  function lossvalue = lossfun(C,S,W,Cost)

  • C is an n-by-K logical matrix with rows indicating the class to which the corresponding observation belongs. The column order corresponds to the class order in Mdl.ClassNames. Construct C by setting C(p,q) = 1, if observation p is in class q, for each row. Set all other elements of row p to 0.

  • S is an n-by-K numeric matrix of classification scores. The column order corresponds to the class order in Mdl.ClassNames. The argument S is a matrix of classification scores, similar to the output of predict.

  • W is an n-by-1 numeric vector of observation weights. If you pass W, the software normalizes the weights to sum to 1.

  • Cost is a K-by-K numeric matrix of misclassification costs. For example, Cost = ones(K) – eye(K) specifies a cost of 0 for correct classification and 1 for misclassification.

  • The output argument lossvalue is a scalar.

For more details on loss functions, see Classification Loss.

Example: LossFun="classiferror"

Data Types: char | string | function_handle

Prior — Class weights

Mdl.Prior (default) | "empirical" | "uniform" | numeric vector

Since R2026b

Class weights, or prior probabilities, specified as "empirical", "uniform", or a numeric vector.

Value	Description
"empirical"	loss uses the class frequencies in Y or Tbl.ResponseVarName. The function returns an unweighted loss, with respect to class.
"uniform"	loss assigns a weight of 1/K to each class, where K is the number of classes.
Numeric vector	Specify a custom weight for each class. The sum of the weights must equal 1.

By default, loss uses the class prior probabilities specified in the Prior property of the classification model.

Example: Prior="empirical"

Data Types: single | double | char | string

Weights — Observation weights

ones(size(X,1),1) (default) | numeric vector | name of a variable in Tbl

Observation weights, specified as a numeric vector or the name of a variable in Tbl.

If you specify Weights as a numeric vector, then the size of Weights must be equal to the number of rows in X or Tbl.

If you specify Weights as the name of a variable in Tbl, the name must be a character vector or string scalar. For example, if the weights are stored as Tbl.w, then specify Weights as "w". Otherwise, the software treats all columns of Tbl, including Tbl.w, as predictors.

loss normalizes the weights so that observation weights in each class sum to the prior probability of that class. When you supply Weights, loss computes the weighted classification loss.

Example: Weights="w"

Data Types: single | double | char | string

Output Arguments

L — Classification loss

numeric scalar

Classification loss, returned as a numeric scalar. The interpretation of L depends on LossFun, Prior, and Weights. For more information, see Classification Loss.

Tips

• By default, loss uses the class probabilities specified during training (which are stored in the Prior property of the classification model) to compute the classification loss. To return the class-unweighted loss, specify Prior="empirical". (since R2026b)

• If the predictor data in X or Tbl contains any missing values and LossFun is not set to "classifcost", "classiferror", or "mincost", the loss function might return NaN. (since R2022a)

  If loss in your code returns NaN, you can update your code to avoid this result by doing one of the following:

  • Remove or replace the missing values by using rmmissing or fillmissing, respectively.

  • Specify the name-value argument LossFun as "classifcost", "classiferror", or "mincost".

Algorithms

Classification Loss

Classification loss functions measure the predictive inaccuracy of classification models. When you compare the same type of loss among many models, a lower loss indicates a better predictive model.

Consider the following scenario.

• L is the weighted average classification loss.

• n is the sample size.

• For binary classification:

  • y_j is the observed class label. The software codes it as –1 or 1, indicating the negative or positive class (or the first or second class in the ClassNames property), respectively.

  • f(X_j) is the positive-class classification score for observation (row) j of the predictor data X.

  • m_j = y_jf(X_j) is the classification score for classifying observation j into the class corresponding to y_j. Positive values of m_j indicate correct classification and do not contribute much to the average loss. Negative values of m_j indicate incorrect classification and contribute significantly to the average loss.

• For algorithms that support multiclass classification (that is, K ≥ 3):

  • y_j ^* is a vector of K – 1 zeros, with 1 in the position corresponding to the true, observed class y_j . For example, if the true class of the second observation is the third class and K = 4, then y ₂ ^* = [0 0 1 0]′. The order of the classes corresponds to the order in the ClassNames property of the input model.

  • f(X_j ) is the length K vector of class scores for observation j of the predictor data X. The order of the scores corresponds to the order of the classes in the ClassNames property of the input model.

  • m_j = y_j ^*′f(X_j ). Therefore, m_j is the scalar classification score that the model predicts for the true, observed class.

• The weight for observation j is w_j . The software normalizes the observation weights so that they sum to the corresponding class weights (prior probabilities) specified by the Prior name-value argument. Therefore,

  $${\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j}=1.$$

Given this scenario, the following table describes the supported loss functions that you can specify by using the LossFun name-value argument.

Loss Function	Value of LossFun	Equation
Binomial deviance	"binodeviance"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j\log \left\{1+\exp \left[-2m_j\right]\right\}}.$$
Observed misclassification cost	"classifcost"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j}{c}_{y_j{\widehat{y}}_j},$$ where $${\widehat{y}}_j$$ is the class label corresponding to the class with the maximal score, and $$c_{y_j{\widehat{y}}_j}$$ is the user-specified cost of classifying an observation into class $${\widehat{y}}_j$$ when its true class is yj.
Misclassified rate in decimal	"classiferror"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j}I\left\{{\widehat{y}}_j\ne y_j\right\},$$ where I{·} is the indicator function.
Cross-entropy loss	"crossentropy"	"crossentropy" is appropriate only for neural network models. The weighted cross-entropy loss is $$L=-{\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n\frac{{\tilde{w}}_j\log (m_j)}{Kn}},$$ where the weights $${\tilde{w}}_j$$ are normalized to sum to n instead of 1.
Exponential loss	"exponential"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j\exp \left(-m_j\right)}.$$
Hinge loss	"hinge"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum }_{j=1}^n{w}_j\max \left\{0,1-m_j\right\}.$$
Logistic loss	"logit"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j\log \left(1+\exp \left(-m_j\right)\right)}.$$
Minimal expected misclassification cost	"mincost"	"mincost" is appropriate only if classification scores are posterior probabilities. The software computes the weighted minimal expected classification cost using this procedure for observations j = 1,...,n. Estimate the expected misclassification cost of classifying the observation Xj into the class k: $${\gamma }_{jk}={\left(f{\left(X_j\right)}^{\prime }C\right)}_k.$$ f(Xj) is the column vector of class posterior probabilities for the observation Xj. C is the cost matrix stored in the Cost property of the model. For observation j, predict the class label corresponding to the minimal expected misclassification cost: $${\widehat{y}}_j=\underset{k=1,\mathrm{...},K}{\text{argmin}}{\gamma }_{jk}.$$ Using C, identify the cost incurred (cj) for making the prediction. The weighted average of the minimal expected misclassification cost loss is $$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j{c}_j}.$$
Quadratic loss	"quadratic"	$$L={\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^n{w}_j{\left(1-m_j\right)}^2}.$$

If you use the default cost matrix (whose element value is 0 for correct classification and 1 for incorrect classification), then the loss values for "classifcost", "classiferror", and "mincost" are identical. For a model with a nondefault cost matrix, the "classifcost" loss is equivalent to the "mincost" loss most of the time. These losses can be different if prediction into the class with maximal posterior probability is different from prediction into the class with minimal expected cost. Note that "mincost" is appropriate only if classification scores are posterior probabilities.

This figure compares the loss functions (except "classifcost", "crossentropy", and "mincost") over the score m for one observation. Some functions are normalized to pass through the point (0,1).

True Misclassification Cost

Two costs are associated with KNN classification: the true misclassification cost per class and the expected misclassification cost per observation.

You can set the true misclassification cost per class by using the Cost name-value argument when you run fitcknn. The value Cost(i,j) is the cost of classifying an observation into class j if its true class is i. By default, Cost(i,j) = 1 if i ~= j, and Cost(i,j) = 0 if i = j. In other words, the cost is 0 for correct classification and 1 for incorrect classification.

Expected Cost

Two costs are associated with KNN classification: the true misclassification cost per class and the expected misclassification cost per observation. The third output of predict is the expected misclassification cost per observation.

Suppose you have Nobs observations that you want to classify with a trained classifier Mdl, and you have K classes. You place the observations into a matrix Xnew with one observation per row. The command

[label,score,cost] = predict(Mdl,Xnew)

returns a matrix cost of size Nobs-by-K, among other outputs. Each row of the cost matrix contains the expected (average) cost of classifying the observation into each of the K classes. cost(n,j) is

$${\displaystyle \sum _{i=1}^K\widehat{P}\left(i|Xnew(n)\right)C\left(j|i\right)},$$

where

• K is the number of classes.

• $$\widehat{P}\left(i|X(n)\right)$$ is the posterior probability of class i for observation Xnew(n).

• $$C\left(j|i\right)$$ is the true misclassification cost of classifying an observation as j when its true class is i.

Extended Capabilities

Tall Arrays

Calculate with arrays that have more rows than fit in memory.

The loss function fully supports tall arrays. For more information, see Tall Arrays.

GPU Arrays

Accelerate code by running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• loss does not support GPU arrays for ClassificationKNN models with the following specifications:

  • The NSMethod property is specified as "kdtree".

  • The Distance property is specified as "fasteuclidean", "fastseuclidean", or a function handle.

  • The IncludeTies property is specified as true.

For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions on a GPU (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Version History

Introduced in R2012a

R2026b: Compute the class-unweighted loss

Compute the class-unweighted loss by setting the Prior name-value argument to "empirical" in the call to loss. You can also compute a class-weighted loss by setting Prior to the value "uniform" or a numeric vector whose entries sum to 1.

R2022a: loss can return NaN for predictor data with missing values

The loss function no longer omits an observation with a NaN score when computing the weighted average classification loss. Therefore, loss can now return NaN when the predictor data X or the predictor variables in Tbl contain any missing values, and the name-value argument LossFun is not specified as "classifcost", "classiferror", or "mincost". In most cases, if the test set observations do not contain missing predictors, the loss function does not return NaN.

This change improves the automatic selection of a classification model when you use fitcauto. Before this change, the software might select a model (expected to best classify new data) with few non-NaN predictors.

If loss in your code returns NaN, you can update your code to avoid this result by doing one of the following:

• Remove or replace the missing values by using rmmissing or fillmissing, respectively.

• Specify the name-value argument LossFun as "classifcost", "classiferror", or "mincost".

The following table shows the classification models for which the loss object function might return NaN. For more details, see the Compatibility Considerations for each loss function.

Model Type	Full or Compact Model Object	loss Object Function
Discriminant analysis classification model	ClassificationDiscriminant, CompactClassificationDiscriminant	loss
Ensemble of learners for classification	ClassificationEnsemble, CompactClassificationEnsemble	loss
Gaussian kernel classification model	ClassificationKernel	loss
k-nearest neighbor classification model	ClassificationKNN	loss
Linear classification model	ClassificationLinear	loss
Neural network classification model	ClassificationNeuralNetwork, CompactClassificationNeuralNetwork	loss
Support vector machine (SVM) classification model	ClassificationSVM, CompactClassificationSVM	loss