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Xrff

The XRFF (eXtensible attribute-Relation File Format) is an XML-based extension of the ARFF format.

File extensions#

  • .xrff

    the default extension of XRFF files

  • .xrff.gz

    the extension for gzip compressed XRFF files (see Compression for more details)

Comparison#

ARFF#

In the following a snippet of the UCI dataset iris in ARFF format:

 @relation iris

 @attribute sepallength numeric
 @attribute sepalwidth numeric
 @attribute petallength numeric
 @attribute petalwidth numeric
 @attribute class {Iris-setosa,Iris-versicolor,Iris-virginica}

 @data
 5.1,3.5,1.4,0.2,Iris-setosa
 4.9,3,1.4,0.2,Iris-setosa
 ...

XRFF#

And the same dataset represented as XRFF file:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

 <!DOCTYPE dataset
 [
    <!ELEMENT dataset (header,body)>
    <!ATTLIST dataset name CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST dataset version CDATA "3.5.4">

    <!ELEMENT header (notes?,attributes)>
    <!ELEMENT body (instances)>
    <!ELEMENT notes ANY>   <!--  comments, information, copyright, etc. -->

    <!ELEMENT attributes (attribute+)>
    <!ELEMENT attribute (labels?,metadata?,attributes?)>
    <!ATTLIST attribute name CDATA #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST attribute type (numeric|date|nominal|string|relational) #REQUIRED>
    <!ATTLIST attribute format CDATA #IMPLIED>
    <!ATTLIST attribute class (yes|no) "no">
    <!ELEMENT labels (label*)>   <!-- only for type "nominal" -->
    <!ELEMENT label ANY>
    <!ELEMENT metadata (property*)>
    <!ELEMENT property ANY>
    <!ATTLIST property name CDATA #REQUIRED>

    <!ELEMENT instances (instance*)>
    <!ELEMENT instance (value*)>
    <!ATTLIST instance type (normal|sparse) "normal">
    <!ATTLIST instance weight CDATA #IMPLIED>
    <!ELEMENT value (#PCDATA|instances)*>
    <!ATTLIST value index CDATA #IMPLIED>   <!-- 1-based index (only used for instance format "sparse") -->
    <!ATTLIST value missing (yes|no) "no">
 ]
 >

 <dataset name="iris" version="3.5.3">
    <header>
       <attributes>
          <attribute name="sepallength" type="numeric"/>
          <attribute name="sepalwidth" type="numeric"/>
          <attribute name="petallength" type="numeric"/>
          <attribute name="petalwidth" type="numeric"/>
          <attribute class="yes" name="class" type="nominal">
             <labels>
                <label>Iris-setosa</label>
                <label>Iris-versicolor</label>
                <label>Iris-virginica</label>
             </labels>
          </attribute>
       </attributes>
    </header>

    <body>
       <instances>
          <instance>
             <value>5.1</value>
             <value>3.5</value>
             <value>1.4</value>
             <value>0.2</value>
             <value>Iris-setosa</value>
          </instance>
          <instance>
             <value>4.9</value>
             <value>3</value>
             <value>1.4</value>
             <value>0.2</value>
             <value>Iris-setosa</value>
          </instance>
          ...
       </instances>
    </body>
 </dataset>

Sparse format#

The XRFF format also supports a sparse data representation. Even though the iris dataset does not contain sparse data, the above example will be used here to illustrate the sparse format:

 ...
 <instances>
    <instance type="sparse">
       <value index="1">5.1</value>
       <value index="2">3.5</value>
       <value index="3">1.4</value>
       <value index="4">0.2</value>
       <value index="5">Iris-setosa</value>
    </instance>
    <instance type="sparse">
       <value index="1">4.9</value>
       <value index="2">3</value>
       <value index="3">1.4</value>
       <value index="4">0.2</value>
       <value index="5">Iris-setosa</value>
    </instance>
    ...
 </instances>
 ...
In contrast to the normal data format, each sparse instance tag contains a type attribute with the value sparse:

 <instance type="sparse">
And each value tag needs to specify the index attribute, which contains the 1-based index of this value. 
 <value index="1">5.1</value>

Compression#

Since the XML representation takes up considerably more space than the rather compact ARFF format, one can also compress the data via gzip. Weka automatically recognizes a file being gzip compressed, if the file's extension is .xrff.gz instead of .xrff.

The Weka Explorer now allows to load/save compressed and uncompressed XRFF files (this applies also to ARFF files).

Additional features#

In addition to all the features of the ARFF format, the XRFF format contains the following additional features:

  • class attribute specification
  • attribute weights
  • instance weights

Class attribute specification#

Via the class="yes" attribute in the attribute specification in the header, one can define which attribute should act as class attribute. A feature that can be used on the command line as well as in the Experimenter, which now can also load other data formats, and removing the limitation of the class attribute always having to be the last one.

Snippet from the iris dataset:

 <attribute **class="yes"** name="class" type="nominal">

Attribute weights#

Attribute weights are stored in an attributes meta-data tag (in the header section). Here's an example of the petalwidth attribute with a weight of 0.9:

 <attribute name="petalwidth" type="numeric">
     <metadata>
        <property name="weight">0.9</property>
     </metadata>
 </attribute>

Instance weights#

Instance weights are defined via the weight attribute in each instance tag. By default, the weight is 1. Here's an example:

 <instance weight="0.75">
    <value>5.1</value>
    <value>3.5</value>
    <value>1.4</value>
    <value>0.2</value>
    <value>Iris-setosa</value>
 </instance>