AI engineering glossary · Feature engineering data prep
What is log transform?
Log transform: Replacing a value x with log(x), often log(1 + x) when zeros are possible. It compresses large values, turns multiplicative effects into additive ones and reduces right skew, which suits prices, incomes, counts and other quantities spanning several orders of magnitude.
Log transform: an example
Sales of Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,00,000 differ by 1000x, but their log10 values are 3 and 6, a gap of just 3.
Related terms
More Feature engineering data prep terms
- Mahalanobis distance
- Max-abs scaling
- Mean imputation
- Median imputation
- Min-max scaling
- Missing at random
- Missing completely at random
- Missing indicator
Where you learn it
Log transform is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.