Multi-Label Feature Selection with Feature–Label Subgraph Association and Graph Representation Learning

In multi-label data, a sample is associated with multiple labels at the same time, and the computational complexity is manifested in the high-dimensional feature space as well as the interdependence and unbalanced distribution of labels, which leads to challenges regarding feature selection. As a result, a multi-label feature selection method based on feature-label subgraph association with graph representation learning (SAGRL) is proposed to represent the complex correlations of features and labels, especially the relationships between features and labels. Specifically, features and labels are mapped to nodes in the graph structure, and the connections between nodes are established to form feature and label sets, respectively, which increase intra-class correlation and decrease inter-class correlation. Further, feature-label subgraphs are constructed by feature and label sets to provide abundant feature combinations. The relationship between each subgraph is adjusted by graph representation learning, the crucial features in different label sets are selected, and the optimal feature subset is obtained by ranking. Experimental studies on 11 datasets show the superior performance of the proposed method with six evaluation metrics over some state-of-the-art multi-label feature selection methods.