The CREATE MODEL statement for matrix factorization models
This document describes the CREATE MODEL
statement for creating
matrix factorization
models in BigQuery. Matrix factorization models support
hyperparameter tuning.
For information about the supported SQL statements and functions for each model type, see End-to-end user journey for each model.
CREATE MODEL
syntax
{CREATE MODEL | CREATE MODEL IF NOT EXISTS | CREATE OR REPLACE MODEL} model_name OPTIONS(model_option_list) AS query_statement model_option_list: MODEL_TYPE = 'MATRIX_FACTORIZATION' [, FEEDBACK_TYPE = {'EXPLICIT' | 'IMPLICIT'} ] [, NUM_FACTORS = { int64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) } ] [, USER_COL = string_value ] [, ITEM_COL = string_value ] [, RATING_COL = string_value ] [, WALS_ALPHA = { float64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) } ] [, L2_REG = { float64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) } ] [, MAX_ITERATIONS = int64_value ] [, EARLY_STOP = { TRUE | FALSE } ] [, MIN_REL_PROGRESS = float64_value ] [, DATA_SPLIT_METHOD = { 'AUTO_SPLIT' | 'RANDOM' | 'CUSTOM' | 'SEQ' | 'NO_SPLIT' } ] [, DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION = float64_value ] [, DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION = float64_value ] [, DATA_SPLIT_COL = string_value ] [, NUM_TRIALS = int64_value ] [, MAX_PARALLEL_TRIALS = int64_value ] [, HPARAM_TUNING_ALGORITHM = { 'VIZIER_DEFAULT' | 'RANDOM_SEARCH' | 'GRID_SEARCH' } ] [, HPARAM_TUNING_OBJECTIVES = { 'MEAN_SQUARED_ERROR' | 'MEAN_AVERAGE_PRECISION' | ... } ] [, MODEL_REGISTRY = { 'VERTEX_AI' } ] [, VERTEX_AI_MODEL_ID = string_value ] [, VERTEX_AI_MODEL_VERSION_ALIASES = string_array ] [, KMS_KEY_NAME = string_value ]
CREATE MODEL
Creates and trains a new model in the specified dataset. If the model name
exists, CREATE MODEL
returns an error.
CREATE MODEL IF NOT EXISTS
Creates and trains a new model only if the model doesn't exist in the specified dataset.
CREATE OR REPLACE MODEL
Creates and trains a model and replaces an existing model with the same name in the specified dataset.
model_name
The name of the model you're creating or replacing. The model name must be unique in the dataset: no other model or table can have the same name. The model name must follow the same naming rules as a BigQuery table. A model name can:
- Contain up to 1,024 characters
- Contain letters (upper or lower case), numbers, and underscores
model_name
is not case-sensitive.
If you don't have a default project configured, then you must prepend the project ID to the model name in the following format, including backticks:
`[PROJECT_ID].[DATASET].[MODEL]`
For example, `myproject.mydataset.mymodel`.
MODEL_TYPE
Syntax
MODEL_TYPE = 'MATRIX_FACTORIZATION'
Description
Specifies the model type. To create a matrix factorization model, specify MATRIX_FACTORIZATION
.
FEEDBACK_TYPE
Syntax
FEEDBACK_TYPE = { 'EXPLICIT' | 'IMPLICIT' }
Description
Specifies the feedback type for the model. The feedback type determines the algorithm that is used during training.
Arguments
There are two types of ratings (user feedback): EXPLICIT
and IMPLICIT
.
Use the one that best fits your use case.
If the user has explicitly provided a rating, for example 1-5, to an item such as movie recommendations, then specify
EXPLICIT
. This trains the model using the Alternating Least Squares algorithm. This is the default value.If you don't have explicit user feedback, the rating value must be artificially constructed based on the user's interaction with the item, for example, by looking at their clicks, pageviews, and purchases. In this situation, specify
IMPLICIT
. This trains the model using the Weighted-Alternating Least Squares algorithm.
For more information about the differences between the two feedback types and when to use which type, see Feedback types.
NUM_FACTORS
Syntax
NUM_FACTORS = { int64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) }
Description
Specifies the number of latent factors to use.
Arguments
If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then you can specify an INT64
value between 2
and 200
. The default value is
log2(n)
, where n
is the number of training examples.
If you are running hyperparameter tuning, use one of the following options:
- The
HPARAM_RANGE
keyword and twoINT64
values that define the range of the hyperparameter. For example,NUM_FACTORS = HPARAM_RANGE(5, 20)
. - The
HPARAM_CANDIDATES
keyword and an array ofINT64
values that provide discrete values to use for the hyperparameter. For example,NUM_FACTORS = HPARAM_CANDIDATES([5, 10, 20, 40])
.
When running hyperparameter tuning, the valid range is [2, 200]
,the
default range is [2, 20]
, and the scale type is LINEAR
.
USER_COL
Syntax
USER_COL = string_value
Description
The user column name.
Arguments
A STRING
value. The default value is user
.
ITEM_COL
Syntax
ITEM_COL = string_value
Description
The item column name.
Arguments
A STRING
value. The default value is item
.
RATING_COL
Syntax
RATING_COL = string_value
Description
The rating column name.
Arguments
A STRING
value. The default value is rating
.
WALS_ALPHA
Syntax
WALS_ALPHA = { float64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) }
Description
Adjusts the user feedback's impact on recommendation confidence, balancing positive and negative input in the loss function.
You can only use this hyperparameter with IMPLICIT
matrix factorization models.
For more information, see Feedback types.
Arguments
If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then you can specify a FLOAT64
value. The default value is 40.0
.
If you are running hyperparameter tuning, use one of the following options:
- The
HPARAM_RANGE
keyword and twoFLOAT64
values that define the range of the hyperparameter. For example,WALS_ALPHA = HPARAM_RANGE(0, 5.0)
. - The
HPARAM_CANDIDATES
keyword and an array ofFLOAT64
values that provide discrete values to use for the hyperparameter. For example,WALS_ALPHA = HPARAM_CANDIDATES([0, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0])
.
When running hyperparameter tuning, the valid range is (0, ∞]
,
the default range is [0, 100.0]
, and the scale type is LINEAR
.
L2_REG
Syntax
L2_REG = { float64_value | HPARAM_RANGE(range) | HPARAM_CANDIDATES([candidates]) }
Description
The amount of L2 regularization applied.
Arguments
If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then you can specify a
FLOAT64
value. The default value is 1.0
.
If you are running hyperparameter tuning, then you can use one of the following options:
- The
HPARAM_RANGE
keyword and twoFLOAT64
values that define the range to use for the hyperparameter. For example,L2_REG = HPARAM_RANGE(1.5, 5.0)
. - The
HPARAM_CANDIDATES
keyword and an array ofFLOAT64
values that provide discrete values to use for the hyperparameter. For example,L2_REG = HPARAM_CANDIDATES([0, 1.0, 3.0, 5.0])
.
When running hyperparameter tuning, the valid range is (0, ∞)
, the
default range is (0, 10.0]
, and the scale type is LOG
.
MAX_ITERATIONS
Syntax
MAX_ITERATIONS = int64_value
Description
The maximum number of training iterations, where one iteration represents a single pass of the entire training data.
Arguments
An INT64
value. The default value is 20
.
EARLY_STOP
Syntax
EARLY_STOP = { TRUE | FALSE }
Description
Determines whether training should stop after the first iteration in which the
relative loss improvement is less than the value specified for
MIN_REL_PROGRESS
.
Arguments
A BOOL
value. The default value is TRUE
.
MIN_REL_PROGRESS
Syntax
MIN_REL_PROGRESS = float64_value
Description
The minimum relative loss improvement that is necessary to continue training
when EARLY_STOP
is set to TRUE
. For example, a value of
0.01
specifies that each iteration must reduce the loss by 1% for training
to continue.
Arguments
A FLOAT64
value. The default value is 0.01
.
DATA_SPLIT_METHOD
Syntax
DATA_SPLIT_METHOD = { 'AUTO_SPLIT' | 'RANDOM' | 'CUSTOM' | 'SEQ' | 'NO_SPLIT' }
Description
The method used to split input data into training, evaluation, and, if you are running hyperparameter tuning, test data sets. Training data is used to train the model. Evaluation data is used to avoid overfitting by using early stopping. Test data is used to test the hyperparameter tuning trial and record its metrics in the model.
The percentage sizes of the data sets produced by the various arguments for this option are approximate. Larger input data sets come closer to the percentages described than smaller input data sets do.
You can see the model's data split information in the following ways:
- The data split method and percentage are shown in the Training Options section of the model's Details page on the BigQuery page of the Google Cloud console.
- Links to temporary tables that contain the split data are available in the
Model Details section of the model's Details page on the
BigQuery of the Google Cloud console. You can also return
this information from the
DataSplitResult
field in the BigQuery API. These tables are saved for 48 hours. If you need this information for more than 48 hours, then you should export this data or copy it to permanent tables.
Arguments
This option accepts the following values:
*AUTO_SPLIT
: This option splits the data as
follows:
- If there are fewer than 500 rows in the input data, then all rows are used as training data.
If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then data is randomized and split as follows:
- If there are between 500 and 50,000 rows in the input data, then 20% of the data is used as evaluation data and 80% is used as training data.
- If there are more than 50,000 rows, then 10,000 rows are used as evaluation data and the remaining rows are used as training data.
If you are running hyperparameter tuning and there are more than 500 rows in the input data, then the data is randomized and split as follows:
- 10% of the data is used as evaluation data
- 10% is used as test data
80% is used as training data
For more information, see Data split.
RANDOM
: Data is randomized before being split into sets. You can use this option with theDATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
andDATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
options to customize the data split. If you don't specify either of those options, data is split in the same way as for theAUTO_SPLIT
option.A random split is deterministic: different training runs produce the same split results if the same underlying training data is used.
CUSTOM
: Split data using the value in a specified column:- If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then you must provide the
name of a column of type
BOOL
. Rows with a value ofTRUE
orNULL
are used as evaluation data, rows with a value ofFALSE
are used as training data. - If you are running hyperparameter tuning, then you must provide the name
of a column of type
STRING
. Rows with a value ofTRAIN
are used as training data, rows with a value ofEVAL
are used as evaluation data, and rows with a value ofTEST
are used as test data.
Use the
DATA_SPLIT_COL
option to identify the column that contains the data split information.- If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, then you must provide the
name of a column of type
SEQ
: Split data sequentially by using the value in a specified column of one of the following types:NUMERIC
BIGNUMERIC
STRING
TIMESTAMP
The data is sorted smallest to largest based on the specified column.
When you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, the first n rows are used as evaluation data, where n is the value specified for
DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
. The remaining rows are used as training data.When you are running hyperparameter tuning, the first n rows are used as evaluation data, where n is the value specified for
DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
. The next m rows are used as test data, where m is the value specified forDATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
. The remaining rows are used as training data.All rows with split values smaller than the threshold are used as training data. The remaining rows, including
NULLs
, are used as evaluation data.Use the
DATA_SPLIT_COL
option to identify the column that contains the data split information.NO_SPLIT
: This is the default. No data split; all input data is used as training data.While the other methods are supported, use them with caution. Due to the nature of the matrix factorization algorithm, if a split eliminates all of the ratings for a user or item, a factor weight vector is not generated for the user or item.
However, use this option with caution when tuning the
NUM_FACTORS
hyperparameter. AlthoughNO_SPLIT
allows better performance when using larger values forNUM_FACTORS
, the validity of the results might be degraded.
DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
Syntax
DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION = float64_value
Description
The fraction of the data to use as evaluation data. Use when you are
specifying RANDOM
or SEQ
as the value for the
DATA_SPLIT_COL
option.
If you are running hyperparameter tuning and you specify a value for this
option, you must also specify a value for
DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
. In this
case, the training dataset is
1 - eval_fraction - test_fraction
. For
example, if you specify 20.00
for DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
and 8.0
for
DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
, your training dataset is 72% of the input data.
Arguments
A FLOAT64
value. The default is 0.2
. The service maintains the accuracy of
the input value to two decimal places.
DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
Syntax
DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION = float64_value
Description
The fraction of the data to use as test data. Use this option when you are
running hyperparameter tuning and specifying either RANDOM
or SEQ
as
value for the DATA_SPLIT_COL
option.
If you specify a value for this option, you must also specify a value for
DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
. In this case,
the training dataset is
1 - eval_fraction - test_fraction
.
For example, if you specify 20.00
for DATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
and 8.0
for
DATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
, your training dataset is 72% of the input data.
Arguments
A FLOAT64
value. The default is 0
. The service maintains the accuracy of
the input value to two decimal places.
DATA_SPLIT_COL
Syntax
DATA_SPLIT_COL = string_value
Description
The name of the column to use to sort input data into the training,
evaluation, or test set. Use when you are specifying CUSTOM
or SEQ
as the
value for DATA_SPLIT_COL
:
- If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning and you are specifying
SEQ
as the value forDATA_SPLIT_METHOD
, then the data is first sorted smallest to largest based on the specified column. The last n rows are used as evaluation data, where n is the value specified forDATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
. The remaining rows are used as training data. - If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning and you are specifying
CUSTOM
as the value forDATA_SPLIT_COL
, then you must provide the name of a column of typeBOOL
. Rows with a value ofTRUE
orNULL
are used as evaluation data, rows with a value ofFALSE
are used as training data. - If you are running hyperparameter tuning and you are specifying
SEQ
as the value forDATA_SPLIT_METHOD
, then the data is first sorted smallest to largest based on the specified column. The last n rows are used as evaluation data, where n is the value specified forDATA_SPLIT_EVAL_FRACTION
. The next m rows are used as test data, where m is the value specified forDATA_SPLIT_TEST_FRACTION
. The remaining rows are used as training data. - If you are running hyperparameter tuning and you are specifying
CUSTOM
as the value forDATA_SPLIT_METHOD
, then you must provide the name of a column of typeSTRING
. Rows with a value ofTRAIN
are used as training data, rows with a value ofEVAL
are used as evaluation data, and rows with a value ofTEST
are used as test data.
The column you specify for DATA_SPLIT_COL
can't be used as a feature or
label, and is excluded from features automatically.
Arguments
A STRING
value.
NUM_TRIALS
Syntax
NUM_TRIALS = int64_value
Description
The maximum number of submodels to train. The tuning stops when NUM_TRIALS
submodels are trained, or when the hyperparameter search space is exhausted.
You must specify this option in order to use hyperparameter tuning.
Arguments
An INT64
value between 1
and 100
, inclusive.
MAX_PARALLEL_TRIALS
Syntax
MAX_PARALLEL_TRIALS = int64_value
Description
The maximum number of trials to run at the same time. If you specify a value
for this option, you must also specify a value for
NUM_TRIALS
.
Arguments
An INT64
value between 1
and 5
, inclusive. The default value is 1
.
HPARAM_TUNING_ALGORITHM
Syntax
HPARAM_TUNING_ALGORITHM = { 'VIZIER_DEFAULT' | 'RANDOM_SEARCH' | 'GRID_SEARCH' }
Description
The algorithm used to tune the hyperparameters. If you specify a value
for this option, you must also specify a value for NUM_TRIALS
.
Arguments
Specify one of the following values:
VIZIER_DEFAULT
: Use the default algorithm in Vertex AI Vizier to tune hyperparameters. This algorithm is the most powerful algorithm of those offered. It performs a mixture of advanced search algorithms, including Bayesian optimization with Gaussian processes. It also uses transfer learning to take advantage of previously tuned models. This is the default, and also the recommended approach.RANDOM_SEARCH
: Use random search to explore the search space.GRID_SEARCH
: Use grid search to explore the search space. You can only use this algorithm when every hyperparameter's search space is discrete.
HPARAM_TUNING_OBJECTIVES
Syntax
For explicit MATRIX_FACTORIZATION
models:
HPARAM_TUNING_OBJECTIVES = 'MEAN_SQUARED_ERROR'
For implicit MATRIX_FACTORIZATION
models:
HPARAM_TUNING_OBJECTIVES = { 'MEAN_AVERAGE_PRECISION' | 'MEAN_SQUARED_ERROR' | 'NORMALIZED_DISCOUNTED_CUMULATIVE_GAIN' | 'AVERAGE_RANK' }
Description
The hyperparameter tuning objective for the model; only one objective is
supported. If you specify a value for this option, you must also specify a
value for NUM_TRIALS
.
Arguments
The possible objectives are a subset of the
model evaluation metrics
for the model type. If you aren't running hyperparameter tuning, or if you are
and you don't specify an objective, the default objective
is used. For explicit MATRIX_FACTORIZATION
models, the default is MEAN_SQUARED_ERROR'
. For implicit MATRIX_FACTORIZATION
models , the
default is MEAN_AVERAGE_PRECISION
.
MODEL_REGISTRY
The MODEL_REGISTRY
option specifies the model registry destination.
VERTEX_AI
is the only supported model registry destination. To learn more, see
Register a BigQuery ML model.
VERTEX_AI_MODEL_ID
The VERTEX_AI_MODEL_ID
option specifies the Vertex AI model ID
to register the model with.
You can only set the VERTEX_AI_MODEL_ID
option when the MODEL_REGISTRY
option is set to VERTEX_AI
. To learn more, see
Add a Vertex AI model ID.
VERTEX_AI_MODEL_VERSION_ALIASES
The VERTEX_AI_MODEL_VERSION_ALIASES
option specifies the
Vertex AI model alias to register the model with.
You can only set the VERTEX_AI_MODEL_VERSION_ALIASES
option when the
MODEL_REGISTRY
option is set to VERTEX_AI
. To learn more, see
Add a Vertex AI model ID.
KMS_KEY_NAME
Syntax
KMS_KEY_NAME = string_value
Description
The Cloud Key Management Service customer-managed encryption key (CMEK) to use to encrypt the model.
Arguments
A STRING
value containing the fully-qualified name of the CMEK. For example,
'projects/my_project/locations/my_location/keyRings/my_ring/cryptoKeys/my_key'
query_statement
The AS query_statement
clause specifies the
GoogleSQL query used to generate the training data. See the
GoogleSQL query syntax
page for the supported SQL syntax of the query_statement
clause.
The query_statement is expected to contain exactly 3 columns
(user, item, and rating) unless you specify a DATA_SPLIT_METHOD
value that
requires use of a DATA_SPLIT_COL
value.
Supported inputs
BigQuery supports different GoogleSQL data types for the input columns for matrix factorization. Supported data types for each respective column include:
Matrix factorization input column |
Supported types |
---|---|
user |
Any groupable data type |
item |
Any groupable data type |
rating |
INT64 NUMERIC BIGNUMERIC FLOAT64 |
Feedback types
An important part of creating a good matrix factorization model for recommendations is to make sure that data is trained on the algorithm that is best suited for it. For matrix factorization models, there are two different ways to get a rating for a user-item pair.
Ratings provided by the user are considered to be explicit feedback. A low explicit rating tends to imply the user felt very negatively about an item while a high explicit rating tends to imply that the use liked the item. Movie streaming sites where users give ratings are examples of explicitly labeled datasets. For explicit feedback problems, BigQuery ML uses the alternating least squares algorithm (ALS). ALS seeks to minimize the following loss function:
Where
\(x_u = \) latent factor weights vector for user \(u\). Is length
NUM_FACTORS
. \(y_i = \) latent factor weights vector for item \(i\). Is length
NUM_FACTORS
. \(\lambda = \)
L2_REG
However, most of the time data isn't labeled by users. Often, the only metrics that you have as to whether a user liked an item or movie is by the click rate or engagement time. You can use this as a proxy rating, but it is not necessarily a definitive indication as to whether a user likes or dislikes something. The data in these datasets is considered to be implicit feedback. For implicit feedback problems, BigQuery ML uses a variant of the ALS algorithm called weighted-alternating least squares (WALS), which is described in http://yifanhu.net/PUB/cf.pdf. This approach uses these proxy ratings and treats them as an indicator of the interest that a user has in an item. WALS seeks to minimize the following loss function:
Where, in addition to the variables defined above, the function also introduces the following variables:
\(c_{ui} = 1 + \alpha r_{ui}\)
\(\alpha = \)
WALS_ALPHA
For explicit matrix factorization, the input is typically integers within a known fixed range. For implicit matrix factorization, the input ratings can be doubles or integers that span a wider range. We recommend that you make sure there aren't any outliers in the input ratings, and that you scale the input ratings if the model is performing poorly.
Known limitations
If you get the "Model is too large (>100 MB)" error, check the input
data. This error is caused by having too many ratings for a single user or a
single item. Hashing the user or item columns into an INT64
value or
reducing the data size can help. You can use the following formula to determine whether this error might occur:
max(num_rated_user, num_rated_item) < 100 million
Where num_rated_user
is the maximum item ratings that a single user has
entered and num_rated_items
is the maximum user ratings for a given item.
Examples
The following example creates models named mymodel
in dataset mydataset
in
your default project.
Train a matrix factorization model with explicit feedback
This example creates an explicit feedback matrix factorization model.
CREATE MODEL `project_id.mydataset.mymodel` OPTIONS(MODEL_TYPE='MATRIX_FACTORIZATION') AS SELECT user, item, rating FROM `mydataset.mytable`
Train a matrix factorization model with implicit feedback
This example creates an implicit feedback matrix factorization model.
CREATE MODEL `project_id.mydataset.mymodel` OPTIONS(MODEL_TYPE='MATRIX_FACTORIZATION', FEEDBACK_TYPE='IMPLICIT') AS SELECT user, item, rating FROM `mydataset.mytable`
What's next
- Use BigQuery ML to make recommendations from Google Analytics data (implicit feedback)
- Use BigQuery ML to make recommendations from movie ratings (explicit feedback)