Variable Dependency Graph

The Variable Dependency Graph widget builds a directed network whose nodes are variables and whose edges encode the dependencies declared in their expressions. Edge weights reflect the time-window size used by the expression, making it easy to spot which derived features have the widest temporal footprint.

Variable Dependency Graph widget interface.

The Variable Dependency Graph widget.

Inputs

Signal

Type

Description

Variable Definitions

Orange.data.Table

A configuration table containing the Variable and Expression columns produced by Time Features Constructor (second output).

Outputs

Signal

Type

Description

Network

orangecontrib.network.Network

A directed weighted graph. network.edges[0] is a DirectedEdges instance whose sparse adjacency matrix carries the per-edge weights described in Edge Weights below.

How It Works

The widget processes the input table row by row:

  • A row whose Expression cell is empty / NaN / ? is treated as an original variable (source feature, var_type = Original).

  • A row with a valid expression is treated as a derived variable (var_type = Derived).

For every derived variable, the widget scans its expression for references to known variable names. Every reference produces one directed edge source → dependency (i.e. an edge X1 → X2 means “X1’s expression references X2”).

Edge Weights

Each edge carries a numeric weight that summarises how far back or forward in time the source variable looks at its dependency.

Rule

For an edge Xᵢ → Xⱼ:

  • If Xⱼ appears inside one or more temporal calls in Xᵢ’s expression (shift, sum, mean, count, min, max, sd), the weight is the maximum absolute integer argument across all such calls.

  • If Xⱼ only appears outside temporal calls (e.g. Xⱼ + 1), the weight defaults to 1.

Examples

Expression on the source

Edge weight

Notes

shift(X2, -20)

20

One temporal call, single argument.

sum(X2, -5, 10)

10

max(abs(-5), abs(10)) — three-argument family.

X2 + 1

1

Plain reference, no temporal window.

shift(X2, -5) + X2

5

Mixed usage; the temporal occurrence wins.

shift(X2, -3) + mean(X2, -7, 7)

7

Maximum across all temporal calls.

shift(X2, -3) + mean(X3, -10, 10)

3 / 10

Per-dependency: edges → X2 and → X3 get independent weights.

Node Metadata

The output network exposes per-node metadata in network.nodes for downstream styling:

Meta

Type

Values

var_name

String

Sanitised variable name (spaces and hyphens become _).

var_type

Discrete

Derived (has an expression) or Original (source feature).

expression

String

The literal expression text for derived variables; empty for original ones. Pick it as Label in Network Explorer to see each derived node’s formula directly on the graph.

Controls

  • Generate — rebuilds the graph from the current configuration table. The widget also auto-regenerates whenever a valid input arrives.

Warnings

  • Input has no derived variables; the dependency graph is empty. Fires when every row of the configuration table is an original variable (no Expression set). The output network has nodes but no edges. Usually means you forgot to attach the second output of Time Features Constructor instead of the data output.

Input Requirements

The first two columns of the input table must be named exactly Variable and Expression. Any other shape is rejected with an explicit error message; no network output is sent.

Usage Example

  1. Connect the Variable Definitions output of Time Features Constructor to the input of this widget.

  2. Connect the Network output to the Network Explorer widget from the Orange Network add-on.

  3. In Network Explorer:

    • Color the nodes by var_type to separate derived from original features.

    • Optionally map the edge thickness to the edge weights (the data array of the sparse adjacency matrix) to visualise which dependencies span the widest temporal windows.

Implementation notes

  • Variable name lookup is O(1) via a precomputed name → index map, so the full graph build is linear in the number of references.

  • The detection regex uses word boundaries (\b), so X1 will not match inside X10.

  • Sanitisation maps spaces and hyphens to underscores so the names line up with how the Time Features Constructor rewrites them inside expressions.