Why use log-probability estimates in GaussianNB [scikit-learn]?

gaussian, scikit-learn

Solution

- predict just gives you the class for every example

- predict_proba gives you the probability for every class, and predict is just taking the class which maximal probability

- predict_log_proba gives you the logarithm of the probabilities, this is often handier as probabilities can become very, very small

Problem

I'm currently using scikit-learn's GaussianNB package. I've noticed that I can choose to return results for the classification several different ways. One way to return a classification is using the predict_log_proba method. Why would I choose to use predict_log_proba versus predict_proba versus predict?

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