# sklearn random forest and fitting with continuous features

Does anyone know how the python sklearn random forest implementation handles continuous variables in the fitting process? I'm curious to know if it does any sort of binning (and if so, how it does the binning), or if a continuous variable is just treated as a categorical variable? I'm hoping it's not the latter...thanks! Also, I'd be open to using some R implementation if anyone knows about that.

To understand how a random forest treats continuous data it is imperative to understand how a random forest works. At the base of the random forest algorithm lays a tree construction. The default in sklearn is to split a tree based on the Gini coefficient (see sklearn documentation). This type of tree algorithm is referred to as CART trees. You can change the criterion to entropy to select ID3 and C4.5 trees. Without going to deep into the maths, the tree algorithm will seek to split the tree based on a cutoff that leads to the lowest Gini coefficient.