[SOLVED] Add comment to an ARFF file

Add comment to an ARFF file

this is my first question in this forum.... I'm making adata-mining application in java with the WEKA API. I make first a pre-processing stage and when I save the ARFF file i would like to add a couple of lines (as comments) specifing the preprocessing task that i have done to the file... the problem is that i don't know how to add comments to an ARFF file from the java WEKA API. To save the file i use the class ArffSaver like this...

    try {
        ArffSaver saver = new ArffSaver();
        saver.setInstances(dataPost);
        saver.setFile(arffFile);
        saver.writeBatch();
        return true;
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(Preprocesamiento.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        return false;
    }

I would be really greatfull if someone could give some idea... thanks!

Solution

You should AVOID writting comments on an .arff file, even more when writting it from Java. These files are very "parser-sensitive". The Weka API to create these files is restrictive for this particular reason.

Even though, you can always add your comments manually with the % symbol. This said, I wouldn't recommend you writting anything more than instances, attributes and values into an .arff file. ;-)