Target Variable Metric

What is a Target Variable?

The Target Variable (also called dependent variable, label, or outcome) is what you want your machine learning model to predict.

Examples in CMMI-DCC

• Classification Targets: Disease status, treatment response, cohort membership
• Regression Targets: Age, biomarker levels, diversity scores

Selecting a Target

When creating an ML pipeline:
1. Choose the data column containing outcomes
2. System determines task type (classification vs. regression)
3. Select appropriate algorithms and metrics

Related Terms

• Task Type: Classification or Regression
• Feature Selection: Choosing predictor variables