Woodelf++: A Fast and Unified Partial Dependence Plot Algorithm for Decision Tree Ensembles
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Computer Science > Machine Learning
arXiv:2605.14578 (cs)
[Submitted on 14 May 2026]
Title:Woodelf++: A Fast and Unified Partial Dependence Plot Algorithm for Decision Tree Ensembles
View a PDF of the paper titled Woodelf++: A Fast and Unified Partial Dependence Plot Algorithm for Decision Tree Ensembles, by Ron Wettenstein and 2 other authors
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Abstract:Partial Dependence Plots (PDPs) visualize how changes in a single feature affect the average model prediction. They are widely used in practice to interpret decision tree ensembles and other machine learning models. Joint-PDPs extend this idea to pairs of features, revealing their combined effect. Partial Dependence Interaction Values (PDIVs) measure feature interactions. The Any-Order-PDIVs task computes these interactions for every feature subset across all rows of the dataset.
We introduce Woodelf++, a unified and efficient approach for computing all these useful explainability tools on decision tree ensembles, building on Woodelf, an algorithm for efficient SHAP computation. By deriving suitable metrics over pseudo-Boolean functions, Woodelf++ can compute PDPs (exact and approximate), Joint-PDPs, and Any-Order-PDIVs in a unified framework. Our method delivers substantial complexity improvements over the state of the art, including an exponential gain for Any-Order-PDIVs. Additionally, we introduce and efficiently compute Full PDPs, which leverage the model's split thresholds to faithfully capture its behavior across all possible feature values.
Woodelf++ is implemented in pure Python and supports GPU acceleration. On a dataset with 400,000 rows, Woodelf++ computes PDP and Joint-PDP up to 6x faster than the state of the art and up to five orders of magnitude faster than scikit-learn. For Any-Order-PDIVs, the gap is even larger: Woodelf++ computes all interaction values in 5 minutes, while the state of the art is estimated to require over 1,000,000 years.
| Comments: | Extended version of the paper to appear at IJCAI 2026 |
| Subjects: | Machine Learning (cs.LG) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2605.14578 [cs.LG] |
| (or arXiv:2605.14578v1 [cs.LG] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.14578
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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View a PDF of the paper titled Woodelf++: A Fast and Unified Partial Dependence Plot Algorithm for Decision Tree Ensembles, by Ron Wettenstein and 2 other authors
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