Source code for bambi.models

# pylint: disable=no-name-in-module
import re
import warnings
from collections import OrderedDict
from copy import deepcopy

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from patsy import dmatrices, dmatrix
import statsmodels.api as sm
from arviz.plots import plot_posterior
import pymc3 as pm


from .external.patsy import Custom_NA
from .priors import PriorFactory, PriorScaler, Prior
from .utils import listify
from .backends import PyMC3BackEnd
from .backends import StanBackEnd


[docs]class Model: """ Specification of model class Parameters ---------- data : DataFrame or str The dataset to use. Either a pandas DataFrame, or the name of the file containing the data, which will be passed to `pd.read_csv()`. default_priors : dict or str An optional specification of the default priors to use for all model terms. Either a dictionary containing named distributions, families, and terms (see the documentation in priors.PriorFactory for details), or the name of a JSON file containing the same information. auto_scale : bool If True (default), priors are automatically rescaled to the data (to be weakly informative) any time default priors are used. Note that any priors explicitly set by the user will always take precedence over default priors. dropna : bool) When True, rows with any missing values in either the predictors or outcome are automatically dropped from the dataset in a listwise manner. taylor : int Order of Taylor expansion to use in approximate variance when constructing the default priors. Should be between 1 and 13. Lower values are less accurate, tending to undershoot the correct prior width, but are faster to compute and more stable. Odd-numbered values tend to work better. Defaults to 5 for Normal models and 1 for non-Normal models. Values higher than the defaults are generally not recommended as they can be unstable. noncentered : bool If True (default), uses a non-centered parameterization for normal hyperpriors on grouped parameters. If False, naive (centered) parameterization is used. """ # pylint: disable=too-many-instance-attributes def __init__( self, data=None, default_priors=None, auto_scale=True, dropna=False, taylor=None, noncentered=True, ): if isinstance(data, str): data = pd.read_csv(data, sep=None, engine="python") self.default_priors = PriorFactory(default_priors) obj_cols = data.select_dtypes(["object"]).columns data[obj_cols] = data[obj_cols].apply(lambda x: x.astype("category")) self.data = data # Some random effects stuff later requires us to make guesses about # column groupings into terms based on patsy's naming scheme. if re.search(r"[\[\]]+", "".join(data.columns)): warnings.warn( "At least one of the column names in the specified " "dataset contain square brackets ('[' or ']')." "This may cause unexpected behavior if you specify " "models with random effects. You are encouraged to " "rename your columns to avoid square brackets." ) self.reset() self.auto_scale = auto_scale self.dropna = dropna self.taylor = taylor self.noncentered = noncentered self._backend_name = None # build() will loop over these, calling _add() and _set_priors() self.added_terms = [] self._added_priors = {} # if dropna=True, completes gets updated by add() to track complete cases self.completes = [] self.clean_data = None # attributes that are set later self.y = None # _add_y() self.family = None # _add_y() self.backend = None # _set_backend() self.dm_statistics = None # build() self._diagnostics = None # build() self.built = False # build()
[docs] def reset(self): """ Reset list of terms and y-variable. """ self.terms = OrderedDict() self.y = None self.backend = None self.added_terms = [] self._added_priors = {} self.completes = [] self.clean_data = None
def _set_backend(self, backend): backend = backend.lower() if backend.startswith("pymc"): self.backend = PyMC3BackEnd() elif backend == "stan": self.backend = StanBackEnd() else: raise ValueError("At the moment, only the PyMC3 and Stan backends are " "supported.") self._backend_name = backend
[docs] def build(self, backend=None): """Set up the model for sampling/fitting. Performs any steps that require access to all model terms (e.g., scaling priors on each term), then calls the BackEnd's build() method. Parameters ---------- backend : str The name of the backend to use for model fitting. Currently, 'pymc' and 'stan' are supported. If None, assume that `fit()` has already been called (possibly without building) and look in self._backend_name. """ # retain only the complete cases n_total = len(self.data.index) if self.completes: completes = [set(x) for x in sum(self.completes, [])] completes = set.intersection(*completes) else: completes = range(len(self.data.index)) self.clean_data = self.data.iloc[list(completes), :] # warn the user about any dropped rows if len(completes) < n_total: msg = "Automatically removing {}/{} rows from the dataset." msg = msg.format(n_total - len(completes), n_total) warnings.warn(msg) # loop over the added terms and actually _add() them for term_args in self.added_terms: self._add(**term_args) # set custom priors self._set_priors(**self._added_priors) # prepare all priors for name, term in self.terms.items(): type_ = ( "intercept" if name == "Intercept" else "random" if self.terms[name].random else "fixed" ) term.prior = self._prepare_prior(term.prior, type_) # check for backend if backend is None: if self._backend_name is None: raise ValueError( "Error: no backend was passed or set in the " "Model; did you forget to call fit()?" ) backend = self._backend_name # check for outcome if self.y is None: raise ValueError( "No outcome (y) variable is set! Please specify " "an outcome variable using the formula interface " "before build() or fit()." ) # X = fixed effects design matrix (excluding intercept/constant term) # r2_x = 1 - 1/VIF, i.e., R2 for predicting each x from all other x's. # only compute these stats if there are multiple terms in the model terms = [t for t in self.fixed_terms.values() if t.name != "Intercept"] if len(self.fixed_terms) > 1: x_matrix = [pd.DataFrame(x.data, columns=x.levels) for x in terms] x_matrix = pd.concat(x_matrix, axis=1) self.dm_statistics = { "r2_x": pd.Series( { x: sm.OLS( endog=x_matrix[x], exog=sm.add_constant(x_matrix.drop(x, axis=1)) if "Intercept" in self.term_names else x_matrix.drop(x, axis=1), ) .fit() .rsquared for x in list(x_matrix.columns) } ), "sd_x": x_matrix.std(), "mean_x": x_matrix.mean(axis=0), } # save potentially useful info for diagnostics # mat = correlation matrix of X, w/ diagonal replaced by X means mat = x_matrix.corr() for x_col in list(mat.columns): mat.loc[x_col, x_col] = self.dm_statistics["mean_x"][x_col] self._diagnostics = { # the Variance Inflation Factors (VIF), which is possibly # useful for diagnostics "VIF": 1 / (1 - self.dm_statistics["r2_x"]), "corr_mean_X": mat, } # throw informative error if perfect collinearity among fixed fx if any(self.dm_statistics["r2_x"] > 0.999): raise ValueError( "There is perfect collinearity among the fixed effects!\n" "Printing some design matrix statistics:\n" + str(self.dm_statistics) + "\n" + str(self._diagnostics) ) # throw informative error message if any categorical predictors have 1 # category num_cats = [x.data.size for x in self.fixed_terms.values()] if any(np.array(num_cats) == 0): raise ValueError("At least one categorical predictor contains only 1 category!") # only set priors if there is at least one term in the model if self.terms: # Get and scale default priors if none are defined yet if self.taylor is not None: taylor = self.taylor else: taylor = 5 if self.family.name == "gaussian" else 1 scaler = PriorScaler(self, taylor=taylor) scaler.scale() # For bernoulli models with n_trials = 1 (most common use case), # tell user which event is being modeled if self.family.name == "bernoulli" and np.max(self.y.data) < 1.01: event = next(i for i, x in enumerate(self.y.data.flatten()) if x > 0.99) warnings.warn( "Modeling the probability that {}=='{}'".format( self.y.name, str(self.clean_data[self.y.name].iloc[event]) ) ) self._set_backend(backend) self.backend.build(self) self.built = True
[docs] def fit( self, fixed=None, random=None, priors=None, family="gaussian", link=None, run=True, categorical=None, backend=None, **kwargs, ): """Fit the model using the specified BackEnd. Parameters ---------- fixed : str Optional formula specification of fixed effects. random : list Optional list-based specification of random effects. priors : dict Optional specification of priors for one or more terms. A dict where the keys are the names of terms in the model, and the values are either instances of class Prior or ints, floats, or strings that specify the width of the priors on a standardized scale. family : str or Family A specification of the model family (analogous to the family object in R). Either a string, or an instance of class priors.Family. If a string is passed, a family with the corresponding name must be defined in the defaults loaded at Model initialization. Valid pre-defined families are 'gaussian', 'bernoulli', 'poisson', and 't'. link : str The model link function to use. Can be either a string (must be one of the options defined in the current backend; typically this will include at least 'identity', 'logit', 'inverse', and 'log'), or a callable that takes a 1D ndarray or theano tensor as the sole argument and returns one with the same shape. run : bool Whether or not to immediately begin fitting the model once any set up of passed arguments is complete. categorical : str or list The names of any variables to treat as categorical. Can be either a single variable name, or a list of names. If categorical is None, the data type of the columns in the DataFrame will be used to infer handling. In cases where numeric columns are to be treated as categoricals (e.g., random factors coded as numerical IDs), explicitly passing variable names via this argument is recommended. backend : str The name of the BackEnd to use. Currently only 'pymc' and 'stan' backends are supported. Defaults to PyMC3. """ if fixed is not None or random is not None: self.add( fixed=fixed, random=random, priors=priors, family=family, link=link, categorical=categorical, append=False, ) # Run the BackEnd to fit the model. if backend is None: backend = "pymc" if self._backend_name is None else self._backend_name if backend == "stan": warnings.warn( """Stan backend is deprecated and it will be rememoved in the next relase. If you are interested on keeping this backend and helping to maintain it, please contact us""", DeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2, ) if run: if not self.built or backend != self._backend_name: self.build(backend) return self.backend.run(**kwargs) self._backend_name = backend return None
[docs] def add( self, fixed=None, random=None, priors=None, family="gaussian", link=None, categorical=None, append=True, ): """ Adds one or more terms to the model via an R-like formula syntax. Parameters ---------- fixed : str Optional formula specification of fixed effects. random : list Optional list-based specification of random effects. priors : dict Optional specification of priors for one or more terms. A dict where the keys are the names of terms in the model, and the values are either instances of class Prior or ints, floats, or strings that specify the width of the priors on a standardized scale. family : str, Family A specification of the model family (analogous to the family object in R). Either a string, or an instance of class priors.Family. If a string is passed, a family with the corresponding name must be defined in the defaults loaded at Model initialization. Valid pre-defined families are 'gaussian', 'bernoulli', 'poisson', and 't'. link : str The model link function to use. Can be either a string (must be one of the options defined in the current backend; typically this will include at least 'identity', 'logit', 'inverse', and 'log'), or a callable that takes a 1D ndarray or theano tensor as the sole argument and returns one with the same shape. categorical : str or list The names of any variables to treat as categorical. Can be either a single variable name, or a list of names. If categorical is None, the data type of the columns in the DataFrame will be used to infer handling. In cases where numeric columns are to be treated as categoricals (e.g., random factors coded as numerical IDs), explicitly passing variable names via this argument is recommended. append : bool If True, terms are appended to the existing model rather than replacing any existing terms. This allows formula-based specification of the model in stages. """ data = self.data # Primitive values (floats, strs) can be overwritten with Prior objects # so we need to make sure to copy first to avoid bad things happening # if user is re-using same prior dict in multiple models. if priors is None: priors = {} else: priors = deepcopy(priors) if not append: self.reset() # Explicitly convert columns to category if desired--though this # can also be done within the formula using C(). if categorical is not None: data = data.copy() cats = listify(categorical) data[cats] = data[cats].apply(lambda x: x.astype("category")) # Custom patsy.missing.NAAction class. Similar to patsy drop/raise # defaults, but changes the raised message and logs any dropped rows NA_handler = Custom_NA(dropna=self.dropna) # screen fixed terms if fixed is not None: if "~" in fixed: clean_fix = re.sub(r"\[.+\]", "", fixed) dmatrices(clean_fix, data=data, NA_action=NA_handler) else: dmatrix(fixed, data=data, NA_action=NA_handler) # screen random terms if random is not None: for term in listify(random): for side in term.split("|"): dmatrix(side, data=data, NA_action=NA_handler) # update the running list of complete cases if NA_handler.completes: self.completes.append(NA_handler.completes) # save arguments to pass to _add() args = dict( zip( ["fixed", "random", "priors", "family", "link", "categorical"], [fixed, random, priors, family, link, categorical], ) ) self.added_terms.append(args) self.built = False
def _add( self, fixed=None, random=None, priors=None, family="gaussian", link=None, categorical=None, ): """Internal version of add(), with the same arguments. Runs during Model.build() """ # use cleaned data with NAs removed (if user requested) data = self.clean_data # alter this pandas flag to avoid false positive SettingWithCopyWarnings data._is_copy = False # pylint: disable=protected-access # Explicitly convert columns to category if desired--though this # can also be done within the formula using C(). if categorical is not None: data = data.copy() cats = listify(categorical) data[cats] = data[cats].apply(lambda x: x.astype("category")) if fixed is not None: if "~" in fixed: # check to see if formula is using the 'y[event] ~ x' syntax # (for bernoulli models). If so, chop it into groups: # 1 = 'y[event]', 2 = 'y', 3 = 'event', 4 = 'x' # If this syntax is not being used, event = None event = re.match(r"^((\S+)\[(\S+)\])\s*~(.*)$", fixed) if event is not None: fixed = "{}~{}".format(event.group(2), event.group(4)) y_vector, x_matrix = dmatrices(fixed, data=data, NA_action="raise") y_label = y_vector.design_info.term_names[0] if event is not None: # pass in new Y data that has 1 if y=event and 0 otherwise y_data = y_vector[:, y_vector.design_info.column_names.index(event.group(1))] y_data = pd.DataFrame({event.group(3): y_data}) self._add_y(y_label, family=family, link=link, data=y_data) else: # use Y as-is self._add_y(y_label, family=family, link=link) else: x_matrix = dmatrix(fixed, data=data, NA_action="raise") # Loop over predictor terms for _name, _slice in x_matrix.design_info.term_name_slices.items(): cols = x_matrix.design_info.column_names[_slice] term_data = pd.DataFrame(np.asfortranarray(x_matrix[:, _slice]), columns=cols) prior = priors.pop(_name, priors.get("fixed", None)) self.terms[_name] = Term(_name, term_data, prior=prior) # Random effects if random is not None: # pylint: disable=too-many-nested-blocks random = listify(random) for random_effect in random: random_effect = random_effect.strip() # Split specification into intercept, predictor, and grouper patt = r"^([01]+)*[\s\+]*([^\|]+)*\|(.*)" intcpt, pred, grpr = re.search(patt, random_effect).groups() label = "{}|{}".format(pred, grpr) if pred else grpr prior = priors.pop(label, priors.get("random", None)) # Treat all grouping variables as categoricals, regardless of # their dtype and what the user may have specified in the # 'categorical' argument. var_names = re.findall(r"(\w+)", grpr) for var_name in var_names: if var_name in data.columns: data.loc[:, var_name] = data.loc[:, var_name].astype("category") self.clean_data.loc[:, var_name] = data.loc[:, var_name] # Default to including random intercepts intcpt = 1 if intcpt is None else int(intcpt) grpr_df = dmatrix(f"0+{grpr}", data, return_type="dataframe", NA_action="raise") # If there's no predictor, we must be adding random intercepts if not pred and grpr not in self.terms: name = "1|" + grpr pred = np.ones((len(grpr_df), 1)) term = RandomTerm( name, grpr_df, pred, grpr_df.values, categorical=True, prior=prior ) self.terms[name] = term else: pred_df = dmatrix( f"{intcpt}+{pred}", data, return_type="dataframe", NA_action="raise" ) # determine value of the 'constant' attribute const = np.atleast_2d(pred_df.T).T.sum(1).var() == 0 for col, i in pred_df.design_info.column_name_indexes.items(): pred_data = pred_df.iloc[:, i] lev_data = grpr_df.multiply(pred_data, axis=0) # Also rename intercepts and skip if already added. # This can happen if user specifies something like # random=['1|school', 'student|school']. if col == "Intercept": if grpr in self.terms: continue label = f"1|{grpr}" else: label = col + "|" + grpr prior = priors.pop(label, priors.get("random", None)) # Categorical or continuous is determined from data ld_vals = lev_data.values if ((ld_vals == 0) | (ld_vals == 1)).all(): lev_data = lev_data.astype(int) cat = True else: cat = False pred_data = pred_data[:, None] # Must be 2D later term = RandomTerm( label, lev_data, pred_data, grpr_df.values, categorical=cat, constant=const if const else None, prior=prior, ) self.terms[label] = term # pylint: disable=keyword-arg-before-vararg def _add_y(self, variable, prior=None, family="gaussian", link=None, *args, **kwargs): """Add a dependent (or outcome) variable to the model. Parameters ---------- variable : str The name of the dataset column containing the y values. prior : Prior, int, float, str Optional specification of prior. Can be an instance of class Prior, a numeric value, or a string describing the width. In the numeric case, the distribution specified in the defaults will be used, and the passed value will be used to scale the appropriate variance parameter. For strings (e.g., 'wide', 'narrow', 'medium', or 'superwide'), predefined values will be used. family : str or Family A specification of the model family (analogous to the family object in R). Either a string, or an instance of class priors.Family. If a string is passed, a family with the corresponding name must be defined in the defaults loaded at Model initialization. Valid pre-defined families are 'gaussian', 'bernoulli', 'poisson', and 't'. link : str The model link function to use. Can be either a string (must be one of the options defined in the current backend; typically this will include at least 'identity', 'logit', 'inverse', and 'log'), or a callable that takes a 1D ndarray or theano tensor as the sole argument and returns one with the same shape. """ if isinstance(family, str): family = self.default_priors.get(family=family) self.family = family # Override family's link if another is explicitly passed if link is not None: self.family.link = link if prior is None: prior = self.family.prior if self.family.name == "gaussian": if self._backend_name == "pymc3": prior.update(sd=Prior("HalfStudentT", nu=4, sd=self.clean_data[variable].std())) else: prior.update(sd=Prior("Uniform", lower=0, upper=self.clean_data[variable].std())) data = kwargs.pop("data", self.clean_data[variable]) term = Term(variable, data, prior=prior, *args, **kwargs) self.y = term self.built = False def _match_derived_terms(self, name): """ Returns all (random) terms whose named are derived from the specified string. For example, 'condition|subject' should match the terms with names '1|subject', 'condition[T.1]|subject', and so on. Only works for strings with grouping operator ('|'). """ if "|" not in name: return None patt = r"^([01]+)*[\s\+]*([^\|]+)*\|(.*)" intcpt, pred, grpr = re.search(patt, name).groups() intcpt = f"1|{grpr}" if not pred: return [self.terms[intcpt]] if intcpt in self.terms else None source = f"{pred}|{grpr}" found = [ t for (n, t) in self.terms.items() if n == intcpt or re.sub(r"(\[.*?\])", "", n) == source ] # If only the intercept matches, return None, because we want to err # on the side of caution and not consider '1|subject' to be a match for # 'condition|subject' if no slopes are found (e.g., the intercept could # have been set by some other specification like 'gender|subject'). return found if found and (len(found) > 1 or found[0].name != intcpt) else None
[docs] def set_priors(self, priors=None, fixed=None, random=None, match_derived_names=True): """Set priors for one or more existing terms. Parameters ---------- priors : dict Dict of priors to update. Keys are names of terms to update; values are the new priors (either a Prior instance, or an int or float that scales the default priors). Note that a tuple can be passed as the key, in which case the same prior will be applied to all terms named in the tuple. fixed : Prior, int, float or str A prior specification to apply to all fixed terms currently included in the model. random : Prior, int, float or str A prior specification to apply to all random terms currently included in the model. match_derived_names : bool If True, the specified prior(s) will be applied not only to terms that match the keyword exactly, but to the levels of random effects that were derived from the original specification with the passed name. For example, `priors={'condition|subject':0.5}` would apply the prior to the terms with names '1|subject', 'condition[T.1]|subject', and so on. If False, an exact match is required for the prior to be applied. """ # save arguments to pass to _set_priors() at build time kwargs = dict( zip( ["priors", "fixed", "random", "match_derived_names"], [priors, fixed, random, match_derived_names], ) ) self._added_priors.update(kwargs) self.built = False
def _set_priors(self, priors=None, fixed=None, random=None, match_derived_names=True): """Internal version of set_priors(), with same arguments. Runs during Model.build(). """ targets = {} if fixed is not None: targets.update({name: fixed for name in self.fixed_terms.keys()}) if random is not None: targets.update({name: random for name in self.random_terms.keys()}) if priors is not None: for k, prior in priors.items(): for name in listify(k): term_names = list(self.terms.keys()) msg = f"No terms in model match {name}." if name not in term_names: terms = self._match_derived_terms(name) if not match_derived_names or terms is None: raise ValueError(msg) for term in terms: targets[term.name] = prior else: targets[name] = prior for name, prior in targets.items(): self.terms[name].prior = prior # helper function to correctly set default priors, auto_scaling, etc. def _prepare_prior(self, prior, _type): """ Parameters ---------- prior : Prior object, or float, or None. _type : string accepted values are: 'intercept, 'fixed', or 'random'. """ if prior is None and not self.auto_scale: prior = self.default_priors.get(term=_type + "_flat") if isinstance(prior, Prior): prior._auto_scale = False # pylint: disable=protected-access else: _scale = prior prior = self.default_priors.get(term=_type) prior.scale = _scale if prior.scale is not None: prior._auto_scale = False # pylint: disable=protected-access return prior def plot(self, var_names=None): return self.plot_priors(var_names) def plot_priors(self, var_names=None): if not self.built: raise ValueError("Cannot plot priors until model is built!") with pm.Model(): # get priors for fixed fx, separately for each level of each # predictor dists = [] for fixed_term in self.fixed_terms.values(): if var_names is not None and fixed_term.name not in var_names: continue for i, level in enumerate(fixed_term.levels): params = { k: np.atleast_1d(v)[i % v.size] if isinstance(v, np.ndarray) else v for k, v in fixed_term.prior.args.items() } dists += [getattr(pm, fixed_term.prior.name)(level, **params)] # get priors for random effect SDs for random_term in self.random_terms.values(): if var_names is not None and random_term.name not in var_names: continue prior = random_term.prior.args["sd"].name params = random_term.prior.args["sd"].args dists += [getattr(pm, prior)(random_term.name + "_sd", **params)] # add priors on Y params if applicable y_priors = [(k, v) for k, v in self.y.prior.args.items() if isinstance(v, Prior)] if y_priors: for y_prior in y_priors: pm_attr = getattr(pm, y_prior[1].name) y_prior_ = pm_attr("_".join([self.y.name, y_prior[0]]), **y_prior[1].args) dists.extend([y_prior_]) # make the plot! priors_to_plot = {} for i, dist in enumerate(dists): dist_ = dist.distribution if isinstance(dist, pm.model.FreeRV) else dist priors_to_plot[dist.name] = dist_.random(size=1000).flatten() # Probably we should replace this for something else axes = plot_posterior(priors_to_plot, credible_interval=None, point_estimate=None) return axes @property def term_names(self): """Return names of all terms in order of addition to model.""" return list(self.terms.keys()) @property def fixed_terms(self): """Return dict of all and only fixed effects in model.""" return {k: v for (k, v) in self.terms.items() if not v.random} @property def random_terms(self): """Return dict of all and only random effects in model.""" return {k: v for (k, v) in self.terms.items() if v.random}
[docs]class Term: """Representation of a single (fixed) model term. Parameters ---------- name : str Name of the term. data (DataFrame, Series, ndarray): The term values. categorical : bool If True, the source variable is interpreted as nominal/categorical. If False, the source variable is treated as continuous. prior : Prior A specification of the prior(s) to use. An instance of class priors.Prior. constant : bool indicates whether the term levels collectively act as a constant, in which case the term is treated as an intercept for prior distribution purposes. """ random = False def __init__(self, name, data, categorical=False, prior=None, constant=None): self.name = name self.categorical = categorical self._reduced_data = None if isinstance(data, pd.Series): data = data.to_frame() if isinstance(data, pd.DataFrame): self.levels = list(data.columns) data = data.values # Random effects pass through here else: data = np.atleast_2d(data) self.levels = list(range(data.shape[1])) self.data = data # identify and flag intercept and cell-means terms (i.e., full-rank # dummy codes), which receive special priors if constant is None: self.constant = np.atleast_2d(data.T).T.sum(1).var() == 0 else: self.constant = constant self.prior = prior
[docs]class RandomTerm(Term): random = True def __init__( self, name, data, predictor, grouper, categorical=False, prior=None, constant=None ): super(RandomTerm, self).__init__(name, data, categorical, prior, constant) self.grouper = grouper self.predictor = predictor self.group_index = self.invert_dummies(grouper)
[docs] def invert_dummies(self, dummies): """ For the sake of computational efficiency (i.e., to avoid lots of large matrix multiplications in the backends), invert the dummy-coding process and represent full-rank dummies as a vector of indices into the coefficients. """ vec = np.zeros(len(dummies), dtype=int) for i in range(1, dummies.shape[1]): vec[dummies[:, i] == 1] = i return vec