arXiv:2604.22337cs.LG2026-04

TabSCM生成真实表格数据,保留因果关系,提升模型可靠性与可解释性。

TabSCM: A practical Framework for Generating Realistic Tabular Data

论文配图:TabSCM: A practical Framework for Generating Realistic Tabular Data
图 1 · 摘自论文原文
  • 基于因果图结构,分步生成连续与分类变量,确保数据逻辑一致。
  • 在7个公开数据集上超越主流生成模型,隐私风险更低且规则违反率下降。
  • 生成速度快583倍,支持公平性审计与政策模拟,适合高要求场景。

现有表格生成器多仅匹配边缘统计,忽略因果结构,导致下游模型学习到虚假或不公平模式。本文提出TabSCM,一种混合类型生成框架,可保留因果依赖关系。从任意因果发现算法得到的已完成部分有向无环图(CPDAG)出发,TabSCM首先将边定向为全有向无环图(DAG),其次对根节点使用核密度估计(KDE)或类别频率拟合边缘分布,再按拓扑顺序学习结构化赋值:连续变量作为子节点采用条件扩散模型,分类变量使用梯度提升树。通过祖先采样生成语义有效的记录,并支持精确反事实查询。在涵盖医疗、金融、住房、环境等领域的7个公开数据集上,TabSCM在统计保真度、下游任务性能和隐私风险方面达到或超过当前最优的GAN、扩散模型及大语言模型基线,同时显著降低规则违反率,提供因果合理且稳健的条件干预能力。因生成过程分解为显式方程,其运行速度比纯扩散模型快达583倍,并提供可解释的调控参数,适用于对真实性、可解释性和因果合理性有高要求的场景。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Most tabular-data generators match marginal statistics yet ignore causal structure, leading downstream models to learn spurious or unfair patterns. We present TabSCM, a mixed-type generator that preserves those causal dependencies. Starting from a Completed Partially Directed Acyclic Graph (CPDAG) found by any causal structure discovery algorithm, TabSCM (i) orients edges to a DAG, (ii) fits root-node marginals with KDE or categorical frequencies, and (iii) learns topologically ordered structural assignments. Such assignments are achieved using conditional diffusion models for continuous variables as child nodes and gradient-boosted trees for categorical ones. Ancestral sampling yields semantically valid records and enables exact counterfactual queries. On seven public datasets, encompassing healthcare, finance, housing, environment, TabSCM matches or surpasses state-of-the-art GAN, diffusion, and LLM baselines in statistical fidelity, downstream utility, and privacy risk, while also cutting rule-violation rates and providing causally meaningful and robust conditional interventions. Because generation is decomposed into explicit equations, it runs up to 583$\times$ faster than diffusion-only models and exposes interpretable knobs for fairness auditing and policy simulation, making TabSCM a practical choice for realism, explainability, and causal soundness.

表格生成因果建模数据合成可解释性

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