Advances in nature-inspired metaheuristic optimization for feature selection problem: A comprehensive survey

Abstract

The main objective of feature selection is to improve learning performance by selecting concise and informative feature subsets, which presents a challenging task for machine learning or pattern recognition applications due to the large and complex search space involved. This paper provides an in-depth examination of nature-inspired metaheuristic methods for the feature selection problem, with a focus on representation and search algorithms, as they have drawn significant interest from the feature selection community due to their potential for global search and simplicity. An analysis of various advanced approach types, along with their advantages and disadvantages, is presented in this study, with the goal of highlighting important issues and unanswered questions in the literature. The article provides advice for conducting future research more effectively to benefit this field of study, including guidance on identifying appropriate approaches to use in different scenarios.