Different ways to load an input graph

We recommend using the GML graph format to load a graph. You can also use the DOT format, which requires additional dependencies (either pydot or pygraphviz).

DoWhy supports both loading a graph as a string, or as a file (with the extensions ‘gml’ or ‘dot’).

Below is an example showing the different ways of loading the same graph.

import os, sys
import random
sys.path.append(os.path.abspath("../../"))

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

import dowhy
from dowhy.do_why import CausalModel
from IPython.display import Image, display

I. Generating dummy data

We generate some dummy data for three variables: X, Y and Z.

z=[i for i in range(10)]
random.shuffle(z)
df = pd.DataFrame(data = {'Z': z, 'X': range(0,10), 'Y': range(0,100,10)})
df

	X	Y	Z
0	0	0	1
1	1	10	3
2	2	20	6
3	3	30	0
4	4	40	4
5	5	50	8
6	6	60	9
7	7	70	7
8	8	80	2
9	9	90	5

II. Loading GML or DOT graphs

GML format

# With GML string
model=CausalModel(
        data = df,
        treatment='X',
        outcome='Y',
        graph="""graph[directed 1 node[id "Z" label "Z"]
                    node[id "X" label "X"]
                    node[id "Y" label "Y"]
                    edge[source "Z" target "X"]
                    edge[source "Z" target "Y"]
                    edge[source "X" target "Y"]]"""

        )
model.view_model()


display(Image(filename="causal_model.png"))

Model to find the causal effect of treatment X on outcome Y

# With GML file
model=CausalModel(
        data = df,
        treatment='X',
        outcome='Y',
        graph="example_graphs/simple_graph_example.gml"
        )
model.view_model()


display(Image(filename="causal_model.png"))

Model to find the causal effect of treatment X on outcome Y

DOT format

# With DOT string
model=CausalModel(
        data = df,
        treatment='X',
        outcome='Y',
        graph="digraph {Z -> X;Z -> Y;X -> Y;}"
        )
model.view_model()

from IPython.display import Image, display
display(Image(filename="causal_model.png"))

Model to find the causal effect of treatment X on outcome Y

# With DOT file
model=CausalModel(
        data = df,
        treatment='X',
        outcome='Y',
        graph="example_graphs/simple_graph_example.dot"
        )
model.view_model()


display(Image(filename="causal_model.png"))

Model to find the causal effect of treatment X on outcome Y