====== Decoding ======
In [[structured prediction]] and NLP, //**decoding**// refers to predicting the output given the input.  For example, the input could be a sentence, and the output could be a sequence of part-of-speech tags.  In this case, decoding is predicting the POS tags given the input sentence.  The decoding algorithm is the algorithm used to make the predictions (such as dynamic programming, [[beam search]], [[integer linear programming]], etc).  Decoding is also known as //**inference**// (see note below).

==== Note on Terminology ====
In NLP and graphical models, inference means making predictions (predicting the output $Y$ given the input $X$), and is another term for decoding.  In statistics however, inference means learning (i.e. predicting the parameters of the distribution).

===== Methods =====
  * MAP inference in [[ml:graphical models]]
  * Dynamic Programming
  * [[Weighted Logic Programming]]
  * [[Integer Linear Programming]]

===== Related Pages =====
  * [[Beam Search]]
  * [[Structured Prediction]]
  * [[ml:Graphical Models]]
  * [[Integer Linear Programming]]
  * [[seq2seq#decoding_strategies|Sequence-to-Sequence Models - Decoding Strategies]]
  * [[Weighted Logic Programming]]