I am trying to train an SVM model using Forest Fire data. I split up my data into a test and training set. I am not sure of the syntax to address the variables "day" and "month". They are categorical variables. Am I going about it the correct way? I considered using as.numeric to turn the categorical values into numeric values but I think it would negatively affect my svm. Data comes from https://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets/Forest+Fires My code is posted below. On another note, my response variable is transformed with ln(x+1) to account with skewed data.
forestfires = read.csv("forestfires.csv") # read csv file
head(forestfires)
summary(forestfires)
#build training/ test sample sample
set.seed(0508)
sample<-sample(1:nrow(forestfires), 0.75*nrow(forestfires))
testfire<-forestfires[sample,]
trainfire<-forestfires[-sample,]
#Build SVM model
library(kernlab)
vmod<-ksvm(log(area+1)~X+Y+as.factor(month)+as.factor(day)+
FFMC+DMC+DC+ISI+temp+RH+wind+rain, data=trainfire, type="nu-svr")
