Add DetectSeasonality as a Helper function in TimeSeries ExtensionDialog (#5231)

* create class PeriodDetectUtils

* Test period detect

* math utils

* restore file

* update license

* 1. Add DetectSeasonality as a helper method in ExtensionsCatalog,

2. Remove the MathUtils and use MedianDblAggregator (make it BestFriend)
3. Add Unit Tests

* Change SeasonalityDetector to be internal class

* 1. Introduce randomnessThreshold as an optional parameter

2. Update comments and polish SeasonalityDetector for readability.

* minor float to double type change

* fix unit tests

* address Harish's comments:

1. Change Randomness threshold to [0, 1] range as confidence internal and map to inverse normal cumulative distribution
2. Update unit tests to use sin(2pi + x)
3. Other formatting issues

* minor format update

* update comments

* minor follow up comment update

* update threshold to p value

Co-authored-by: yuyi@microsoft.com <Yuanxiang.Ying@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Lisa Hua <jinhua@microsoft.com>

Author: 3 people

docs/samples/Microsoft.ML.Samples/Dynamic/Transforms/TimeSeries/DetectSeasonality.cs

@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+using System;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Linq;
+using Microsoft.ML;
+using Microsoft.ML.TimeSeries;
+
+namespace Samples.Dynamic
+{
+    public static class DetectSeasonality
+    {
+        public static void Example()
+        {
+            /* Create a new ML context, for ML.NET operations. It can be used for
+             exception tracking and logging, as well as the source of randomness.*/
+            var mlContext = new MLContext();
+
+            // Create a seasonal data as input: y = sin(2 * Pi + x)
+            var seasonalData = Enumerable.Range(0, 100).Select(x => new TimeSeriesData(Math.Sin(2 * Math.PI + x)));
+
+            // Load the input data as a DataView.
+            var dataView = mlContext.Data.LoadFromEnumerable(seasonalData);
+
+            /* Two option parameters:
+             * seasonalityWindowSize: Default value is -1. When set to -1, use the whole input to fit model; 
+             * when set to a positive integer, only the first windowSize number of values will be considered.
+             * randomnessThreshold: Randomness threshold that specifies how confidence the input values follows 
+             * a predictable pattern recurring as seasonal data. By default, it is set as 0.99. 
+             * The higher the threshold is set, the more strict recurring pattern the 
+             * input values should follow to be determined as seasonal data.
+             */
+            int period = mlContext.AnomalyDetection.DetectSeasonality(
+                dataView,
+                nameof(TimeSeriesData.Value),
+                seasonalityWindowSize: 40);
+
+            // Print the Seasonality Period result.
+            Console.WriteLine($"Seasonality Period: #{period}");
+        }
+
+        private class TimeSeriesData
+        {
+            public double Value;
+
+            public TimeSeriesData(double value)
+            {
+                Value = value;
+            }
+        }
+
+    }
+}

src/Microsoft.ML.Data/Transforms/NormalizeColumnDbl.cs

@@ -597,6 +597,7 @@ internal static void GetMedianSoFar(in double num, ref double median, ref MaxHea
     /// It tracks median values of non-sparse values (vCount).
     /// NaNs are ignored when updating min and max.
     /// </summary>
+    [BestFriend]
     internal sealed class MedianDblAggregator : IColumnAggregator<double>
     {
         private MedianAggregatorUtils.MaxHeap<double> _belowMedianHeap;
@@ -1213,7 +1214,7 @@ private void GetResult(ref TFloat input, ref TFloat value)
                     }
 
                     public override NormalizingTransformer.NormalizerModelParametersBase GetNormalizerModelParams()
-                         => new NormalizingTransformer.BinNormalizerModelParameters<TFloat>(ImmutableArray.Create(_binUpperBounds), _den,_offset);
+                         => new NormalizingTransformer.BinNormalizerModelParameters<TFloat>(ImmutableArray.Create(_binUpperBounds), _den, _offset);
                 }
 
                 public sealed class ImplVec : BinColumnFunction

src/Microsoft.ML.TimeSeries/ExtensionsCatalog.cs

@@ -213,6 +213,52 @@ public static RootCause LocalizeRootCause(this AnomalyDetectionCatalog catalog,
             return dst;
         }
 
+        /// <summary>
+        /// <para>
+        /// In time series data, seasonality (or periodicity) is the presence of variations that occur at specific regular intervals,
+        /// such as weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
+        /// </para>
+        /// <para>
+        /// This method detects this predictable interval (or period) by adopting techniques of fourier analysis.
+        /// Assuming the input values have the same time interval (e.g., sensor data collected at every second ordered by timestamps),
+        /// this method takes a list of time-series data, and returns the regular period for the input seasonal data,
+        /// if a predictable fluctuation or pattern can be found that recurs or repeats over this period throughout the input values.
+        /// </para>
+        /// <para>
+        /// Returns -1 if no such pattern is found, that is, the input values do not follow a seasonal fluctuation.
+        /// </para>
+        /// </summary>
+        /// <param name="catalog">The detect seasonality catalog.</param>
+        /// <param name="input">Input DataView.The data is an instance of <see cref="Microsoft.ML.IDataView"/>.</param>
+        /// <param name="inputColumnName">Name of column to process. The column data must be <see cref="System.Double"/>.</param>
+        /// <param name="seasonalityWindowSize">An upper bound on the number of values to be considered in the input values.
+        /// When set to -1, use the whole input to fit model; when set to a positive integer, only the first windowSize number
+        /// of values will be considered. Default value is -1.</param>
+        /// <param name="randomnessThreshold"><a href ="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlogram">Randomness threshold</a>
+        /// that specifies how confidently the input values follow a predictable pattern recurring as seasonal data.
+        /// The range is between [0, 1]. By default, it is set as 0.95.
+        /// </param>
+        /// <returns>The regular interval for the input as seasonal data, otherwise return -1.</returns>
+        /// <example>
+        /// <format type="text/markdown">
+        /// <![CDATA[
+        /// [!code-csharp[LocalizeRootCause](~/../docs/samples/docs/samples/Microsoft.ML.Samples/Dynamic/Transforms/TimeSeries/DetectSeasonality.cs)]
+        /// ]]>
+        /// </format>
+        /// </example>
+        public static int DetectSeasonality(
+             this AnomalyDetectionCatalog catalog,
+             IDataView input,
+             string inputColumnName,
+             int seasonalityWindowSize = -1,
+             double randomnessThreshold = 0.95)
+         => new SeasonalityDetector().DetectSeasonality(
+             CatalogUtils.GetEnvironment(catalog),
+             input,
+             inputColumnName,
+             seasonalityWindowSize,
+             randomnessThreshold);
+
         private static void CheckRootCauseInput(IHostEnvironment host, RootCauseLocalizationInput src)
         {
             host.CheckUserArg(src.Slices.Count >= 1, nameof(src.Slices), "Must has more than one item");