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Grables: Tabular Learning Beyond Independent Rows

Machine Learning 2026-02-05 v1

Abstract

Tabular learning is still dominated by row-wise predictors that score each row independently, which fits i.i.d. benchmarks but fails on transactional, temporal, and relational tables where labels depend on other rows. We show that row-wise prediction rules out natural targets driven by global counts, overlaps, and relational patterns. To make "using structure" precise across architectures, we introduce grables: a modular interface that separates how a table is lifted to a graph (constructor) from how predictions are computed on that graph (node predictor), pinpointing where expressive power comes from. Experiments on synthetic tasks, transaction data, and a RelBench clinical-trials dataset confirm the predicted separations: message passing captures inter-row dependencies that row-local models miss, and hybrid approaches that explicitly extract inter-row structure and feed it to strong tabular learners yield consistent gains.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.03945,
  title  = {Grables: Tabular Learning Beyond Independent Rows},
  author = {Tamara Cucumides and Floris Geerts},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.03945},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:34:57.310Z