ML.NET for Data Prep – AI-Ready Preprocessing in .NET
You Know SQL. You Know .NET. Now Meet ML.NET for Data Prep.
SQL Server pros have been cleaning data for decades—with SSMS, stored procedures, and SSIS. .NET developers often handle preprocessing using ORM tools like Entity Framework or raw C# code.
But when it comes to preparing data for AI and machine learning, those tools might not be enough.
Enter ML.NET.
The Opportunity: A Third Option for Microsoft Data Prep
You don’t have to replace what works. But when you hit tasks like:
- Text tokenization
- Value binning
- One-hot encoding
- Stop word removal
- N-gram generation
- Text featurization
…ML.NET might offer a cleaner, faster, and more scalable option.
When ML.NET Makes Sense
ML.NET is designed specifically for machine learning and AI pipelines. It complements—rather than replaces—SQL and .NET code.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)? ✅
- Mixed numeric and categorical data? ✅
- Production-ready pipelines in C#? ✅
- Fast experimentation and tuning? ✅
Compare the Tools
| Preprocessing Task | SQL/SSIS | .NET Code | ML.NET |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replace missing values | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| One-hot encoding | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Normalize numeric fields | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Tokenize text fields | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Remove stop words | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Produce N-grams | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Binning continuous values | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Map string labels to keys | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Featurize text for models | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
ML.NET is another tool for data preparation when working with data for AI
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