[FIXED] TF Dataset API: Is the following sequence correct? map,cache,shuffle,batch,repeat,prefetch

Issue

I am using this sequence to read images files from disk and feed into a TF Keras model.

  #Make dataset for training
    dataset_train = tf.data.Dataset.from_tensor_slices((file_ids_training,file_names_training))
    dataset_train = dataset_train.flat_map(lambda file_id,file_name: tf.data.Dataset.from_tensor_slices(
        tuple (tf.py_func(_get_data_for_dataset, [file_id,file_name], [tf.float32,tf.float32]))))
    dataset_train = dataset_train.cache()

    dataset_train= dataset_train.shuffle(buffer_size=train_buffer_size)
    dataset_train= dataset_train.batch(train_batch_size) #Make dataset, shuffle, and create batches
    dataset_train= dataset_train.repeat()
    dataset_train = dataset_train.prefetch(1)
    dataset_train_iterator = dataset_train.make_one_shot_iterator()
    get_train_batch = dataset_train_iterator.get_next()

I am having questions on whether this is the most optimal sequence. For e.g. Should repeat come after shuffle() and before batch()?, Should cache() come after batch?

Solution

The answer here Output differences when changing order of batch(), shuffle() and repeat() suggests repeat or shuffle before batching. The order I often use is (1) shuffle, (2) repeat, (3) map, (4) batch but it can vary based on your preferences. I use shuffle before repeat to avoid blurring epoch boundaries. I use map before batch because my mapping function applies to a single example (not to a batch of examples) but you can certainly write a map function that is vectorized and expects to see a batch as input.

Answered By - veritessa