How to extract the decision rules from scikit-learn decision-tree?

Can I extract the underlying decision-rules (or 'decision paths') from a trained tree in a decision tree as a textual list?

Something like:

if A>0.4 then if B<0.2 then if C>0.8 then class='X'

I believe that this answer is more correct than the other answers here:

from sklearn.tree import _tree

def tree_to_code(tree, feature_names):
    tree_ = tree.tree_
    feature_name = [
        feature_names[i] if i != _tree.TREE_UNDEFINED else "undefined!"
        for i in tree_.feature
    ]
    print "def tree({}):".format(", ".join(feature_names))

    def recurse(node, depth):
        indent = "  " * depth
        if tree_.feature[node] != _tree.TREE_UNDEFINED:
            name = feature_name[node]
            threshold = tree_.threshold[node]
            print "{}if {} <= {}:".format(indent, name, threshold)
            recurse(tree_.children_left[node], depth + 1)
            print "{}else:  # if {} > {}".format(indent, name, threshold)
            recurse(tree_.children_right[node], depth + 1)
        else:
            print "{}return {}".format(indent, tree_.value[node])

    recurse(0, 1)

This prints out a valid Python function. Here's an example output for a tree that is trying to return its input, a number between 0 and 10.

def tree(f0):
  if f0 <= 6.0:
    if f0 <= 1.5:
      return [[ 0.]]
    else:  # if f0 > 1.5
      if f0 <= 4.5:
        if f0 <= 3.5:
          return [[ 3.]]
        else:  # if f0 > 3.5
          return [[ 4.]]
      else:  # if f0 > 4.5
        return [[ 5.]]
  else:  # if f0 > 6.0
    if f0 <= 8.5:
      if f0 <= 7.5:
        return [[ 7.]]
      else:  # if f0 > 7.5
        return [[ 8.]]
    else:  # if f0 > 8.5
      return [[ 9.]]

Here are some stumbling blocks that I see in other answers:

1. Using tree_.threshold == -2 to decide whether a node is a leaf isn't a good idea. What if it's a real decision node with a threshold of -2? Instead, you should look at tree.feature or tree.children_*.
2. The line features = [feature_names[i] for i in tree_.feature] crashes with my version of sklearn, because some values of tree.tree_.feature are -2 (specifically for leaf nodes).
3. There is no need to have multiple if statements in the recursive function, just one is fine.

I created my own function to extract the rules from the decision trees created by sklearn:

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeClassifier

# dummy data:
df = pd.DataFrame({'col1':[0,1,2,3],'col2':[3,4,5,6],'dv':[0,1,0,1]})

# create decision tree
dt = DecisionTreeClassifier(max_depth=5, min_samples_leaf=1)
dt.fit(df.ix[:,:2], df.dv)

This function first starts with the nodes (identified by -1 in the child arrays) and then recursively finds the parents. I call this a node's 'lineage'. Along the way, I grab the values I need to create if/then/else SAS logic:

def get_lineage(tree, feature_names):
     left      = tree.tree_.children_left
     right     = tree.tree_.children_right
     threshold = tree.tree_.threshold
     features  = [feature_names[i] for i in tree.tree_.feature]

     # get ids of child nodes
     idx = np.argwhere(left == -1)[:,0]     

     def recurse(left, right, child, lineage=None):          
          if lineage is None:
               lineage = [child]
          if child in left:
               parent = np.where(left == child)[0].item()
               split = 'l'
          else:
               parent = np.where(right == child)[0].item()
               split = 'r'

          lineage.append((parent, split, threshold[parent], features[parent]))

          if parent == 0:
               lineage.reverse()
               return lineage
          else:
               return recurse(left, right, parent, lineage)

     for child in idx:
          for node in recurse(left, right, child):
               print node

The sets of tuples below contain everything I need to create SAS if/then/else statements. I do not like using do blocks in SAS which is why I create logic describing a node's entire path. The single integer after the tuples is the ID of the terminal node in a path. All of the preceding tuples combine to create that node.

In [1]: get_lineage(dt, df.columns)
(0, 'l', 0.5, 'col1')
1
(0, 'r', 0.5, 'col1')
(2, 'l', 4.5, 'col2')
3
(0, 'r', 0.5, 'col1')
(2, 'r', 4.5, 'col2')
(4, 'l', 2.5, 'col1')
5
(0, 'r', 0.5, 'col1')
(2, 'r', 4.5, 'col2')
(4, 'r', 2.5, 'col1')
6