title: Converting data from my table to mahout datamodel
body: <p>I am just starting on with mahout and is thinking of building a recommendation engine from my existing data. The data in my current tables is stored in the format like</p>
  
  <pre><code>userId  From      TO        Meal    Carrier            Travel type
  
  MT001   London    Abu Dhabi Non-Veg Lufthansa          International
  MT001   Abu Dhabi Beijing   Veg     Lufthansa          International
  MT001   New York  Chicago   Non-Veg American Airlines  Domestic
  MT002   New York  Texas     Veg     American Airlines  Domestic
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now I want to convert this data set to the data model which is accepted by mahout. I know that format for mahout data model is like</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>userId(int),itemId(int),preference value(float)</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Can anyone please suggest how can I convert my travel data set above( which includes much more column and different datatypes than mohout data model) to the data model supported by mahout. Any help will be appreciated.</p>