// Remove the output column from the dataset, and store it into the y varaible
y = list(X_df.pop(self.output_column))
print("removed the output column")
// If this is a classifier, try to turn all the y values into proper ints
// Some classifiers play more nicely if you give them category labels as ints rather than strings, so we"ll make our jobs easier here if we can.
if self.type_of_estimator == "classifier":