For a column with categorical data, this function takes the raw value
    (e.g. 'Joe' or 234.23409), which is always encoded as a string, and returns the
    'code': the integer used to represent that value in the underlying representation.

    Note that the underlying store 'code_to_value' is unfortunately named backwards.
    TODO: fix the backwards naming.

def convert_value_to_code(M_c, cidx, value):
    """
    For a column with categorical data, this function takes the raw value
    (e.g. 'Joe' or 234.23409), which is always encoded as a string, and returns the
    'code': the integer used to represent that value in the underlying representation.

    Note that the underlying store 'code_to_value' is unfortunately named backwards.
    TODO: fix the backwards naming.
    """
    if M_c['column_metadata'][cidx]['modeltype'] == 'normal_inverse_gamma':
        return float(value)
    else:
        return M_c['column_metadata'][cidx]['code_to_value'][str(value)]