Is it necessary to test a neural networks with data set unseen by ANN ??

Purpose: A neural networks, when properly trianed must have ability to generalize and not behave just like a memory.

 So, for me i used  MLP( 7 inputs,1 ouputs, 1 hidden layer) type's of ANN with 13 years data set, i divided these data as following : 

 - 10 years data set to train my ANN  
 - 3 years unseen by ANN to test my model 

 My question is,can i delete this command   'net.divideparam.testRatio' since i used data unseen by ANN ????

net.divideParam.trainRatio = 75/100;

net.divideParam.valRatio = 15/100;

|net.divideParam.testRatio = 10/100; (I think this command is not necessary!!! can i delete it ??)

Answer 1

[Greg Heath]

Just put all of the data into the net.

Then choose the datadivision mode and indexing that suits the problem.

Nothing more is needed.

[omar belhaj]

 So, that I "ve understood from your answer for exemple for this case data set 13 years

net.divideParam.trainRatio = 75/100;( about 10 years are used for training)

net.divideParam.valRatio = 15/100; (about 2 years are used for validaition to avoid "overfitting")

|net.divideParam.testRatio = 10/100 ( about 1 year used to test our model, we can consired that unseen by NN !!)