Book Image

Regression Analysis with Python

By : Luca Massaron, Alberto Boschetti
4 (1)
Book Image

Regression Analysis with Python

4 (1)
By: Luca Massaron, Alberto Boschetti

Overview of this book

Regression is the process of learning relationships between inputs and continuous outputs from example data, which enables predictions for novel inputs. There are many kinds of regression algorithms, and the aim of this book is to explain which is the right one to use for each set of problems and how to prepare real-world data for it. With this book you will learn to define a simple regression problem and evaluate its performance. The book will help you understand how to properly parse a dataset, clean it, and create an output matrix optimally built for regression. You will begin with a simple regression algorithm to solve some data science problems and then progress to more complex algorithms. The book will enable you to use regression models to predict outcomes and take critical business decisions. Through the book, you will gain knowledge to use Python for building fast better linear models and to apply the results in Python or in any computer language you prefer.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Regression Analysis with Python
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Revisiting gradient descent


In continuity with the previous chapter, we carry on our explanation and experimentation with gradient descent. As we have already defined both the mathematical formulation and their translation into Python code, using matrix notation, we don't need to worry if now we have to deal with more than one variable at a time. Having used the matrix notation allows us to easily extend our previous introduction and example to multiple predictors with just minor changes to the algorithm.

In particular, we have to take note that, by introducing more parameters to be estimated during the optimization procedure, we are actually introducing more dimensions to our line of fit (turning it into a hyperplane, a multidimensional surface) and such dimensions have certain communalities and differences to be taken into account.

Feature scaling

Working with different features requires more attention when estimating the coefficients because of their similarities which can cause a variance...