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

Missing data


Missing data appears often in real-life data, sometimes randomly in random occurrences, more often because of some bias in its recording and treatment. All linear models work on complete numeric matrices and cannot deal directly with such problems; consequently, it is up to you to take care of feeding suitable data for the algorithm to process.

Even if your initial dataset does not present any missing data, it is still possible to encounter missing values in the production phase. In such a case, the best strategy is surely that of dealing with them passively, as presented at the beginning of the chapter, by standardizing all the numeric variables.

Tip

As for as indicator variables, in order to passively intercept missing values, a possible strategy is instead to encode the presence of the label as 1 and its absence as -1, leaving the zero value for missing values.

When missing values are present from the beginning of the project, it is certainly better to deal with them explicitly...