Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Third Edition

By : Brett Lantz
Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Third Edition

By: Brett Lantz

Overview of this book

Machine learning, at its core, is concerned with transforming data into actionable knowledge. R offers a powerful set of machine learning methods to quickly and easily gain insight from your data. Machine Learning with R, Third Edition provides a hands-on, readable guide to applying machine learning to real-world problems. Whether you are an experienced R user or new to the language, Brett Lantz teaches you everything you need to uncover key insights, make new predictions, and visualize your findings. This new 3rd edition updates the classic R data science book to R 3.6 with newer and better libraries, advice on ethical and bias issues in machine learning, and an introduction to deep learning. Find powerful new insights in your data; discover machine learning with R.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Machine Learning with R - Third Edition
Contributors
Preface
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Index

Chapter 5. Divide and Conquer – Classification Using Decision Trees and Rules

When deciding between job offers with various levels of pay and benefits, many people begin by making lists of pros and cons, then eliminate options using simple rules. For instance, saying "If I must commute more than an hour, I will be unhappy," or "If I make less than $50K, I won't be able to support my family." In this way, the complex and difficult decision of predicting one's future happiness can be reduced to a series of simple decisions.

This chapter covers decision trees and rule learners—two machine learning methods that also make complex decisions from sets of simple choices. These methods present their knowledge in the form of logical structures that can be understood with no statistical knowledge. This aspect makes these models particularly useful for business strategy and process improvement.

By the end of this chapter, you will learn:

  • How trees and rules "greedily" partition data into interesting segments...