Book Image

Data Science Using Python and R

By : Chantal D. Larose, Daniel T. Larose
Book Image

Data Science Using Python and R

By: Chantal D. Larose, Daniel T. Larose

Overview of this book

Data science is hot. Bloomberg named a data scientist as the ‘hottest job in America’. Python and R are the top two open-source data science tools using which you can produce hands-on solutions to real-world business problems, using state-of-the-art techniques. Each chapter in the book presents step-by-step instructions and walkthroughs for solving data science problems using Python and R. You’ll learn how to prepare data, perform exploratory data analysis, and prepare to model the data. As you progress, you’ll explore what are decision trees and how to use them. You’ll also learn about model evaluation, misclassification costs, naïve Bayes classification, and neural networks. The later chapters provide comprehensive information about clustering, regression modeling, dimension reduction, and association rules mining. The book also throws light on exciting new topics, such as random forests and general linear models. The book emphasizes data-driven error costs to enhance profitability, which avoids the common pitfalls that may cost a company millions of dollars. By the end of this book, you’ll have enough knowledge and confidence to start providing solutions to data science problems using R and Python.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
17
INDEX
18
END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

PART 1: SUMMARIZATION 1: BUILDING BLOCKS OF DATA ANALYSIS

  • Descriptive statistics refers to methods for summarizing and organizing the information in a data set.

Consider Table A.1, which we will use to illustrate some statistical concepts.

  • The entities for which information is collected are called the elements. In Table A.1, the elements are the 10 applicants. Elements are also called cases or subjects.
  • A variable is a characteristic of an element, which takes on different values for different elements. The variables in Table A.1 are marital status, mortgage, income, rank, year, and risk. Variables are also called attributes.
  • The set of variable values for a particular element is an observation. Observations are also called records. The observation for Applicant 2 is:

     

    Applicant Marital Status Mortgage Income ($) Income Rank Year Risk
    2 Married Yes 32,000 7 2010 Good
  • Variables can be either qualitative or quantitative.
    • A qualitative variable enables the elements to...