Book Image

Python: Real-World Data Science

By : Fabrizio Romano, Dusty Phillips, Phuong Vo.T.H, Martin Czygan, Robert Layton, Sebastian Raschka
Book Image

Python: Real-World Data Science

By: Fabrizio Romano, Dusty Phillips, Phuong Vo.T.H, Martin Czygan, Robert Layton, Sebastian Raschka

Overview of this book

The Python: Real-World Data Science course will take you on a journey to become an efficient data science practitioner by thoroughly understanding the key concepts of Python. This learning path is divided into four modules and each module are a mini course in their own right, and as you complete each one, you’ll have gained key skills and be ready for the material in the next module. The course begins with getting your Python fundamentals nailed down. After getting familiar with Python core concepts, it’s time that you dive into the field of data science. In the second module, you'll learn how to perform data analysis using Python in a practical and example-driven way. The third module will teach you how to design and develop data mining applications using a variety of datasets, starting with basic classification and affinity analysis to more complex data types including text, images, and graphs. Machine learning and predictive analytics have become the most important approaches to uncover data gold mines. In the final module, we'll discuss the necessary details regarding machine learning concepts, offering intuitive yet informative explanations on how machine learning algorithms work, how to use them, and most importantly, how to avoid the common pitfalls.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Free Chapter
1
Table of Contents
2
Python: Real-World Data Science
3
Meet Your Course Guide
4
What's so cool about Data Science?
5
Course Structure
6
Course Journey
7
The Course Roadmap and Timeline
12
Index

Chapter 3. Predicting Sports Winners with Decision Trees

In this chapter, we will look at predicting the winner of sports matches using a different type of classification algorithm: decision trees. These algorithms have a number of advantages over other algorithms. One of the main advantages is that they are readable by humans. In this way, decision trees can be used to learn a procedure, which could then be given to a human to perform if needed. Another advantage is that they work with a variety of features, which we will see in this chapter.

We will cover the following topics in this chapter:

  • Using the pandas library for loading and manipulating data
  • Decision trees
  • Random forests
  • Using real-world datasets in data mining
  • Creating new features and testing them in a robust framework

Loading the dataset

In this chapter, we will look at predicting the winner of games of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Matches in the NBA are often close and can be decided in the last minute, making...