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 5. Extracting Features with Transformers

The datasets we have used so far have been described in terms of features. In the previous chapter, we used a transaction-centric dataset. However, ultimately this was just a different format for representing feature-based data.

There are many other types of datasets, including text, images, sounds, movies, or even real objects. Most data mining algorithms, however, rely on having numerical or categorical features. This means we need a way to represent these types before we input them into the data mining algorithm.

In this chapter, we will discuss how to extract numerical and categorical features, and choose the best features when we do have them. We will discuss some common patterns and techniques for extracting features.

The key concepts introduced in this chapter include:

  • Extracting features from datasets
  • Creating new features
  • Selecting good features
  • Creating your own transformer for custom datasets

Feature extraction

Extracting features...