Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Fourth Edition

By : Brett Lantz
5 (1)
Book Image

Machine Learning with R - Fourth Edition

5 (1)
By: Brett Lantz

Overview of this book

Dive into R with this data science guide on machine learning (ML). Machine Learning with R, Fourth Edition, takes you through classification methods like nearest neighbor and Naive Bayes and regression modeling, from simple linear to logistic. Dive into practical deep learning with neural networks and support vector machines and unearth valuable insights from complex data sets with market basket analysis. Learn how to unlock hidden patterns within your data using k-means clustering. With three new chapters on data, you’ll hone your skills in advanced data preparation, mastering feature engineering, and tackling challenging data scenarios. This book helps you conquer high-dimensionality, sparsity, and imbalanced data with confidence. Navigate the complexities of big data with ease, harnessing the power of parallel computing and leveraging GPU resources for faster insights. Elevate your understanding of model performance evaluation, moving beyond accuracy metrics. With a new chapter on building better learners, you’ll pick up techniques that top teams use to improve model performance with ensemble methods and innovative model stacking and blending techniques. Machine Learning with R, Fourth Edition, equips you with the tools and knowledge to tackle even the most formidable data challenges. Unlock the full potential of machine learning and become a true master of the craft.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
16
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17
Index

Summary

In this chapter, we learned about classification using k-NN. Unlike many classification algorithms, k-nearest neighbors does not do any learning. It simply stores the training data verbatim. Unlabeled test examples are then matched to the most similar records in the training set using a distance function, and the unlabeled example is assigned the label of its neighbors.

Although k-NN is a very simple algorithm, it can tackle extremely complex tasks such as the identification of cancerous masses. In a few simple lines of R code, we were able to correctly identify whether a mass was malignant or benign 98 percent of the time.

In the next chapter, we will examine a classification method that uses probability to estimate the likelihood that an observation falls into certain categories. It will be interesting to compare how this approach differs from k-NN. Later, in Chapter 9, Finding Groups of Data – Clustering with k-means, we will learn about a close relative to k-NN, which...