Tag Archives: machine learning

Pandas – Append Columns to Dataframe

Append columns to the data frame

In this post, you will learn different techniques to append or add one column or multiple columns to Pandas Dataframe (Python). There are different scenarios where this could come very handy. For example, when there are two or more data frames created using different data sources, and you want to select a specific set of columns from different data frames to create one single data frame, the methods given below can be used to append or add one or more columns to create one single data frame. It will be good to know these methods as it helps in data preprocessing stage of building machine learning models. In this post, …

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LabelEncoder Example – Single & Multiple Columns

LabelEncoder for converting labels to integers

In this post, you will learn about LabelEncoder code examples for handling encoding labels related to categorical features of single and multiple columns in Python Pandas Dataframe. The following are some of the points which will get covered: Background What are labels and why encode them? How to use LabelEncoder to encode single & multiple columns (all at once)? When not to use LabelEncoder? Background When working with dataset having categorical features, you come across two different types of features such as the following. Many machine learning algorithms require the categorical data (labels) to be converted or encoded in the numerical or number form. Ordinal features – Features which has …

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Pandas – Fillna method for replacing missing values

Fillna method for replacing missing values

In this post, you will learn about how to use fillna method to replace or impute missing values of one or more feature column with central tendency measures in Pandas Dataframe (Python).The central tendency measures which are used to replace missing values are mean, median and mode. Here is a detailed post on how, what and when of replacing missing values with mean, median or mode. This will be helpful in the data preprocessing stage of building machine learning models. Other technique used for filling missing values is backfill or bfill and forward-fill or ffill. Before going further and learn about fillna method, here is the Pandas sample dataframe we will work with. It represents marks in …

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Pandas Dataframe vs Numpy Array: What to Use?

Pandas Dataframe vs Numpy Array

In this post, you will learn about which data structure to use between Pandas Dataframe and Numpy Array when working with Scikit Learn libraries. As a data scientist, it is very important to understand the difference between Numpy array and Pandas Dataframe and when to use which data structure. Here are some facts: Scikit learn was originally developed to work well with Numpy array Numpy Ndarray provides a lot of convenient and optimized methods for performing several mathematical operations on vectors. Numpy array can be instantiated using the following manner: np.array([4, 5, 6]) Pandas Dataframe is an in-memory 2-dimensional tabular representation of data. In simpler words, it can be seen …

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Visualize Decision Tree with Python Sklearn Library

Decision tree visualization using GraphViz

In this post, you will learn about different techniques you can use to visualize decision tree (a machine learning algorithm) using Python Sklearn (Scikit-Learn) library. The python code example would use Sklearn IRIS dataset (classification) for illustration purpose. The decision tree visualization would help you to understand the model in a better manner. The following are two different techniques which can be used for creating decision tree visualisation: Sklearn tree class (plot_tree method) Graphviz library Sklearn Tree Class for Visualization In this section, you will see the code sample for creating decision tree visualization using Sklearn Tree method plot_tree method. Sklearn IRIS dataset is used for training the model. Here is …

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Decision Tree Classifier Python Code Example

Decision tree decision boundaries

In this post, you will learn about how to train a decision tree classifier machine learning model using Python. The following points will be covered in this post: What is decision tree? Decision tree python code sample What is Decision Tree? Simply speaking, the decision tree algorithm breaks the data points into decision nodes resulting in a tree structure. The decision nodes represent the question based on which the data is split further into two or more child nodes. The tree is created until the data points at a specific child node is pure (all data belongs to one class). The criteria for creating the most optimal decision questions is …

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How to Convert Sklearn Dataset to Dataframe

In this post, you will learn how to convert Sklearn.datasets to Pandas Dataframe. It will be useful to know this technique (code example) if you are comfortable working with Pandas Dataframe. You will be able to perform several operations faster with the dataframe. Sklearn datasets class comprises of several different types of datasets including some of the following: Iris Breast cancer Diabetes Boston Linnerud Images The code sample below is demonstrated with IRIS data set. Before looking into the code sample, recall that IRIS dataset when loaded has data in form of “data” and labels present as “target”. Executing the above code will print the following dataframe. In case, you don’t want to explicitly assign …

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Machine Learning – SVM Kernel Trick Example

In this post, you will learn about what are kernel methods, kernel trick, and kernel functions when referred with a Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. A good understanding of kernel functions in relation to the SVM machine learning (ML) algorithm will help you build/train the most optimal ML model by using the appropriate kernel functions. There are out-of-box kernel functions such as some of the following which can be applied for training models using the SVM algorithm: Polynomial kernel Gaussian kernel Radial basis function (RBF) kernel Sigmoid kernel The following topics will be covered: Background – Why Kernel concept? What is a kernel method? What is the kernel trick? What are …

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Sklearn SVM Classifier using LibSVM – Code Example

In this post, you learn about Sklearn LibSVM implementation used for training an SVM classifier, with code example.  Here is a great guide for learning SVM classification, especially, for beginners in the field of data science/machine learning. LIBSVM is a library for Support Vector Machines (SVM) which provides an implementation for the following: C-SVC (Support Vector Classification) nu-SVC epsilon-SVR (Support Vector Regression) nu-SVR Distribution estimation (one-class SVM) In this post, you will see code examples in relation to C-SVC, and nu-SVC LIBSVM implementations. I will follow up with code examples for SVR and distribution estimation in future posts. Here are the links to their SKLearn pages for C-SVC and nu-SVC …

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SVM – Understanding C Value with Code Examples

SVM Soft Margin CLassifier and C Value

In this post, we will understand the importance of C value on the SVM soft margin classifier overall accuracy using code samples. In the previous post titled as SVM as Soft Margin Classifier and C Value, the concepts around SVM soft margin classifier and the importance of C value was explained. If you are not sure about the concepts, I would recommend reading earlier article. Lets take a look at the code used for building SVM soft margin classifier with C value. The code example uses the SKLearn IRIS dataset  In the above code example, take a note of the value of C = 0.01. The model accuracy came out to …

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SVM as Soft Margin Classifier and C Value

Soft margin classifier SVM and importance of C value

In this post, you will learn about SVM (Support Vector Machine) as Soft Margin Classifier and the importance of Value of C. In the previous post, we learned about SVM as maximum margin classifier. What & Why of SVM as Soft Margin Classifier? Before getting into understanding what is Soft Margin Classifier version of SVM algorithm, lets understand why we need it when we had a maximum margin classifier. Maximum margin classifier works well with linearly separable data such as the following: When maximum margin classifier is trained on the above data set with maximum distance (margin) between the closest points (support vectors), we can get a hyperplane which can separate the data in a clear …

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SVM Algorithm as Maximum Margin Classifier

SVM as maximum margin classifier

In this post, we will understand the concepts related to SVM (Support Vector Machine) algorithm which is one of the popular machine learning algorithm. SVM algorithm is used for solving classification problems in machine learning.  Lets take a 2-dimensional problem space where a point can be classified as one or the other class based on the value of the two dimensions (independent variables, say) X1 and X2.  The objective is to find the most optimal line (hyperplane in case of 3 or more dimensions) which could correctly classify the points with most accuracy. In the diagram below, you could find multiple such lines possible. In the above diagram, the objective is to find the …

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Top 5 Data Analytics Methodologies

analytics methods

Here is a list of top 5 data analytics methodologies which can be used to solve different business problems and in a way create business value for any organization: Optimization: Simply speaking, an optimization problem consists of maximizing or minimizing a real function by systematically choosing input values (also termed as decision variables) from within an allowed set and computing the value of the function. An optimization problem consists of three things: A. Objective function B. Decision variables C. Constraint functions (this is optional) Linear / Non-linear programming with constrained / unconstrained optimization Linear programming with constrained optimization Objective function and one or more constraint functions are linear with decision variables as continuous variables Linear programming with unconstrained optimization Objective function …

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Machine Learning Use Cases in Procurement

procurement machine learning use cases

This post represents some of the important machine learning use cases in the procurement domain. These use cases can also be categorised as predictive analytics use cases for procurement. The list is not aimed to be exhaustive. However, some of the most important ones are listed. In case, you would like to add one or more use cases which I might have missed, pls feel free to suggest. The following are five key business function areas / department in procurement department.  Demand management Category management Supplier management Sourcing management Contract management In all of the above function areas, there can be multiple use cases which can take advantage of machine …

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Contract Management Use Cases for Machine Learning

contract management use cases machine learning

This post briefly represent the contract management use cases which could be solved using machine learning / data science. These use cases can also be termed as predictive analytics use cases. This can be useful for procurement business functions in any manufacturing companies which require to procure raw materials from different suppliers across different geographic locations. The following are some of the examples of industry where these use cases and related machine learning techniques can be useful. Pharmaceutical Airlines Food Transport Key Analytics Questions One must understand the business value which could be created using predictive analytics use cases listed later in this post. One must remember that one must start with questions …

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Different Types of Classification Learning Algorithms

Random forest example

In this post, you will learn about different types of classification machine learning algorithms that are used for building models. Here are four different classes of machine learning algorithms for solving classification problems: Probabilistic modeling Kernel methods Trees based algorithms Neural network Probabilistic Modeling Algorithms Probabilistic modeling is about modeling probability of whethar a data point belongs to one class or the other. In case of need to train machine learning models to classify a data point into multiple classes, probabilistic modeling approach will let us model the probability of a data point belonging to a particular class. Mathematically, it can be represented as P(C|X) and read as probability of class C happening …

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