You can also find all 50 answers here π Devinterview.io - Scikit-Learn
Scikit-Learn, an open-source Python library, is a leading solution for machine learning tasks. Its simplicity, versatility, and consistent performance across different ML methods and datasets have earned it tremendous popularity.
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Straightforward Interface: Intuitive API design simplifies the implementation of various ML tasks, ranging from data preprocessing to model evaluation.
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Model Selection and Automation: Scikit-Learn provides techniques for extensive hyperparameter optimization and model evaluation, reducing the burden on developers in these areas.
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Consistent Model Objects: All models and techniques in Scikit-Learn are implemented as unified Python objects, ensuring a standardized approach.
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Robustness and Flexibility: Many algorithms and models in Scikit-Learn come with adaptive features, catering to diverse requirements.
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Versatile Tools: Apart from standard supervised and unsupervised models, Scikit-Learn offers utilities for feature selection and pipeline construction, allowing for seamless integration of multiple methods.
Scikit-Learn maintains a consistent model interface adaptable to a plethora of use-cases. This structure sculpts model-training and prediction procedures into recognizable patterns.
- Three Basic Techniques: Users uniformly use
fit()
for model training,predict()
for data inference, andscore()
for performance evaluation, simplifying interaction with distinct models.
Scikit-Learn presents an extensive suite of algorithms, especially catering to fundamental ML tasks.
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Supervised Learning: Scikit-Learn houses methods for everything from linear and tree-based models to support vector machines and neural networks.
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Unsupervised Learning: Clustering and dimensionality reduction are seamlessly achieved using the library's tools.
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Hyperparameter Tuning: Feature-rich options for grid search and randomized search streamline the process.
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Feature Selection: Employ varied selection techniques to isolate meaningful predictors.
Scikit-Learn aims to provide a consistent and user-friendly interface for various machine learning tasks. Its API design is grounded in several key principles to ensure clarity, modularity, and versatility.
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Consistency: The API adheres to a consistent design pattern across all its modules.
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Non-Redundancy: It avoids redundancy by drawing on general routines for common tasks. This keeps the API concise and unified across different algorithms.
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Data as Rectangular Arrays: Scikit-Learn algorithms expect input data to be stored in a two-dimensional array or a matrix-like object. This ensures data is homogenous and can be accessed efficiently using NumPy.
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Encoded Targets: Categorical target variables are converted to integers or one-hot encodings before feeding them to most estimators.
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Fit then Transform: The API distinguishes between fitting estimators to data and transforming them. In cases where data transformations are involved, pipelines are used to ensure consistency and reusability.
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Stateless Transforms: Preprocessing operations like feature scaling and imputation transform data but do not preserve any internal state from one
fit_transform
call to the next. -
Predict Method: After fitting, models use the
predict
method to produce predictions or labeling.
- transform Method: Unsupervised estimators have a
transform
method that modifies inputs as a form of feature extraction, transformation, or clusteringβa step distinct from initial fitting.
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Make Predictions with Immutable Parts: A model's prediction phase depends only on its parameters. Fit state doesn't influence predictions, ensuring consistency.
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Pipelines for Chaining Steps: Pipelines harmonize data processing and modeling stages, providing a single interface for both.
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Feature and Model Names: For interpretability, Scikit-Learn uses string identifiers for model and feature names.
Example: In text classification, a feature may be "wordcount" or "tf_idf" instead of the raw text itself.
- Separation of Concerns: A distinct set of classes is dedicated to model selection and evaluation, like
GridSearchCV
orcross_val_score
.
Scikit-Learn features specialized estimators for distinct tasks:
- Classifier: For binary or multi-class classification tasks.
- Regressor: For continuous target variables in regression problems.
- Clusterer: For unsupervised clustering.
- Transformer: For data transformation, like dimensionality reduction or feature selection.
This categorization makes it simple to pinpoint the right estimator for a given task.
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Know the Estimator You Are Using: There are various supported tasks, but different estimators can't be coerced to accommodate tasks outside their primary wheelhouse.
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Be Mindful of Your Data: Preprocess your data consistently and according to the estimator's requirements using data transformers and pipelines.
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Respect the Training-Scoring-Evaluation Discrimination: Training on one dataset and evaluating on another isn't merely an option; it's a careful protocol that helps prevent overfitting.
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Determine a Conveyable and Understandable Feature and Model Identifiers: Knowing what was used where can sometimes be just as important as knowing the numeric result of a prediction or transformation.
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Remember the Task at Hand: Always keep in mind the specificity of your problemβclassification versus regression, supervised versus unsupervisedβso you can pick the best tool for the job.
When handling missing values in a dataset, scikit-learn provides several tools and techniques as well. These include:
Imputation replaces missing values with substitutes. Scikit-learn's SimpleImputer
offers several strategies:
- Mean, Median, Most Frequent: Fills in with the mean, median, or mode of the non-missing values in the column.
- Constant: Assigns a fixed value to all missing entries.
- KNN: Uses the k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm to determine an appropriate value based on other instances' known feature values.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
import numpy as np
# Example data
X = np.array([[1, 2], [np.nan, 3], [7, 6]])
# Simple imputer
imp_mean = SimpleImputer()
X_mean = imp_mean.fit_transform(X)
print(X_mean) # Result: [[1. 2.], [4. 3.], [7. 6.]]
Using methods that transform data but not handle missing values for example for K-Means you can preprocess your data to handle missing values using one of the methods provided bySimpleImputer
and then use KMeans
to fit your preprocessed data.
Scikit-Learn employs two primary components for machine learning: transformers and estimators.
Transformers are objects that map data into a new format, usually for feature extraction, scaling, or dimensionality reduction. They perform this transformation using the .transform()
method.
Some common transformers include the MinMaxScaler
for feature scaling, PCA
for dimensionality reduction, and CountVectorizer
for text preprocessing.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.preprocessing import MinMaxScaler
# Creating the scaler object
scaler = MinMaxScaler()
# Fitting the data and transforming it
data_transformed = scaler.fit_transform(original_data)
In this example, we fit the transformer on the original data and then transform that data into a new format.
Estimators represent models that learn from data, making predictions or influencing other algorithms. The principal methods used by estimators are .fit()
to learn from the data and .predict()
to make predictions on new data.
One example of an estimator is the RandomForestClassifier
, which is a machine learning model used for classification tasks.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
# Creating the classifier object
clf = RandomForestClassifier()
# Fitting the classifier on training data
clf.fit(X_train, y_train)
# Making predictions on the test set
y_pred = clf.predict(X_test)
In this example, X_train
and y_train
represent the input features and output labels of the training set, respectively. The classifier is trained using these datasets. After training, it can be used to make predictions on new, unseen data represented by X_test
.
When using Scikit-Learn for building predictive models, you'll typically follow these seven steps in a methodical workflow:
- Acquiring the Data: This step involves obtaining your data from a variety of sources.
- Preprocessing the Data: Data preprocessing includes tasks such as cleaning, transforming, and splitting the data.
- Defining the Model: This step involves choosing the type of model that best fits your data and problem.
- Training the Model: Here, the model is fitted to the training data.
- Evaluating the Model: The model's performance is assessed using testing data or cross-validation techniques.
- Fine-Tuning the Model: Various methods, such as hyperparameter tuning, can improve the model's performance.
- Deploying the Model: The trained and validated model is put to use for making predictions.
Here is the Python code:
# Step 1: Acquire the Data
import pandas as pd
from sklearn.datasets import load_iris
# Load the Iris dataset
iris = load_iris()
X, y = iris.data, iris.target
df = pd.DataFrame(data=iris.data, columns=iris.feature_names)
# Step 2: Preprocess the Data
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
# Split the data into training and testing sets
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=42)
# Step 3: Define the Model
from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeClassifier
# Initialize the model
model = DecisionTreeClassifier()
# Step 4: Train the Model
# Fit the model to the training data
model.fit(X_train, y_train)
# Step 5: Evaluate the Model
from sklearn.metrics import accuracy_score
# Make predictions
y_pred = model.predict(X_test)
# Assess accuracy
accuracy = accuracy_score(y_test, y_pred)
print(f"Model Accuracy: {accuracy:.2f}")
# Step 6: Fine-Tune the Model
from sklearn.model_selection import GridSearchCV
# Define the parameter grid to search
param_grid = {'max_depth': [3, 4, 5]}
# Initialize the grid search
grid_search = GridSearchCV(model, param_grid, cv=5)
# Conduct the grid search
grid_search.fit(X_train, y_train)
# Get the best parameters
best_params = grid_search.best_params_
print(f"Best Parameters: {best_params}")
# Refit the model with the best parameters
best_model = grid_search.best_estimator_
best_model.fit(X_train, y_train)
# Step 7: Deploy the Model
# Use the deployed model to make predictions
new_data = [[5.1, 3.5, 1.4, 0.2], [6.2, 3.4, 5.4, 2.3]]
predictions = best_model.predict(new_data)
print(f"Predicted Classes: {predictions}")
Feature scaling is a crucial step in many machine learning algorithms. It involves transforming numerical features to a "standard" scale, often leading to better model performance. Scikit-Learn offers convenient methods for feature scaling.
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Min-Max Scaling: Rescales data to a specific range using the formula:
$$X_{\text{scaled}} = \frac{X - X_{\text{min}}}{X_{\text{max}} - X_{\text{min}}}$$ from sklearn.preprocessing import MinMaxScaler min_max_scaler = MinMaxScaler() X_minmax = min_max_scaler.fit_transform(X)
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Standardization: Centers the data to have a mean of
$0$ and a standard deviation of$1$ using the formula:$$X_{\text{standardized}} = \frac{X - \mu}{\sigma}$$ from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler std_scaler = StandardScaler() X_std = std_scaler.fit_transform(X)
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Robust Scaling: Scales data based on interquartile range (IQR), making it robust to outliers.
$$\frac{X - Q_1(X)}{Q_3(X) - Q_1(X)}$$ from sklearn.preprocessing import RobustScaler robust_scaler = RobustScaler() X_robust = robust_scaler.fit_transform(X)
A pipeline in Scikit-Learn is a way to streamline and automate a sequence of data transformations and model fitting or predicting, all integrated in a single, tidy framework.
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Pre-Processors: These perform any necessary data transformations, such as imputation of missing values, feature scaling, and feature selection.
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Estimators: These represent any model or algorithm for learning from data. They can be either a classifier or a regressor.
- Streamlined Code: Piping together several data processing steps makes the code look cleaner and easier to understand.
- Reduced Data Leakage: Pipelines apply each step in the sequence to the data, which helps in avoiding common pitfalls like data leakage during transformations and evaluation.
- Cross-Validation Integration: Pipelines are supported within cross-validation and grid search, enabling fine-tuning of the entire workflow at once.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.pipeline import make_pipeline
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
from sklearn.preprocessing import MinMaxScaler
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
from sklearn.model_selection import cross_val_score
# Fake or dummy data for illustration.
X = [[-1, 2], [-0.5, 6], [0, 10], [1, 18]]
y = [0, 1, 2, 3]
# Define pipeline components
imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy='mean')
scaler = MinMaxScaler()
classifier = RandomForestClassifier()
# Construct the pipeline
pipeline = make_pipeline(imputer, scaler, classifier)
# Perform cross-validation with the pipeline
scores = cross_val_score(pipeline, X, y, cv=5)
In this example, the pipeline consolidates three essential steps:
- Data Imputation: Use mean to fill missing or NaN values.
- Data Scaling: Use Min-Max scaling.
- Model Building and Training: RandomForest's classifier.
Once the pipeline is set up, training or predicting is a one-step process, like so:
pipeline.fit(X_train, y_train) # Train the pipeline.
predicted = pipeline.predict(X_test) # Use the pipeline to make predictions.
Scikit-Learn provides a diverse array of algorithms, and here are the main categories for supervised and unsupervised learning.
- Linear Regression: Establishes linear relationships between features and target.
- Ridge, Lasso and ElasticNet: Utilizes regularization methods.
- Decision Trees & Random Forest: Uses tree structures for decision-making.
- SVM (Support Vector Machine): Separates data into classes using a hyperplane.
- K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN): Classifies based on the majority labels in the k-nearest neighbors.
- Adaboost, Gradient Boosting: Combines multiple weak learners to form a strong model.
- Multi-layer Perceptron: A type of feedforward neural network.
- K-Means: Divides data into k clusters based on centroids.
- Hierarchical & DBSCAN: Unsupervised methods that do not require prior specification of clusters.
- PCA (Principal Component Analysis): Reduces feature dimensionality based on variance.
- LDA (Linear Discriminant Analysis): Reduces dimensions while maintaining class separability.
- One Class SVM: Identifies observations that deviate from the majority.
- FastICA, NMF, VarianceThreshold: Feature selection and signal decomposition methods.
In Scikit-Learn, you can use various techniques to encode Categorical Variables.
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OrdinalEncoder: For ordinal categories, assigns a range of numbers to each category. Works well when certain categories have an inherent order.
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OneHotEncoder: Creates Binary columns representing each category to avoid assuming any ordinal relationship. Ideal for non-binary categories.
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LabelBinarizer: A simpler version of OneHotEncoder designed for binary (two-class) categories.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder
import pandas as pd
# Example data
data = pd.DataFrame({'Color': ['Red', 'Green', 'Blue', 'Green', 'Red']})
# Initializing and fitting OneHotEncoder
encoder = OneHotEncoder()
encoded_data = encoder.fit_transform(data[['Color']])
# Converting to DataFrame for visibility
encoded_df = pd.DataFrame(encoded_data.toarray(), columns=encoder.get_feature_names_out(['Color']))
# Displaying encoded DataFrame
print(encoded_df)
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.preprocessing import LabelBinarizer
import pandas as pd
# Example data
data = pd.DataFrame({'Color': ['Red', 'Green', 'Blue', 'Green', 'Red']})
# Initializing and fitting LabelBinarizer
binarizer = LabelBinarizer()
encoded_data = binarizer.fit_transform(data['Color'])
# Converting to DataFrame for visibility
encoded_df = pd.DataFrame(encoded_data, columns=binarizer.classes_)
# Displaying encoded DataFrame
print(encoded_df)
Imbalanced datasets pose a challenge in machine learning because the frequency of different classes is disproportionate, often leading to biased models.
By assigning different weights to classes, you can make the model prioritize the minority class. For instance, in a binary classification problem with an imbalanced dataset, you can use class_weight
in classifiers like LogisticRegression
or SVC
.
Example with LogisticRegression
:
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
# Set class_weight to 'balanced' or a custom weight
clf = LogisticRegression(class_weight='balanced')
Oversampling involves replicating examples in the minority class, while undersampling reduces the number of examples in the majority class. This achieves a better balance for training.
Scikit-Learn doesn't have built-in functions for resampling, but third-party libraries like imbalanced-learn
offer this capability.
Example using imbalanced-learn
:
from imblearn.over_sampling import RandomOverSampler
over_sampler = RandomOverSampler()
X_train_resampled, y_train_resampled = over_sampler.fit_resample(X_train, y_train)
The Area Under the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (AUC-ROC) can be a better evaluation metric than accuracy for imbalanced datasets.
- Precision-Recall metrics, which focus on the performance of the minority class.
In Scikit-Learn, you can use roc_auc_score
and average_precision_score
for these metrics.
- Resampling can introduce bias or overfitting. It's essential to validate models carefully.
- Weighted Loss Functions are an easy way to address imbalance but may not always be sufficient. Balanced weights are a good starting point, but your problem might require custom weights.
Train-Test Split is a fundamental step in machine learning model development for evaluating model performance.
Scikit-Learn, through its model_selection
module, provides a straightforward method for performing this task:
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
import numpy as np
# Data
X, y = np.arange(10).reshape((5, 2)), range(5)
# Split with a test size ratio (commonly 80-20 or 70-30)
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2)
# Or specify a specific number of samples for the test set
# X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=2)
The ColumnTransformer utility in Scikit-Learn
allows for independent preprocessing of different feature types or subsets (columns) of the input data.
- Multi-Modal Feature Processing: For datasets where features are of different types (e.g., text, numerical, categorical),
ColumnTransformer
is particularly useful. - Pipelining for Specific Features: The tool is employed for applies specific transformers to certain subsets of the feature space, allowing for focused pre-processing.
- Simplifying Transformation Pipelines: When there are multiple features and multiple steps in the data transformation process, the
ColumnTransformer
methodology can help manage the complexity.
- Transformers: These translate data from its original format to a format suitable for ML models.
- Transformations: These are the operations or
Callables
that the transformers perform on the input data. - Feature Groups: The data features are divided into groups or subsets, and each group is associated with a unique transformation process, defined by different transformers. These feature groups correspond to the columns of the input dataset.
Here is how to use ColumnTransformer
with multiple pre-processing steps and each active_discovery step tailored to a specific subset of columns:
from sklearn.compose import ColumnTransformer
from sklearn.preprocessing import Normalizer, StandardScaler, OneHotEncoder
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
# Defining the ColumnTransformer
preprocessor = ColumnTransformer(
transformers=[
('num', StandardScaler(), ['numerical_feature_1', 'numerical_feature_2']),
('num2',Normalizer(),['numerical_feature_3']),
('cat', OneHotEncoder(), ['categorical_feature_1', 'categorical_feature_2']),
('drop_col', 'drop', ['column_to_drop']),
('fill_unk', SimpleImputer(strategy='constant', fill_value='Unknown'), ['categorical_feature_with_nan']),
('default', 'passthrough', ['remaining_col_1']) # By default, remaining columns are "passed through"
]
)
# Applying the ColumnTransformer
transformed_data = preprocessor.fit_transform(data)
In the example above:
- Columns
numerical_feature_1
andnumerical_feature_2
undergo z-score standardization. numerical_feature_3
is normalized.- We use one-hot encoding for
categorical_feature_1
andcategorical_feature_2
. - We drop
column_to_drop
. - For
categorical_feature_with_nan
, we replaceNaN
values with a constant ('Unknown'). - All remaining columns (including
remaining_col_1
) are passed through without any transformations ('passthrough'
).
13. What preprocessing steps would you take before inputting data into a machine learning algorithm?
Before feeding data into a machine learning algorithm, it is crucial to pre-process it. This involves several steps:
- Handling Missing Data: Remove, impute, or flag missing values.
- Handling Categorical Data: Convert categorical data to numerical form.
- Scaling and Normalization: Rescale numerical data to a similar range.
- Splitting Data for Training and Testing: Split the dataset to evaluate model performance.
- Feature Engineering: Generate new features or transform existing ones for better model performance.
- Imputer: Fills missing values.
- OneHotEncoder: Encodes categorical data as one-hot vectors.
- StandardScaler: Standardizes numerical data to have zero mean and unit variance.
- MinMaxScaler: Rescales numerical data to a specific range.
- Train-Test Split: Divides data into training and testing sets.
- PolynomialFeatures: Generates polynomial features.
Here is the Python code:
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
from sklearn.preprocessing import OneHotEncoder, StandardScaler, MinMaxScaler
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
# Data
X = ... # Features
y = ... # Target
# 1. Handling Missing Data
imputer = SimpleImputer(strategy='mean')
X_imputed = imputer.fit_transform(X)
# 2. Handling Categorical Data
encoder = OneHotEncoder()
X_encoded = encoder.fit_transform(X_imputed)
# 3. Scaling and Normalization
scaler = MinMaxScaler() # Alternatively, can use StandardScaler
X_scaled = scaler.fit_transform(X_encoded)
# 4. Train-Test Split
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X_scaled, y, test_size=0.2)
Imputer, available in sklearn.preprocessing
, offers a streamlined solution for handling missing data in your datasets.
Using a variety of strategies, Imputer
takes in your feature matrix and replaces missing values with appropriate data.
The process can be summarized as follows:
- Fit: The Imputer instance estimates the method statistics from the training data. This is done using the
fit
method. - Transform: The missing values in the training data are then replaced with the learned statistics. This is accomplished using the
transform
method. - Predict/Transform new data: After training, the imputer can replace missing values in new data in a consistent fashion. For transformation of either training or new data, simply use the
fit_transform
method, which combines thefit
andtransform
operations.
- fit(X): Learns the required statistics from the training data.
- transform(X): Uses the learned statistics to replace missing data points in the dataset (self-contained operation, does not modify the imputer itself).
- fit_transform(X): Combines the training and transformation processes for convenience.
- statistics_: After fitting, you can access the determined strategy or value from the imputer's
statistics_
attribute.
- Mean: Substitutes missing values with the mean of the feature.
- Median: Replaces missing entries with the median of the feature.
- Most Frequent: Uses the mode of the feature for imputation.
- Constant: Allows you to specify a constant value for filling in missing data.
Here is the scikit-learn imputer code:
import numpy as np
from sklearn.impute import SimpleImputer
# Sample data with missing values
X = np.array([[1, 2], [np.nan, 3], [7, 6]])
# Define the imputer
imputer = SimpleImputer(missing_values=np.nan, strategy='mean')
# Fit and transform the data
X_imputed = imputer.fit_transform(X)
# View the imputed data
print(X_imputed)
When preparing data for a machine learning model, it's often crucial to normalize or standardize features. Scikit-Learn provides two primary methods for this: MinMaxScaler
for normalization and StandardScaler
for standardization.
Normalization allows for rescaling of features within a set range.
The example code demonstrates how to normalize a feature vector using Scikit-Learn's MinMaxScaler
.
from sklearn.preprocessing import MinMaxScaler
# Feature matrix H lies within 50-80 age and 1.60-1.95 meters height
# Age is generally thousands of days
# Height is generally above 1
H = [[50, 1.90],
[80000, 1.95],
[45, 1.60],
[100000, 1.65]]
scaler = MinMaxScaler()
H_scaled = scaler.fit_transform(H)
print(H_scaled)
The output showcases each feature's new normalized range between 0 and 1.
Standardization transforms data to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1.
Here is the Python code to implement Z-Score Standardization using the StandardScaler
in Scikit-Learn:
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
# Feature matrix M representing Mean (mu) and standard deviation (sigma)
# 80 and 1.8 are typical mean and standard deviation for age and height respectively.
M = [[40, 1.60], # close to average
[120, 1.95], # exceptionally tall
[20, 1.50], # shorter
[60, 1.75]] # slightly above mean
scaler = StandardScaler()
M_scaled = scaler.fit_transform(M)
print(M_scaled)