Introduction to preprocessing
Preprocessing for Machine Learning in Python
James Chapman
Curriculum Manager, DataCamp
What is data preprocessing?
- After exploratory data analysis and data cleaning
- Preparing data for modeling
- Example: transforming categorical features into numerical features (dummy variables)
Why preprocess?
- Transform dataset so it's suitable for modeling
- Improve model performance
- Generate more reliable results
Recap: exploring data with pandas
import pandas as pd
hiking = pd.read_json("hiking.json")
print(hiking.head())
Prop_ID Name ... lat lon
0 B057 Salt Marsh Nature Trail ... NaN NaN
1 B073 Lullwater ... NaN NaN
2 B073 Midwood ... NaN NaN
3 B073 Peninsula ... NaN NaN
4 B073 Waterfall ... NaN NaN
Recap: exploring data with pandas
print(hiking.info())
<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 33 entries, 0 to 32
Data columns (total 11 columns):
# Column Non-Null Count Dtype
-- ------ -------------- -----
0 Prop_ID 33 non-null object
1 Name 33 non-null object
2 Location 33 non-null object
3 Park_Name 33 non-null object
4 Length 29 non-null object
5 Difficulty 27 non-null object
6 Other_Details 31 non-null object
7 Accessible 33 non-null object
8 Limited_Access 33 non-null object
9 lat 0 non-null float64
10 lon 0 non-null float64
dtypes: float64(2), object(9)
memory usage: 3.0+ KB
Recap: exploring data with pandas
print(wine.describe())
Type Alcohol ... Alcalinity of ash
count 178.000000 178.000000 ... 178.000000
mean 1.938202 13.000618 ... 19.494944
std 0.775035 0.811827 ... 3.339564
min 1.000000 11.030000 ... 10.600000
25% 1.000000 12.362500 ... 17.200000
50% 2.000000 13.050000 ... 19.500000
75% 3.000000 13.677500 ... 21.500000
max 3.000000 14.830000 ... 30.000000
Removing missing data
print(df)
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
2 7.0 NaN NaN
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
print(df.dropna())
A B C
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
Removing missing data
print(df)
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
2 7.0 NaN NaN
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
print(df.drop([1, 2, 3]))
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
Removing missing data
print(df)
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
2 7.0 NaN NaN
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
print(df.drop("A", axis=1))
B C
0 NaN 2.0
1 7.0 3.0
2 NaN NaN
3 7.0 NaN
4 9.0 7.0
Removing missing data
print(df)
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
2 7.0 NaN NaN
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
print(df.isna().sum())
A 1
B 2
C 2
dtype: int64
print(df.dropna(subset=["B"]))
A B C
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
Removing missing data
print(df)
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
2 7.0 NaN NaN
3 NaN 7.0 NaN
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
print(df.dropna(thresh=2))
A B C
0 1.0 NaN 2.0
1 4.0 7.0 3.0
4 5.0 9.0 7.0
Let's practice!
Preprocessing for Machine Learning in Python
