Fr

This book is your guide to getting started with predictive

analytics using Python. The book strives to maintain a
balance between mathematical concepts and details of
implementation of the algorithms. You will learn how to
process data and make predictive models in Python using
libraries such as pandas, scikit-learn, and NumPy.
You will start by getting an understanding of the basics
of predictive modelling, followed by a demonstration
of methods for cleansing the dataset of impurities and
getting it ready for modeling. You will also learn
more about the commonly used predictive modelling
algorithms such as linear regression, decision trees,
clustering and logistic regression. Finally, you will see the
best practices in predictive modelling, as well as the different
applications of predictive modelling in the modern world.

Who this book is written for

Understand the statistical and mathematical

concepts behind Predictive Analytics
algorithms and implement Predictive
Analytics algorithms using Python libraries
Analyze the result parameters arising
from the implementation of Predictive
Analytics algorithms
Write Python modules/functions from
scratch to execute segments or the
whole of these algorithms
Recognize and mitigate various contingencies
and issues related to the implementation of
Predictive Analytics algorithms
Get to know various methods of importing,
cleaning, sub-setting, merging, joining,
concatenating, exploring, grouping, and
plotting data with pandas and NumPy
Create dummy datasets and simple
mathematical simulations using the
NumPy and pandas libraries
Understand the best practices while handling
datasets in Python and creating predictive
models out of them

$ 49.99 US
31.99 UK

community experience distilled

P U B L I S H I N G

Prices do not include

local sales tax or VAT
where applicable

Visit www.PacktPub.com for books, eBooks,

code, downloads, and PacktLib.

Ashish Kumar

If you wish to learn how to implement Predictive Analytics

algorithms using Python libraries, then this is the book for
you. If you are familiar with coding in Python (or some other
programming/statistical/scripting language), then this book
should also help you. Some familiarity with Python will be
useful to get the most out of this book, but it is certainly not
a prerequisite.

What you will learn from this book

Learning Predictive Analytics with Python

Learning Predictive Analytics

with Python

ee

Sa
m

pl

C o m m u n i t y

E x p e r i e n c e

D i s t i l l e d

Learning Predictive Analytics

with Python
Gain practical insights into predictive modelling by implementing
Predictive Analytics algorithms on public datasets with Python
Foreword by Pradeep Gulipalli,
Co-founder and Head of India Operations - Tiger Analytics

Ashish Kumar

In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 1 'Getting started with Predictive
Modelling'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Learning Predictive Analytics with Python

About the Author

Ashish Kumar has a B. Tech from IIT Madras and is a Young India Fellow from

the batch of 2012-13. He is a data science enthusiast with extensive work experience
in the field. As a part of his work experience, he has worked with tools, such as
Python, R, and SAS. He has also implemented predictive algorithms to glean
actionable insights for clients from transport and logistics, online payment, and
healthcare industries. Apart from the data sciences, he is enthused by and adept at
financial modelling and operational research. He is a prolific writer and has authored
several online articles and short stories apart from running his own analytics blog.
He also works pro-bono for a couple of social enterprises and freelances his data
science skills.
He can be contacted on LinkedIn at https://goo.gl/yqrfo4, and on Twitter at

https://twitter.com/asis64.

Preface

Preface
Social media and the Internet of Things have resulted in an avalanche of data. The
data is powerful but not in its raw form; it needs to be processed and modelled and
Python is one of the most robust tools we have out there to do so. It has an array of
packages for predictive modelling and a suite of IDEs to choose from. Learning to
predict who would win, lose, buy, lie, or die with Python is an indispensable skill
set to have in this data age.
This book is your guide to get started with Predictive Analytics using Python as the
tool. You will learn how to process data and make predictive models out of them. A
balanced weightage has been given to both the statistical and mathematical concepts
and implementing them in Python using libraries, such as pandas, scikit-learn, and
NumPy. Starting with understanding the basics of predictive modelling, you will see
how to cleanse your data of impurities and make it ready for predictive modelling.
You will also learn more about the best predictive modelling algorithms, such as
linear regression, decision trees, and logistic regression. Finally, you will see what
the best practices in predictive modelling are, as well as the different applications of
predictive modelling in the modern world.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Predictive Modelling, talks about aspects, scope, and
applications of predictive modelling. It also discusses various Python packages
commonly used in data science, Python IDEs, and the methods to install these
on systems.
Chapter 2, Data Cleaning, describes the process of reading a dataset, getting a bird's
eye view of the dataset, handling the missing values in the dataset, and exploring the
dataset with basic plotting using the pandas and matplotlib packages in Python. The
data cleaning and wrangling together constitutes around 80% of the modelling time.

Preface

Chapter 3, Data Wrangling, describes the methods to subset a dataset, concatenate

or merge two or more datasets, group the dataset by categorical variables, split
the dataset into training and testing sets, generate dummy datasets using random
numbers, and create simulations using random numbers.
Chapter 4, Statistical Concepts for Predictive Modelling, explains the basic statistics
needed to make sense of the model parameters resulting from the predictive models.
This chapter deals with concepts like hypothesis testing, z-tests, t-tests, chi-square
tests, p-values, and so on followed by a discussion on correlation.
Chapter 5, Linear Regression with Python, starts with a discussion on the mathematics
behind the linear regression validating the mathematics behind it using a simulated
dataset. It is then followed by a summary of implications and interpretations of
various model parameters. The chapter also describes methods to implement linear
regression using the stasmodel.api and scikit-learn packages and handling various
related contingencies, such as multiple regression, multi-collinearity, handling
categorical variables, non-linear relationships between predictor and target variables,
handling outliers, and so on.
Chapter 6, Logistic Regression with Python, explains the concepts, such as odds ratio,
conditional probability, and contingency tables leading ultimately to detailed
discussion on mathematics behind the logistic regression model (using a code that
implements the entire model from scratch) and various tests to check the efficiency of
the model. The chapter also describes the methods to implement logistic regression
in Python and drawing and understanding an ROC curve.
Chapter 7, Clustering with Python, discusses the concepts, such as distances, the
distance matrix, and linkage methods to understand the mathematics and logic
behind both hierarchical and k-means clustering. The chapter also describes the
methods to implement both the types of clustering in Python and methods to fine
tune the number of clusters.
Chapter 8, Trees and Random Forests with Python, starts with a discussion on
topics, such as entropy, information gain, gini index, and so on. To illustrate the
mathematics behind creating a decision tree followed by a discussion on methods
to handle variations, such as a continuous numerical variable as a predictor variable
and handling a missing value. This is followed by methods to implement the
decision tree in Python. The chapter also gives a glimpse into understanding and
implementing the regression tree and random forests.
Chapter 9, Best Practices for Predictive Modelling, entails the best practices to be
followed in terms of coding, data handling, algorithms, statistics, and business
context for getting good results in predictive modelling.

Preface

Appendix, A List of Links, contains a list of sources which have been directly or
indirectly consulted or used in the book. It also contains the link to the folder
which contains datasets used in the book.

Getting Started with

Predictive Modelling
Predictive modelling is an art; its a science of unearthing the story impregnated
into silos of data. This chapter introduces the scope and application of predictive
modelling and shows a glimpse of what could be achieved with it, by giving some
real-life examples.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics in detail:

Introducing predictive modelling

Applications and examples of predictive modelling

Installing and downloading Python and its packages

Working with different IDEs for Python

Introducing predictive modelling

Did you know that Facebook users around the world share 2,460,000 pieces of
content every minute of the day? Did you know that 72-hours worth of new video
content is uploaded on YouTube in the same time and, brace yourself, did you know
that everyday around 2.5 exabytes (10^18) of data is created by us humans? To give
you a perspective on how much data that is, you will need a million 1 TB (1000 GB)
hard disk drives every day to store that much data. In a year, we will outgrow the US
population and will be north of five times the UK population and this estimation is
by assuming the fact that the rate of the data generation will remain the same, which
in all likelihoods will not be the case.

[1]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

The breakneck speed at which the social media and Internet of Things have grown
is reflected in the huge silos of data humans generate. The data about where we
live, where we come from, what we like, what we buy, how much money we spend,
where we travel, and so on. Whenever we interact with a social media or Internet
of Things website, we leave a trail, which these websites gleefully log as their data.
Every time you buy a book at Amazon, receive a payment through PayPal, write a
review on Yelp, post a photo on Instagram, do a check-in on Facebook, apart from
making business for these websites, you are creating data for them.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) says "Data is the new oil" and that "Data Scientist
is the sexiest job of the 21st century". So, why is the data so important and how
can we realize the full potential of it? There are broadly two ways in which the
data is used:

Retrospective analytics: This approach helps us analyze history and glean

out insights from the data. It allows us to learn from mistakes and adopt
best practices. These insights and learnings become the torchbearer for the
purpose of devising better strategy. Not surprisingly, many experts have
been claiming that data is the new middle manager.

Predictive analytics: This approach unleashes the might of data. In short,

this approach allows us to predict the future. Data science algorithms take
historical data and spit out a statistical model, which can predict who will
buy, cheat, lie, or die in the future.

Let us evaluate the comparisons made with oil in detail:

Data is as abundant as oil used to be, once upon a time, but in contrast to
oil, data is a non-depleting resource. In fact, one can argue that it is reusable,
in the sense that, each dataset can be used in more than one way and also
multiple number of times.

It doesn't take years to create data, as it takes for oil.

Oil in its crude form is worth nothing. It needs to be refined through a

comprehensive process to make it usable. There are various grades of this
process to suit various needs; it's the same with data. The data sitting in silos
is worthless; it needs to be cleaned, manipulated, and modelled to make use
of it. Just as we need refineries and people who can operate those refineries,
we need tools that can handle data and people who can operate those tools.
Some of the tools for the preceding tasks are Python, R, SAS, and so on, and
the people who operate these tools are called data scientists.

[2]

Chapter 1

A more detailed comparison of oil and data is provided in the following table:
Data

Oil

It's a non-depleting resource and also

reusable.

It's a depleting resource and non-reusable.

Data collection requires some

infrastructure or system in place. Once
the system is in place, the data generation
happens seamlessly.

Drilling oil requires a lot of infrastructure.

Once the infrastructure is in place, one can
keep drawing the oil until the stock dries up.

It needs to be cleaned and modelled.

It needs to be cleaned and processed.

The time taken to generate data varies

from fractions of second to months and
years.

It takes decades to generate.

The worth and marketability of different

kinds of data is different.

The worth of crude oil is same everywhere.

However, the price and marketability of
different end products of refinement is
different.

The time horizon for monetization of data

is smaller after getting the data.

The time horizon for monetizing oil is longer

than that for data.

Scope of predictive modelling

Predictive modelling is an ensemble of statistical algorithms coded in a statistical tool,
which when applied on historical data, outputs a mathematical function (or equation). It
can in-turn be used to predict outcomes based on some inputs (on which the model
operates) from the future to drive a goal in business context or enable better decision
making in general.
To understand what predictive modelling entails, let us focus on the phrases
highlighted previously.

Ensemble of statistical algorithms

Statistics are important to understand data. It tells volumes about the data. How is
the data distributed? Is it centered with little variance or does it varies widely? Are
two of the variables dependent on or independent of each other? Statistics helps
us answer these questions. This book will expect a basic understanding of basic
statistical terms, such as mean, variance, co-variance, and correlation. Advanced
terms, such as hypothesis testing, Chi-Square tests, p-values, and so on will be
explained as and when required. Statistics are the cog in the wheel called model.

[3]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

Algorithms, on the other hand, are the blueprints of a model. They are responsible
for creating mathematical equations from the historical data. They analyze the data,
quantify the relationship between the variables, and convert it into a mathematical
equation. There is a variety of them: Linear Regression, Logistic Regression,
Clustering, Decision Trees, Time-Series Modelling, Nave Bayes Classifiers, Natural
Language Processing, and so on. These models can be classified under two classes:

Supervised algorithms: These are the algorithms wherein the historical

data has an output variable in addition to the input variables. The model
makes use of the output variables from historical data, apart from the input
variables. The examples of such algorithms include Linear Regression,
Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, and so on.

Un-supervised algorithms: These algorithms work without an

output variable in the historical data. The example of such
algorithms includes clustering.

The selection of a particular algorithm for a model depends majorly on the kind
of data available. The focus of this book would be to explain methods of handling
various kinds of data and illustrating the implementation of some of these models.

Statistical tools
There are a many statistical tools available today, which are laced with inbuilt
methods to run basic statistical chores. The arrival of open-source robust tools like R
and Python has made them extremely popular, both in industry and academia alike.
Apart from that, Python's packages are well documented; hence, debugging is easier.
Python has a number of libraries, especially for running the statistical, cleaning,
and modelling chores. It has emerged as the first among equals when it comes to
choosing the tool for the purpose of implementing preventive modelling. As the
title suggests, Python will be the choice for this book, as well.

Historical data
Our machinery (model) is built and operated on this oil called data. In general,
a model is built on the historical data and works on future data. Additionally,
a predictive model can be used to fill missing values in historical data by
interpolating the model over sparse historical data. In many cases, during modelling
stages, future data is not available. Hence, it is a common practice to divide the
historical data into training (to act as historical data) and testing (to act as future
data) through sampling.

[4]

Chapter 1

As discussed earlier, the data might or might not have an output variable. However,
one thing that it promises to be is messy. It needs to undergo a lot of cleaning and
manipulation before it can become of any use for a modelling process.

Mathematical function
Most of the data science algorithms have underlying mathematics behind them. In
many of the algorithms, such as regression, a mathematical equation (of a certain
type) is assumed and the parameters of the equations are derived by fitting the data
to the equation.
For example, the goal of linear regression is to fit a linear model to a dataset and find
the equation parameters of the following equation:

Y = 0 + 1. X 1 + 2 . X 2 + ....... + n . X n
The purpose of modelling is to find the best values for the coefficients. Once
these values are known, the previous equation is good to predict the output.
The equation above, which can also be thought of as a linear function of Xi's
(or the input variables), is the linear regression model.
Another example is of logistic regression. There also we have a mathematical
equation or a function of input variables, with some differences. The defining
equation for logistic regression is as follows:

e a + b x
1
P=
=
a + b x
( a + b* x )
1+ e
1+ e
Here, the goal is to estimate the values of a and b by fitting the data to this equation.
Any supervised algorithm will have an equation or function similar to that of the
model above. For unsupervised algorithms, an underlying mathematical function
or criterion (which can be formulated as a function or equation) serves the purpose.
The mathematical equation or function is the backbone of a model.

Business context
All the effort that goes into predictive analytics and all its worth, which accrues to
data, is because it solves a business problem. A business problem can be anything
and it will become more evident in the following examples:

Tricking the users of the product/service to buy more from you by increasing
the click through rates of the online ads
[5]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

Predicting the probable crime scenes in order to prevent them by aggregating

an invincible lineup for a sports league

Predicting the failure rates and associated costs of machinery components

Managing the churn rate of the customers

The predictive analytics is being used in an array of industries to solve business

problems. Some of these industries are, as follows:

Banking

Social media

Retail

Transport

Healthcare

Policing

Education

Travel and logistics

E-commerce

Human resource

By what quantum did the proposed solution make life better for the business, is all
that matters. That is the reason; predictive analytics is becoming an indispensable
practice for management consulting.
In short, predictive analytics sits at the sweet spot where statistics, algorithm,
technology and business sense intersect. Think about it, a mathematician, a
programmer, and a business person rolled in one.

Knowledge matrix for predictive modelling

As discussed earlier, predictive modelling is an interdisciplinary field sitting at the
interface and requiring knowledge of four disciplines, such as Statistics, Algorithms,
Tools, Techniques, and Business Sense. Each of these disciplines is equally
indispensable to perform a successful task of predictive modelling.
These four disciplines of predictive modelling carry equal weights and can be better
represented as a knowledge matrix; it is a symmetric 2 x 2 matrix containing four
equal-sized squares, each representing a discipline.

[6]

Chapter 1

Fig. 1.1: Knowledge matrix: four disciplines of predictive modelling

Task matrix for predictive modelling

The tasks involved in predictive modelling follows the Pareto principle. Around 80%
of the effort in the modelling process goes towards data cleaning and wrangling,
while only 20% of the time and effort goes into implementing the model and getting
the prediction. However, the meaty part of the modelling that is rich with almost
80% of results and insights is undoubtedly the implementation of the model. This
information can be better represented as a matrix, which can be called a task matrix
that will look something similar to the following figure:

Fig. 1.2: Task matrix: split of time spent on data cleaning and modelling and their final contribution to the
model

[7]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

Many of the data cleaning and exploration chores can be automated because
they are alike most of the times, irrespective of the data. The part that needs a
lot of human thinking is the implementation of a model, which is what makes
the bulk of this book.

Applications and examples of predictive

modelling
In the introductory section, data has been compared with oil. While oil has been
the primary source of energy for the last couple of centuries and the legends of
OPEC, Petrodollars, and Gulf Wars have set the context for the oil as a begrudged
resource; the might of data needs to be demonstrated here to set the premise for the
comparison. Let us glance through some examples of predictive analytics to marvel
at the might of data.

LinkedIn's "People also viewed" feature

If you are a frequent LinkedIn user, you might be familiar with LinkedIn's
"People also viewed" feature.

What it does?
Let's say you have searched for some person who works at a particular organization
and LinkedIn throws up a list of search results. You click on one of them and you
land up on their profile. In the middle-right section of the screen, you will find a
panel titled "People Also Viewed"; it is essentially a list of people who either work at
the same organization as the person whose profile you are currently viewing or the
people who have the same designation and belong to same industry.
Isn't it cool? You might have searched for these people separately if not for this
feature. This feature increases the efficacy of your search results and saves your time.

How is it done?
Are you wondering how LinkedIn does it? The rough blueprint is as follows:

LinkedIn leverages the search history data to do this. The model underneath
this feature plunges into a treasure trove of search history data and looks at
what people have searched next after finding the correct person they were
searching for.

[8]

Chapter 1

This event of searching for a particular second person after searching for a
particular first person has some probability. This will be calculated using
all the data for such searches. The profiles with the highest probability of
being searched (based on the historical data) are shown in the "People Also
Viewed" section.

This probability comes under the ambit of a broad set of rules called
Association Rules. These are very widely used in Retail Analytics where we
are interested to know what a group of products will sell together. In other
words, what is the probability of buying a particular second product given
that the consumer has already bought the first product?

Correct targeting of online ads

If you browse the Internet, which I am sure you must be doing frequently, you must
have encountered online ads, both on the websites and smartphone apps. Just like
the ads in the newspaper or TV, there is a publisher and an advertiser for online ads
too. The publisher in this case is the website or the app where the ad will be shown
while the advertiser is the company/organization that is posting that ad.
The ultimate goal of an online ad is to be clicked on. Each instance of an ad display
is called an impression. The number of clicks per impression is called Click Through
Rate and is the single most important metric that the advertisers are interested in.
The problem statement is to determine the list of publishers where the advertiser
should publish its ads so that the Click Through Rate is the maximum.

How is it done?

The historical data in this case will consist of information about people who
visited a certain website/app and whether they clicked the published ad or
not. Some or a combination of classification models, such as Decision Trees,
and Support Vector Machines are used in such cases to determine whether a
visitor will click on the ad or not, given the visitor's profile information.

One problem with standard classification algorithms in such cases is that the
Click Through Rates are very small numbers, of the order of less than 1%.
The resulting dataset that is used for classification has a very sparse positive
outcome. The data needs to be downsampled to enrich the data with positive
outcomes before modelling.

The logistical regression is one of the most standard classifiers for situations with
binary outcomes. In banking, whether a person will default on his loan or not can be
predicted using logistical regression given his credit history.

[9]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

Santa Cruz predictive policing

Based on the historical data consisting of the area and time window of the occurrence
of a crime, a model was developed to predict the place and time where the next
crime might take place.

How is it done?

A decision tree model was created using the historical data. The prediction of
the model will foretell whether a crime will occur in an area on a given date
and time in the future.

The model is consistently recalibrated every day to include the crimes that
happened during that day.

The good news is that the police are using such techniques to predict the crime
scenes in advance so that they can prevent it from happening. The bad news is that
certain terrorist organizations are using such techniques to target the locations that
will cause the maximum damage with minimal efforts from their side. The good
news again is that this strategic behavior of terrorists has been studied in detail and
is being used to form counter-terrorist policies.

Determining the activity of a smartphone user

using accelerometer data
The accelerometer in a smartphone measures the acceleration over a period of time
as the user indulges in various activities. The acceleration is measured over the three
axes, X, Y, and Z. This acceleration data can then be used to determine whether the
user is sleeping, walking, running, jogging, and so on.

How is it done?

The acceleration data is clustered based on the acceleration values in the

three directions. The values of the similar activities cluster together.

The clustering performs well in such cases if the columns contributing the
maximum to the separation of activities are also included while calculating
the distance matrix for clustering. Such columns can be found out using a
technique called Singular Value Decomposition.

[ 10 ]

Chapter 1

Sport and fantasy leagues

Moneyball, anyone? Yes, the movie. The movie where a statistician turns the fortunes
of a poorly performing baseball team, Oak A, by developing an algorithm to select
players who were cheap to buy but had a lot of latent potential to perform.

How was it done?

Bill James, using historical data, concluded that the older metrics used to rate
a player, such as stolen balls, runs batted in, and batting average were not
very useful indicators of a player's performance in a given match. He rather
relied on metrics like on-base percentage and sluggish percentage to be a
better predictor of a player's performance.

The chief statistician behind the algorithms, Bill James, compiled the data
for performance of all the baseball league players and sorted them for these
metrics. Surprisingly, the players who had high values for these statistics also
came at cheaper prices.

This way, they gathered an unbeatable team that didn't have individual stars who
came at hefty prices but as a team were an indomitable force. Since then, these
algorithms and their variations have been used in a variety of real and fantasy
leagues to select players. The variants of these algorithms are also being used by
Venture Capitalists to optimize and automate their due diligence to select the
prospective start-ups to fund.

Python and its packages download and

installation
There are various ways in which one can access and install Python and its packages.
Here we will discuss a couple of them.

Anaconda
Anaconda is a popular Python distribution consisting of more than 195 popular
Python packages. Installing Anaconda automatically installs many of the packages
discussed in the preceding section, but they can be accessed only through an
IDE called Spyder (more on this later in this chapter), which itself is installed on
Anaconda installation. Anaconda also installs IPython Notebook and when you click
on the IPython Notebook icon, it opens a browser tab and a Command Prompt.

[ 11 ]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

Anaconda can be downloaded and installed from the following web

address: http://continuum.io/downloads

Download the suitable installer and double click on the .exe file and it will install
Anaconda. Two of the features that you must check after the installation are:

IPython Notebook

Spyder IDE

Search for them in the "Start" icon's search, if it doesn't appear in the list of programs
and files by default. We will be using IPython Notebook extensively and the codes in
this book will work the best when run in IPython Notebook.
IPython Notebook can be opened by clicking on the icon. Alternatively, you can
use the Command Prompt to open IPython Notebook. Just navigate to the directory
where you have installed Anaconda and then write ipython notebook, as shown in
the following screenshot:

Fig. 1.3: Opening IPython Notebook

On the system used for this book, Anaconda was installed in the C:\
Users\ashish directory. One can open a new Notebook in IPython by
clicking on the New Notebook button on the dashboard, which opens up.
In this book, we have used IPython Notebook extensively.

Standalone Python
You can download a Python version that is stable and is compatible to the OS on
your system. The most stable version of Python is 2.7.0. So, installing this version is
highly recommended. You can download it from https://www.python.org/ and
install it.

[ 12 ]

Chapter 1

There are some Python packages that you need to install on your machine before
you start predictive analytics and modelling. This section consists of a demo of
installation of one such library and a brief description of all such libraries.

Installing a Python package

There are several ways to install a Python package. The easiest and the most effective
is the one using pip. As you might be aware, pip is a package management system
that is used to install and manage software packages written in Python. To be able to
use it to install other packages, pip needs to be installed first.

Installing pip
The following steps demonstrate how to install pip. Follow closely!
1. Navigate to the webpage shown in the following screenshot. The URL
address is https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pip:

Downloading pip from the Python's official website

[ 13 ]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

2. Download the pip-7.0.3.tar.gz file and unzip in the folder where Python
is installed. If you have Python v2.7.0 installed, this folder should be C:\
Python27:

Unzipping the .zar file for pip in the correct folder

3. On unzipping the previously mentioned file, a folder called pip-7.0.3 is

created. Opening that folder will take you to the screen similar to the one in
the preceding screenshot.
4. Open the CMD on your computer and change the current directory to the
current directory in the preceding screenshot that is C:\Python27\pip7.0.3 using the following command:
cd C:\Python27\pip-7.0.3.

5. The result of the preceding command is shown in the following screenshot:

Navigating to the directory where pip is installed

6. Now, the current directory is set to the directory where setup file for pip
(setup.py) resides. Write the following command to install pip:
python setup.py install
[ 14 ]

Chapter 1

7. The result of the preceding command is shown in the following screenshot:

Installing pip using a command line

Once pip is installed, it is very easy to install all the required Python packages to
get started.

Installing Python packages with pip

The following are the steps to install Python packages using pip, which we just
installed in the preceding section:
1. Change the current directory in the command prompt to the directory where
the Python v2.7.0 is installed that is: C:\Python27.
2. Write the following command to install the package:
pip install package-name

3. For example, to install pandas, you can proceed as follows:

Installing a Python package using a command line and pip

4. Finally, to confirm that the package has installed successfully, write the
following command:
python

-c "import pandas"

5. The result of the preceding command is shown in the following screenshot:

Checking whether the package has installed correctly or not

[ 15 ]

Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

If this doesn't throw up an error, then the package has been installed successfully.

Python and its packages for predictive

modelling
In this section, we will discuss some commonly used packages for predictive
modelling.
pandas: The most important and versatile package that is used widely in data science
domains is pandas and it is no wonder that you can see import pandas at the
beginning of any data science code snippet, in this book, and anywhere in general.
Among other things, the pandas package facilitates:

The reading of a dataset in a usable format (data frame in case of Python)

Calculating basic statistics

Running basic operations like sub-setting a dataset, merging/concatenating

two datasets, handling missing data, and so on

The various methods in pandas will be explained in this book as and when we
use them.
To get an overview, navigate to the official page of pandas here:
http://pandas.pydata.org/index.html

NumPy: NumPy, in many ways, is a MATLAB equivalent in the Python

environment. It has powerful methods to do mathematical calculations and
simulations. The following are some of its features:

A powerful and widely used a N-d array element

An ensemble of powerful mathematical functions used in linear algebra,

Fourier transforms, and random number generation

A combination of random number generators and an N-d array elements

is used to generate dummy datasets to demonstrate various procedures, a
practice we will follow extensively, in this book
To get an overview, navigate to official page of NumPy at
http://www.NumPy.org/

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Chapter 1

matplotlib: matplotlib is a Python library that easily generates high-quality 2-D

plots. Again, it is very similar to MATLAB.

It can be used to plot all kind of common plots, such as histograms, stacked
and unstacked bar charts, scatterplots, heat diagrams, box plots, power
spectra, error charts, and so on

It can be used to edit and manipulate all the plot properties such as title, axes
properties, color, scale, and so on
To get an overview, navigate to the official page of matplotlib at:
http://matplotlib.org

IPython: IPython provides an environment for interactive computing.

It provides a browser-based notebook that is an IDE-cum-development environment
to support codes, rich media, inline plots, and model summary. These notebooks and
their content can be saved and used later to demonstrate the result as it is or to save
the codes separately and execute them. It has emerged as a powerful tool for web
based tutorials as the code and the results flow smoothly one after the other in this
environment. At many places in this book, we will be using this environment.
To get an overview, navigate to the official page of IPython here
http://ipython.org/

Scikit-learn: scikit-learn is the mainstay of any predictive modelling in Python.

It is a robust collection of all the data science algorithms and methods to implement
them. Some of the features of scikit-learn are as follows:

It is built entirely on Python packages like pandas, NumPy, and matplotlib

It is very simple and efficient to use

It has methods to implement most of the predictive modelling techniques,

such as linear regression, logistic regression, clustering, and Decision Trees

It gives a very concise method to predict the outcome based on the model
and measure the accuracy of the outcomes
To get an overview, navigate to the official page of scikit-learn
here: http://scikit-learn.org/stable/index.html

Python packages, other than these, if used in this book, will be situation based and
can be installed using the method described earlier in this section.
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Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

IDEs for Python

The IDE or the Integrated Development Environment is a software that provides
the source-code editor cum debugger for the purpose of writing code. Using these
software, one can write, test, and debug a code snippet before adding the snippet in
the production version of the code.
IDLE: IDLE is the default Integrated Development Environment for Python
that comes with the default implementation of Python. It comes with the
following features:

Multi-window text-editor with auto-completion, smart-indent, syntax,

and keyword highlighting

Python shell with syntax highlighting

IDLE is widely popular as an IDE for beginners; it is simple to use and works well
for simple tasks. Some of the issues with IDLE are bad output reporting, absence of
line numbering options, and so on. As a result, advanced practitioners move on to
better IDEs.
IPython Notebook: IPython Notebook is a powerful computational environment
where code, execution, results, and media can co-exist in one single document.
There are two components of this computing environment:

IPython Notebook: Web applications containing code, executions, plots,

and results are stored in different cells; they can be saved and edited as
and when required

Notebook: It is a plain text document meant to record and distribute the

result of a computational analysis

The IPython documents are stored with an extension .ipynb in the directory where
it is installed on the computer.
Some of the features of IPython Notebook are as follows:

Inline figure rendering of the matplotlib plots that can be saved in multiple
formats(JPEG, PNG).

Standard Python syntax in the notebook can be saved as a Python script.

The notebooks can be saved as HTML files and .ipynb files. These notebooks
can be viewed in browsers and this has been developed as a popular tool for
illustrated blogging in Python. A notebook in IPython looks as shown in the
following screenshot:

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Chapter 1

An Ipython Notebook

Spyder: Spyder is a powerful scientific computing and development environment for

Python. It has the following features:

Advanced editing, auto-completion, debugging, and interactive testing

Python kernel and code editor with line numbering in the same screen

Preinstalled scientific packages like NumPy, pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib,

and so on.

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Getting Started with Predictive Modelling

In some ways, Spyder is very similar to RStudio environment where text

editing and interactive testing go hand in hand:

The interface of Spyder IDE

In this book, IPython Notebook and Spyder have been used extensively. IDLE
has been used from time to time and some people use other environments, such
as Pycharm. Readers of this book are free to use such editors if they are more
comfortable with them. However, they should make sure that all the required
packages are working fine in those environments.

[ 20 ]

Chapter 1

Summary
The following are some of the takeaways from this chapter:

Social media and Internet of Things have resulted in an avalanche of data.

Data is powerful but not in its raw form. The data needs to be processed
and modelled.

Organizations across the world and across the domains are using data to
solve critical business problems. The knowledge of statistical algorithms,
statisticals tool, business context, and handling of historical data is vital to
solve these problems using predictive modelling.

Python is a robust tool to handle, process, and model data. It has an array of
packages for predictive modelling and a suite of IDEs to choose from.

Let us enter the battlefield where Python is our weapon. We will start using it from
the next chapter. In the next chapter, we will learn how to read data in various cases
and do a basic processing.

[ 21 ]

Get more information Learning Predictive Analytics with Python

Where to buy this book

You can buy Learning Predictive Analytics with Python from the
Packt Publishing website.
Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet
book retailers.
Click here for ordering and shipping details.

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