Data Mining for Business Analytics

Getting Started with Python

Python is a powerful, general purpose programming language that can be used for many 
applications ranging from short scripts to enterprise applications. There is a large and growing 
number of free, open-source libraries and tools for scientific computing. For more information 
about Python and its use visit ​python.org​. 

Install Python
There are many ways of using and developing with Python. However, for this course, we will be 
using Jupyter notebooks, an interactive, browser-based Python interface available through the 
Anaconda Distribution​ which is particularly useful for scientific computing. We will be using 
Python 3.x in this course. While Python 2.x is still available, it is no longer actively developed 
and many library providers will stop supporting it or  
Here is what you need to do: 
● Download the Anaconda installer for Python 3.6 or later from 
https://www.anaconda.com/download/​ for your operating system (you will be asked for 
your email, however this step is optional and you can proceed without providing it) 
● Execute the installer 
o macOS: double-click on the ​pkg​ file and follow the instructions using the default 
settings 
o Windows: run the ​exe​ file and follow the instructions using default settings 
o Anaconda now includes Microsoft Visual Studio Code and you 
will be asked if you want to install it. This code editor is not 
required for the course  
● Once the application is installed, you can execute ​Anaconda Navigator 
from the Start Menu (Windows) and the Application folder (macOS) 
If you don’t want to use Anaconda, you will find installation instructions for Windows 10 at the 
end of this document. 

Anaconda Navigator – update and install packages

You can use ​Anaconda Navigator​ to manage your Python installation and run the Jupyter 
application.  
Use the ​Environments​ tab to add packages to your Python installation. 

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 

 
Click the [Update index…] button to refresh the package list. From time to time, it may ask you 
to update the Anaconda Navigator application. It’s good practice to update regularly.  
If new versions become available, 
you will see that the version 
number changes. The version 
number of updatable packages are 
highlighted in blue and with a  
This means that you can update the 
specific package. Change the 
pull-down menu to [Updatable] and click the green tick mark to 
select [Mark for update]. Do that for all the packages you want to 
update, select [Apply] and confirm the update.  

Once you initiated the update, use the [Clear] button to remove the marking. ​Anaconda 
Navigator​ otherwise will indicate that it is busy when you want to close the application.  
 

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 
Updates are done in the background and will take some time and may require confirmation. 
There is no feedback that an update is finished. You will need to refresh the list using [Update 
index…] to see the progress. 
You will not need to update all packages, however update at least the following packages 
required for the course: 
● Python​: the Python interpreter  
● Matplotlib​: Python 2D plotting library (​https://matplotlib.org/​) 
● networkx​: Python package for creating and manipulating complex networks 
(​https://networkx.github.io/​) 
● NumPy​: fundamental package for scientific computing with Python 
(​https://www.numpy.org/​) 
● Pandas​: high-performance, easy-to-use data structures and data analysis tools 
(​https://pandas.pydata.org/​) 
● scikit-learn​: machine learning in Python (​http://scikit-learn.org/​) 
● seaborn​: statistical data visualization (​https://seaborn.pydata.org/​)  
● statsmodels​: implementation of different statistical models and tests 
(​https://www.statsmodels.org/​) 
Install the following: 
● cartopy​: a library providing cartographic tools for Python 
(​http://scitools.org.uk/cartopy/​). Only required if you want to run all examples from the 
book 
1
● graphviz​: Application to visualize graphs (​https://www.graphviz.org/​)  
● python-graphviz​: Python interface for graphviz 
(​https://graphviz.readthedocs.io/en/stable/​) 
● pydotplus​: Python interface to graphviz’s dot languge. Required to visualize decision 
trees (​http://pydotplus.readthedocs.io/​)  
● gmaps​: Python interface to Google maps. See appendix for details about installing this 
package (​https://github.com/pbugnion/gmaps​)  
● nltk​: Natural language processing toolkit. Required for more advanced text mining 
applications (​https://www.nltk.org/​)  
● mlxtend​: machine learning library that provides access to association rules mining 
algorithms (​https://github.com/rasbt/mlxtend​) 
● scikit-surprise​: a library for recommender systems (​http://surpriselib.com/​)  
● squarify​: algorithm to layout tree map visualizations 
(​https://github.com/laserson/squarify​)  
● twython​: pure Python wrapper for the Twitter API. Supports both normal and streaming 
Twitter APIs (​https://twython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/​) 
To install a package, change the pull down to [Not installed] and enter e.g. matplotlib in the 
[Search packages] field. Click on the rectangle to select the package for download and use the 
[Apply] button to start the installation.  

1
On Windows, you will need to include the graphviz executable in your path variable, e.g. 
C:\Anaconda3\Library\bin\graphviz 

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 

Once the library is installed, it will be listed under the installed packages. 
You can also install a library from the command line, which may be faster, by using the 
command 
conda install ​packagename
In some cases, you will need to specify a special channel, e.g. 
conda install -c conda-forge scikit-surprise
The ​gmaps​ and ​scikit-surprise​ Python package 
are available from the ​conda-forge​ channel. You 
can add the conda-forge channel to Anaconda 
Navigator.  
In the ​Environments​ tab of Anaconda Navigator, 
click the [Channels] button and add the 
conda-forge channel. Close the dialog using 
[Update channels]. 
After [Update index…] the ​gmaps​ and 
scikit-surprise​ packages are available for 
installation. 
 
Installing dmba
The package ​dmba​ (​https://pypi.org/project/dmba/​) provides a number of utility functions that 
are used throughout the book. It is available through PyPI, the Python package index, and can be 
installed using the command  
 
pip install dmba
 
on the command line. 
You can also install packages from a Jupyter notebook using the following commands. You will 
only need to do this once. 
 
# Install a pip package in the current Jupyter kernel
import sys
!{sys.executable} -m pip install dmba 
 

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 

Anaconda Navigator – Launch Python in a Jupyter

Notebook
We recommend that you use Jupyter notebooks for the exercises. The 
Jupyter notebook is a web-based computing environment that runs on 
your computer and embeds Python code and output together with 
comments and graphics in one readable document. In the last years, 
this has become a popular way for interactive data analysis in the data 
science community. 
Select the ​Home​ tab in the Anaconda Navigator and ​Launch​ Jupyter notebook. The notebook is 
launched inside your usual web browser. The supported browsers are ​Chrome,​ ​Safari​, or ​Firefox​. 
An up-to-date version of ​Edge​ may also work; if not, use one of the supported browsers. 
The Jupyter notebook application opens a file manager page which allows you to browse to your 
working directory. You can also create new folders ​[New/Folder]​ and text files ​[New/Text File] 
here. 

 
To rename a file or folder select it and use [Rename] to change the name. 

  
Create a folder to keep your work for the course and navigate into the folder. Next use 
[New/Python 3]​ to create a new notebook which opens in a separate tab or window. 

Jupyter notebook
This is what an empty notebook looks like. 

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 

 
Click on ​Untitled​ and replace it with as more meaningful title. 
You can enter Python code in the code boxes and execute it using the ​[Run]​ button.  

 
The output and result of the last statement in each code box is printed underneath each block.  
Jupyter notebooks regularly saves your work automatically. If you want to trigger the save 
manually, use the ​[​ ​]​ button, the ​[File|Save and Checkpoint]​ menu or the ​[Ctrl/Cmd-S]​ key. 
If you find an error in your code, you can modify it and rerun the code. From time to time, you 
may want to rerun the whole code in your notebook; use the menu ​[Kernel/Restart & Run All] 
for this. 
   

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 

Python installation on Windows 10 without Anaconda

1. Install Python 
a. Download the latest Python 3 release from ​https://www.python.org/​. Choose 
either the ​web-based installer​ or the ​executable installer​. 
b. Run the installer. Select the option to ​Add Python 3.x to PATH.​   

 
2. Install Python packages using ​pip 
a. Open a ​Command Prompt​ window 

 
b. Enter the following command: 
pip install numpy
This will start download and installation of the package. 
c. Install remaining packages: 
pip install jupyter
pip install matplotlib
pip install pandas
pip install networkx
pip install scikit-learn
pip install seaborn
pip install statsmodels
pip install gmaps
pip install nltk

Peter Gedeck  
Data Mining for Business Analytic - Getting Started with Python 
 
pip install mlxtend
pip install squarify
pip install dmba 
 
d. The network visualizations require an installation of graphviz. Download and 
install from ​https://graphviz.gitlab.io/ 
Add the install directory to the PATH (c:\Program Files (x86)\Graphviz2.38\bin) 
pip install graphviz
pip install pydotplus
e. The cartopy package requires installation of additional applications. If you want 
to use it, we recommend that you use Anaconda. 
f. The scikit-surprise package requires a C++ compiler. Download and install Visual 
Studio from ​https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/  
pip install scikit-surpris​e 
 

Peter Gedeck