Interview Prep
Career
GenAI
Prompt Engg
ChatGPT
LLM
Langchain
RAG
AI Agents
Machine Learning
Deep Learning
GenAI Tools
LLMOps
Python
NLP
SQL
AIML Projects

Reading list

Machine Learning Basics for a Newbie
6 Steps of Machine learning Lifecycle Introduction to Predictive Modeling
Introduction to Exploratory Data Analysis & Data Insights Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics How to Understand Population Distributions?
Reading Data Files into Python Different Variable Datatypes
Probability for Data Science Basic Concepts of Probability Axioms of Probability Conditional Probability
Central Tendencies for Continuous Variables Spread of Data KDE plots for Continuous Variable Overview of Distribution for Continuous variables Normal Distribution Skewed Distribution Skeweness and Kurtosis Distribution for Continuous Variable
Central Tendencies for Categorical Variables Understanding Discrete Distributions Performing EDA on Categorical Variables
Dealing with Missing Values Understanding Outliers Identifying Outliers in Data Outlier Detection in Python Outliers Detection Using IQR, Z-score, LOF and DBSCAN
Sample and Population Central Limit Theorem Confidence Interval and Margin of Error
Bivariate Analysis Introduction
Covariance Pearson Correlation Spearman's Correlation & Kendall's Tau Correlation versus Causation Tabular and Graphical methods for Bivariate Analysis Performing Bivariate Analysis on Continuous-Continuous Variables
Tabular and Graphical methods for Continuous-Categorical Variables Introduction to Hypothesis Testing P-value Two sample Z-test T-test T-test vs Z-test Performing Bivariate Analysis on Continuous-Catagorical variables
Chi-Squares Test Bivariate Analysis on Categorical Categorical Variables
Multivariate Analysis A Comprehensive Guide to Data Exploration The Data Science behind IPL
Supervised Learning vs Unsupervised Learning Reinforcement Learning Generative and Descriminative Models Parametric and Non Parametric model
Machine Learning Pipeline Preparing Dataset Build a Benchmark Model: Regression Build a Benchmark Model: Classification
Evaluation Metrics for Machine Learning Everyone should know Confusion Matrix Accuracy Precision and Recall AUC-ROC Log Loss R2 and Adjusted R2
Dealing with Missing Values Replacing Missing Values Imputing Missing Values in Data Working with Categorical Variables Working with Outliers Preprocessing Data for Model Building
Understanding Cost Function Understanding Gradient Descent Math Behind Gradient Descent Assumptions of Linear Regression Implement Linear Regression from Scratch Train Linear Regression in Python Implementing Linear Regression in R Diagnosing Residual Plots in Linear Regression Models Generalized Linear Models Introduction to Logistic Regression Odds Ratio Implementing Logistic Regression from Scratch Introduction to Scikit-learn in Python Train Logistic Regression in python Multiclass using Logistic Regression How to use Multinomial and Ordinal Logistic Regression in R ? Challenges with Linear Regression Introduction to Regularisation Implementing Regularisation Ridge Regression Lasso Regression
Introduction to K Nearest Neighbours Determining the Right Value of K in KNN Implement KNN from Scratch Implement KNN in Python
Bias Variance Tradeoff Introduction to Overfitting and Underfitting Visualizing Overfitting and Underfitting Selecting the Right Model What is Validation? Hold-Out Validation Understanding K Fold Cross Validation
Introduction to Feature Selection Feature Selection Algorithms Missing Value Ratio Low Variance Filter High Correlation Filter Backward Feature Elimination Forward Feature Selection Implement Feature Selection in Python Implement Feature Selection in R
Introduction to Decision Tree Purity in Decision Tree Terminologies Related to Decision Tree How to Select Best Split Point in Decision Tree? Chi-Squares Information Gain Reduction in Variance Optimizing Performance of Decision Tree Train Decision Tree using Scikit Learn Pruning of Decision Trees
Introduction to Feature Engineering Feature Transformation Feature Scaling Feature Engineering Frequency Encoding Automated Feature Engineering: Feature Tools
Introduction to Naive Bayes Conditional Probability and Bayes Theorem Introduction to Bayesian Adjustment Rating: The Incredible Concept Behind Online Ratings! Working of Naive Bayes Math behind Naive Bayes Types of Naive Bayes Implementation of Naive Bayes
Understanding how to solve Multiclass and Multilabled Classification Problem Evaluation Metrics: Multi Class Classification
Introduction to Ensemble Techniques Basic Ensemble Techniques Implementing Basic Ensemble Techniques Finding Optimal Weights of Ensemble Learner using Neural Network Why Ensemble Models Work well?
Introduction to Stacking Implementing Stacking Variants of Stacking Implementing Variants of Stacking Introduction to Blending Bootstrap Sampling Introduction to Random Sampling Hyper-parameters of Random Forest Implementing Random Forest Out-of-Bag (OOB) Score in the Random Forest IPL Team Win Prediction Project Using Machine Learning Introduction to Boosting Gradient Boosting Algorithm Math behind GBM Implementing GBM in python Regularized Greedy Forests Extreme Gradient Boosting Implementing XGBM in python Tuning Hyperparameters of XGBoost in Python Implement XGBM in R/H2O Adaptive Boosting Implementing Adaptive Boosing LightGBM Implementing LightGBM in Python Catboost Implementing Catboost in Python
Different Hyperparameter Tuning methods Implementing Different Hyperparameter Tuning methods GridsearchCV RandomizedsearchCV Bayesian Optimization for Hyperparameter Tuning Hyperopt
Understanding SVM Algorithm SVM Kernels In-depth Intuition and Practical Implementation SVM Kernel Tricks Kernels and Hyperparameters in SVM Implementing SVM from Scratch in Python and R
Introduction to Principal Component Analysis Steps to Perform Principal Compound Analysis Computation of Covariance Matrix Finding Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues Implementing PCA in python Visualizing PCA A Brief Introduction to Linear Discriminant Analysis Introduction to Factor Analysis
Introduction to Clustering Applications of Clustering Evaluation Metrics for Clustering Understanding K-Means Implementation of K-Means in Python Implementation of K-Means in R Choosing Right Value for K Profiling Market Segments using K-Means Clustering Hierarchical Clustering Implementation of Hierarchial Clustering DBSCAN Defining Similarity between clusters Build Better and Accurate Clusters with Gaussian Mixture Models
Understand Basics of Recommendation Engine with Case Study
8 Ways to Improve Accuracy of Machine Learning Models
Introduction to Dask Working with CuML
Introduction to Machine Learning Interpretability Framework and Interpretable Models model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Implementing Interpretable Model Understanding SHAP Out-of-Core ML Introduction to Interpretable Machine Learning Models Model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Game Theory & Shapley Values
Introduction to Machine Learning Interpretability Framework and Interpretable Models model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Implementing Interpretable Model Understanding SHAP Out-of-Core ML Introduction to Interpretable Machine Learning Models Model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Game Theory & Shapley Values
Introduction to AutoML Implementation of MLBox Introduction to PyCaret TPOT Auto-Sklearn EvalML
Pickle and Joblib Introduction to Model Deployment
Deploying Machine Learning Model using Streamlit Deploying ML Models in Docker Deploy Using Streamlit Deploy on Heroku Deploy Using Netlify Introduction to Amazon Sagemaker Setting up Amazon SageMaker Using SageMaker Endpoint to Generate Inference Deploy on Microsoft Azure Cloud Introduction to Flask for Model Deploying ML model using Flask
Model Deployment in Android Model Deployment in Iphone

An Accurate Approach to Data Imputation

Vasudeva
Vasudeva Last Updated : 29 Aug, 2023
5 min read

Introduction

In order to build machine learning models that are highly generalizable to a wide range of test conditions, training models with high-quality data is essential. Unfortunately, a large part of the data collected is not readily ideal for training machine learning models. This increases the need for pre-processing steps such that the data is pipelined the way a machine learning model would expect. In data cleaning, one of the most crucial steps is to deal with/fill missing values (Imputing missing data or simply data imputation) accurately such that the machine learning model learns the patterns in data as expected.

machine learning

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how to deal with/fill the missing data using ML algorithms.
  • Familiarize the steps in data imputation process.

This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon.

 

Some of the most commonly practiced methods of dealing with missing values are:

  1.  Dropping off the rows with NULL values.
    This method is one of the most commonly used techniques to eradicate the inconvenience of dealing with missing data in the training phase if in case, the training data available is huge.
  2. Fill in the NULL values with some arbitrary constants such as 0 etc.
    This method is rarely used in the machine learning community due to its less promising results. However, the method is subject to yield good results in certain situations.
  3. Fill in the NULL values with statistically determined values based on the statistics of the training data such as training distribution mean, variance, etc.
Data Imputation

This method is the most generally used method to fill the missing values

4. Predict the NULL values with Machine Learning Algorithms using the entire training data (without NULL values).

Resources for the Statistical Methods

Since this article focuses on predicting the missing values instead of inferring them from the distribution of the dataset, the reference to the three methods mentioned above that either deal with/fills the missing values are gathered below. Consider checking them out to better understand where and when to use each of these methods.

Introduction to “Understanding and Tackling Missing Values” talks from scratch, all the way up to dealing with the most complex techniques with examples.

Furthermore “Dealing with Missing Values in Python” talks about the fundamentals and important ideas in dealing with missing values.

and Furthermore in “Dealing with Missing Values in Python“, and “Statistical Imputation for Missing Value“.

Data Imputation

 

Data Imputation Using ML Algorithms

Fundamentally, the problem of data imputation using ML algorithms is broadly classified into two types, using the classification algorithm and the regression algorithm. Based on the type of training data, we need to use it to categorize the problem. In this article we take look at using a classification algorithm, however, using a regression algorithm is identical (refer to an example of a regression algorithm here). In order the solve the problem of missing values in the datasets using ML algorithms, data need to undergo certain steps including pre-processing and modelling. Below are the 5 most commonly categorized steps to fill the missing values with accurate data using ML algorithms.

0. Overview

On the high level, a dataset, by dropping the labels or y column, is considered and divided into two sets, one called the training set and another one the test set. The division takes place based on the rows with NULL values and rows without NULL values. Each of these datasets is further divided into X, and y such that we have X_train, y_train, X_test, and y_test. y_train and y _test are column(s) containing the missing values (to be predicted).  Upon training, we predict the missing values using the test data. More on how this works in the below steps.

Throughout this article, we use the most popular Kaggle dataset on the regression problem statements. The Google Colab notebook with detailed code and documentation is available here.

1. Preparing the Data

After dropping the label or y column, the dataset is divided into training and testing. The division takes place with reference to the presence of NULL values in individual rows.

1. Import the data using pandas CSV:

Reading the CSV file using pandas read_csv() function

# Importing all the required packages

import pandas as pd

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import sklearn
# Reading the csv file using pandas read_csv

df = pd.read_csv('/content/drive/MyDrive/TrainAndValid.csv/TrainAndValid.csv')

# I am importing data from my Gdrive but you can get access by downloading from Kaggle or from the following link:
# https://drive.google.com/file/d/19B2HAK4Tlma-YhlJfXiXg-Wy1F68DSb8/view?usp=sharing

2. Investigate the dataset using methods such as info(), describe(), etc:

EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis) is a crucial step in understanding the data and the very first few functions used to initiate this process are info(), describe(), isna(), etc.

# Let's learn about the dataset
df.info()
# Check out the df.describe() in a new cell to learn more.

3. Split the dataset based on NULL values in the dataset:

We drop the NULL values in our dataset and use that as a training set and then use the complete dataset to test on. Since we don’t have the true values for missing data it is a better option to use the complete dataset to evaluate the performance of the model.

from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
X_test = df.drop('UsageBand', axis=1)
y_test = df['UsageBand']
df_train = df.dropna()
X_train = df_train.drop('UsageBand', axis=1)
y_train = df_train['UsageBand']

2. Modelling

We use the Random Forest Classifier model for modelling to impute the data.

# Training the model based on the X_train and y_train data
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestClassifier
rfc = RandomForestClassifier()
# fit the model
rfc.fit(X_train, y_train)

3. Predict the Missing Values

Using the trained model Random Forest Classifier, fill/predict the class values of categorical column

# predict the values
y_filled = rfc.predict(X_test)

4. Substitute the Data & Use the clean data

Replace the y_predicted with the column consisting of missing data in the original data set and continue the modelling.

# now we have the missing values filled so replace the column in original dataset and use the predicted one
df['UsageBand'] = y_filled
# Proceed and use the dataset for modelling the actual problem :)

Conclusion

In this article, we have seen, how to impute the missing data using ML algorithms? Also gathered some of the resources to learn various methods to impute the missing data such as statistical methods. Importantly, we have seen how to use the existing training data to train and infer missing values using a statistical machine learning model (Random Forest Regressor in this case). We have also explored some of the standard methods followed while predicting the missing values using machine learning models such as split data based on NULL values in a row, training a model based on training datatype, and predicting missing data based on the missing data density in the training data. We barely scratched the surface of EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis) in this article through functions such as drop(), dropna(), etcetera.

Key Takeaways:

  • The idea of splitting the available data into train and test, to model an ML algorithm for predicting missing values, based on NULL values. 
  • Test the trained model using the complete train and test data. As a continuity, the imputed dataset is used to model any machine learning algorithm (which we couldn’t be trained before, because of the presence of missing data) to solve the actual problem i.e., in this case, predicting automobile prices.

The media shown in this article is not owned by Analytics Vidhya and is used at the Author’s discretion.

Vasudeva
Vasudeva

AI Alchemist with a passion for turning complex problems into elegant solutions. I'm a driven CS undergrad and ML student researcher at LPU, where I'm actively involved in open-source projects at sktime.net. When I'm not wrangling code, you'll find me on LeetCode.com, where I consistently rank in the top 10%. Cloud technologies are another area of fascination for me, and I'm always eager to explore new frontiers in this ever-evolving landscape.

Free Courses

Generative AI 4.7

Generative AI - A Way of Life

Explore Generative AI for beginners: create text and images, use top AI tools, learn practical skills, and ethics.
Large Language Models 4.5

Getting Started with Large Language Models

Master Large Language Models (LLMs) with this course, offering clear guidance in NLP and model training made simple.
Prompt Engineering 4.6

Building LLM Applications using Prompt Engineering

This free course guides you on building LLM apps, mastering prompt engineering, and developing chatbots with enterprise data.
LlamaIndex 4.8

Improving Real World RAG Systems: Key Challenges & Practical Solutions

Explore practical solutions, advanced retrieval strategies, and agentic RAG systems to improve context, relevance, and accuracy in AI-driven applications.
RAG systems using LlamaIndex 4.7

Microsoft Excel: Formulas & Functions

Master MS Excel for data analysis with key formulas, functions, and LookUp tools in this comprehensive course.

Recommended Articles

Responses From Readers

Clear

Write for us

Write, captivate, and earn accolades and rewards for your work
  • Reach a Global Audience
  • Get Expert Feedback
  • Build Your Brand & Audience
  • Cash In on Your Knowledge
  • Join a Thriving Community
  • Level Up Your Data Science Game
imag

We use cookies essential for this site to function well. Please click to help us improve its usefulness with additional cookies. Learn about our use of cookies in our Privacy Policy & Cookies Policy.

Show details