Mastering Java Machine Learning

Datasets used in machine learning

To learn from data, we must be able to understand and manage data in all forms. Data originates from many different sources, and consequently, datasets may differ widely in structure or have little or no structure at all. In this section, we present a high-level classification of datasets with commonly occurring examples.

Based on their structure, or the lack thereof, datasets may be classified as containing the following:

• Structured data: Datasets with structured data are more amenable to being used as input to most machine learning algorithms. The data is in the form of records or rows following a well-known format with features that are either columns in a table or fields delimited by separators or tokens. There ...