Predictive Analytics For Dummies

Chapter 14

Predictive Modeling with R

In This Chapter

Doing basic R programming

Setting up your programming environment

Manipulating data

Developing a regression model

Developing a classification tree model

A book covering the major facets of predictive analysis is not complete unless it covers the R programming language. Our goal is to get you up and running as quick as possible. That goal entails getting you started making predictions and experimenting with predictive analysis, using standard tools such as R and the algorithms data scientists and statisticians use to make predictive models.

So do you have to know how to program to create predictive models? We would answer, “probably not, but it surely helps.” Relax. We think you’ll have fun learning R. Granted, this chapter is pretty high-level, so you may read it just to boost your understanding of how data scientists and statisticians use R.

In an enterprise environment, you’ll most likely use commercial tools available from ...