Tidy Modeling with R

Preface

Welcome to Tidy Modeling with R! This book is a guide to using a collection of software in the R programming language for model building called tidymodels, and it has two main goals:

• First and foremost, this book provides a practical introduction to how to use these specific R packages to create models. We focus on a dialect of R called the tidyverse that is designed with a consistent, human-centered philosophy and demonstrate how the tidyverse and the tidymodels packages can be used to produce high quality statistical and machine learning models.

• Second, this book will show you how to develop good methodology and statistical practices. Whenever possible, our software, documentation, and other materials attempt to prevent common pitfalls.

In Chapter 1, we outline a taxonomy for models and highlight what good software for modeling is like. The ideas and syntax of the tidyverse, which we introduce (or review) in Chapter 2, are the basis for the tidymodels approach to these challenges of methodology and practice. Chapter 3 provides a quick tour of conventional base R modeling functions and summarizes the unmet needs in that area.

After that, this book is separated into parts, starting with the basics of modeling with tidy data principles. Chapters 4–9 introduce an example data set on house prices and demonstrate how to use the fundamental tidymodels packages: recipes, parsnip, workflows, yardstick, and others.

The next part of the book moves forward with more details ...