Dinesh Asanka
Train Model for Boosted Decision Tree

Prediction with Regression in Azure Machine Learning

October 6, 2020 by

Introduction

We will be discussing one of the most common prediction technique that is Regression in Azure Machine Learning in this article. After discussing the basic cleaning techniques, feature selection techniques and principal component analysis in previous articles, now we will be looking at a data regression technique in azure machine learning in this article.

Different Types of Regression Techniques

The regression technique is used to forecast by estimating values. There are different regression techniques available in Azure machine learning that supports various data reduction techniques as shown in the following screen.

Available Regression Techniques in Azure Machine Learning.

Let us look at what are the key feature of these techniques of regression in Azure Machine Learning.

Regression Technique

Features

Bayesian Linear Regression

A linear model for small datasets

Boosted Decision Tree Regression

Large memory is required. Fast training time and accurate results.

Decision Forest Regression

Fast training and accurate results.

Fast Forest Quantile Regression

Predict a distribution.

Linear Regression

Linear model and fast training.

Neural Network Regression

Long training time and accurate results.

Ordinal Regression

Data set in rank-ordered categories

Poisson Regression

Predict event counts.

Let us look at the usage of different techniques of regression in azure machine learning in detail.

Linear Regression

One of the most very common techniques in regression is Linear Regression. The linear regression is a linear approach to modelling the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. For example, if you want to predict the house prices (dependent variable) by using independent variables of house location, house size, the relationship will be linear.

In the AdventureWorks example, let us say we want to predict the yearly income of customers using other features of customers such as occupation, age, number of children, education, etc.

Let us create an experiment that we have been doing in previous articles as shown in the below screenshot.

Creating an Experiment with Linear Regression in Azure Machine Learning.

Let us rush through the settings in the above experiment as a recap. We have included the AdventureWorks data set that was uploaded before. Since there are a lot of attributes, we have selected only a few columns that will make an impact to decide the yearly income. Those attributes are Marital Status, Gender, Yearly Income, Total Children, Number of Children At Home, Education, Occupation, House Owner, Number of Cars Owned, Age. After the columns are selected, data is split to train and test. In the Train Model, Yearly Income is selected as the predicted column.

We have used linear regression and the following are the configurations of the Linear Regression.

Choosing a Solution methos in Linear Regression.

As shown in the above screen, there are two types of methods, Ordinary Least Squares, and Online Gradient Descent methods.

The following are the two parameters for both methods that can be observed from the Train Model control.

Ordinary Least Squares

Online Gradient Descent

Age

6.46262

Age

340.93

Bias

19730

Bias

3732.1

EnglishEducation_Bachelors_0

693.804

EnglishEducation_Bachelors_0

847.45

EnglishEducation_Graduate Degree_1

9802.35

EnglishEducation_Graduate Degree_1

740.45

EnglishEducation_High School_2

-2328.31

EnglishEducation_High School_2

-643.9

EnglishEducation_Partial College_3

8022.83

EnglishEducation_Partial College_3

-80.9

EnglishEducation_Partial High School_4

3539.36

EnglishEducation_Partial High School_4

-622.5

EnglishOccupation_Clerical_0

-16267

EnglishOccupation_Clerical_0

-1881

EnglishOccupation_Management_1

38564

EnglishOccupation_Management_1

2746.6

EnglishOccupation_Manual_2

-29871.3

EnglishOccupation_Manual_2

-2409

EnglishOccupation_Professional_3

22230

EnglishOccupation_Professional_3

2245.3

EnglishOccupation_Skilled Manual_4

5074.31

EnglishOccupation_Skilled Manual_4

-461.4

Gender_F_0

9799.73

Gender_F_0

159.5

Gender_M_1

9930.31

Gender_M_1

81.083

HouseOwnerFlag

-1892.1

HouseOwnerFlag

303.2

MaritalStatus_M_0

9880.4

MaritalStatus_M_0

727.64

MaritalStatus_S_1

9849.63

MaritalStatus_S_1

-487.1

NumberCarsOwned

4218.63

NumberCarsOwned

2081

NumberChildrenAtHome

6711.04

NumberChildrenAtHome

2105.3

TotalChildren

-3314.54

TotalChildren

914.13

You will see that model parameters are different depending on the method that you used in the Liner regression control.

Let us see what is the better method for the above set of data by visualizing the evaluation parameters from the evaluation control.

Ordinary Least Squares

Online Gradient Descent

Mean Absolute Error

12,950.26

50,614.03

Root Mean Squared Error

17,079.20

58,763.53

Relative Absolute Error

0.51

1.99

Relative Squared Error

0.28

3.35

Coefficient of Determination

0.72

-2.35

By looking at the above comparison, for this dataset, Ordinary Least Squares is better than the Online Gradient Descent as the Ordinary Least Squares has fewer errors and the high coefficient of determination.

Similar to Linear Regression, Bayesian Linear Regression can be used and evaluation is compared as follows.

Ordinary Least Squares

Online Gradient Descent

Bayesian Linear Regression

Mean Absolute Error

12,950.26

50,614.03

12,949.71

Root Mean Squared Error

17,079.20

58,763.53

17,079.40

Relative Absolute Error

0.51

1.99

0.51

Relative Squared Error

0.28

3.35

0.28

Coefficient of Determination

0.72

-2.35

0.72

Poisson Regression

Poisson regression is used to predict counts. This means Poisson regression prediction will have positive integer numbers. This technique is better suited to predict votes, likes etc.

Let us predict Age of the customer using other parameters. As you know, age cannot be negative and with decimal points. To achieve this, we need to make a few modifications to the above experiment, we need to replace the prediction model with the Poisson regression and change the train model variable to the Age.

Modelling with Poission Regression in Azure Machine Learning.

The following are the evaluation comparison of Poisson Regression with the Linear regression model.

Poisson

Linear

Mean Absolute Error

6.76

6.70

Root Mean Squared Error

8.83

8.75

Relative Absolute Error

0.72

0.71

Relative Squared Error

0.60

0.59

Coefficient of Determination

0.40

0.41

You will see from the above table, Poisson regression in Azure machine learning evaluation is similar to the Linear regression. There are parameters available in Poisson regression to enhance the accuracy of the model.

Neural Network Regression

The artificial neural network (ANN) is used in many places in machine learning. In ANN, there are input variables, and there will be a hidden layer from which the output is generated. ANN is mostly used to more complex tasks such as image recognition, character recognition, but it can be used to solve the regression in Azure Machine learning. We will be discussing neural networks in detail in a coming article. In the case of regression, it is just a matter of using the Neural Network regression control and use as a linear regression control.

Boosted Decision Tree and Decision Forest Regression

Decision trees are one of the very common predictive techniques that can be used to classification as well as for regression in Azure Machine Learning. Let us connected the Boosted Decision Tree Regression control in the previously created experiment which was trying to model the prediction of Yearly Income. Let us compare the evaluation parameters of Boosted Decision Tree Regression with the Linear Regression.

Linear Regression

Boosted Decision Tree

Mean Absolute Error

12,950.26

5,925.07

Root Mean Squared Error

17,079.20

8,897.74

Relative Absolute Error

0.51

0.23

Relative Squared Error

0.28

0.08

Coefficient of Determination

0.72

0.92

You will see that Decision Forest is much better than the linear regression which is very common even with many datasets. You have the option of looking at the model from the Train Model as shown in the below screenshot.

Train Model for Boosted Decision Tree

As configured in the tress model 100 trees are built. You can limit the number of trees to attain higher accuracy. According to this tree, the number of cars is the most important parameter to define the yearly income and next is the Occupation and so on.

Similarly, we can perform regression from Decision Forest Regression and the following are the results for the evaluation parameters.

Linear Regression

Boosted Decision Tree

Decision Forest

Mean Absolute Error

12,950.26

5,925.07

4143.01

Root Mean Squared Error

17,079.20

8,897.74

8147.90

Relative Absolute Error

0.51

0.23

0.16

Relative Squared Error

0.28

0.08

0.06

Coefficient of Determination

0.72

0.92

0.94

From the above table, you can see that Decision Forest is slightly better than the Boosted Decision tree and it is far better than the Linear Regression in Azure Machine Learning.

Fast Forest Quantile Regression

When predicting a value, practically we want to predict a range rather than an exact value. Fast Forest Quantile Regression in Azure Machine Learning provides a range of prediction rather than an exact value. This control is the same as the other controls, except you can provide the quantities to be estimated as given in the below screenshot.

Configuring Fast Forest Quantile Regression in Azue Machine Learning

When predicting using the web service that was discussed in the prediction article, it will predict not only the mean but also the other quantities as shown.

Prediction of Yearly Income for different quantiles.

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at different algorithms for Regression in Azure Machine Learning. In azure machine learning, there are rich controls to model regression. We identified that decision tree related regression models are much accurate than other algorithms.

Further References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/studio-module-reference/machine-learning-initialize-model-regression

Table of contents

Introduction to Azure Machine Learning using Azure ML Studio
Data Cleansing in Azure Machine Learning
Prediction in Azure Machine Learning
Feature Selection in Azure Machine Learning
Data Reduction Technique: Principal Component Analysis in Azure Machine Learning
Prediction with Regression in Azure Machine Learning
Prediction with Classification in Azure Machine Learning
Comparing models in Azure Machine Learning
Cross Validation in Azure Machine Learning
Clustering in Azure Machine Learning
Tune Model Hyperparameters for Azure Machine Learning models
Time Series Anomaly Detection in Azure Machine Learning
Designing Recommender Systems in Azure Machine Learning
Language Detection in Azure Machine Learning with basic Text Analytics Techniques
Azure Machine Learning: Named Entity Recognition in Text Analytics
Filter based Feature Selection in Text Analytics
Latent Dirichlet Allocation in Text Analytics
Recommender Systems for Customer Reviews
AutoML in Azure Machine Learning
AutoML in Azure Machine Learning for Regression and Time Series
Building Ensemble Classifiers in Azure Machine Learning
Text Classification in Azure Machine Learning using Word Vectors
Dinesh Asanka
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