8. Predicting numeric values: regression

This chapter covers Linear regression Locally weighted linear regression Ridge regression and stagewise linear regression Predicting the age of an abalone and an antique selling price

The previous chapters focused on classification that predicts only nominal values for the target variable. With the tools in this chapter you’ll be able to start predicting target values that are continuous. You may be asking yourself, “What can I do with these tools?” “Just about anything” would be my answer. Companies may use this for boring things such as sales forecasts or forecasting manufacturing defects. One creative example I’ve seen recently is predicting the probability of celebrity divorce.