Top 10 machine learning

algorithms with their use-cases

Avikumar Talaviya
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6 min read
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Mar 3
23

Learn about the most used machine learning algorithms in this blog
Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

Introduction
Machine learning is one of the most exciting fields in the current
technological landscape. It’s changing the way we live, works, and
think about problem-solving. With the help of machine learning
algorithms, we can now tackle complex real-world problems with ease
and efficiency.

In this blog, we’ll be exploring the top 10 most used machine learning
algorithms, along with their code snippets and real-world use cases.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned professional, this blog will
give you a comprehensive understanding of these algorithms and help
you choose the right one for your next project. So, let’s dive in and
discover how these algorithms are changing the world.

NOTE: This article was originally published on DataKwery —

World’s only site to search data science and machine learning
resources in one place. (Link to the original article — Click here)

Table of contents:

1. Linear Regression

2. Logistic Regression:

3. Support Vector Machines

4. Decision Trees

5. Naive Bayes

6. K-Nearest Neighbors

7. Artificial Neural Networks

8. Random Forests

9. K-Means Clustering

10. Gradient Boosting

Linear regression
Linear regression is one of the most commonly used machine learning
algorithms for solving regression problems. It is a statistical method
that is used to model the relationship between a dependent variable
and one or more independent variables. The goal of linear regression is
to find the best-fitting line that represents the relationship between the
variables.

Here’s the code snippet to implement the linear regression algorithm

using the sci-kit learn library:

import pandas as pd
from sklearn.linear_model import LinearRegression
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

# Load the data into a Pandas dataframe

data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")

# Split the data into training and testing sets

X = data.drop("Dependent Variable", axis=1)
y = data["Dependent Variable"]
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2,
random_state=0)

# Train the model using the training data

regressor = LinearRegression()
regressor.fit(X_train, y_train)

# Predict the dependent variable using the test data

y_pred = regressor.predict(X_test)

Use-cases:

1. House-price estimations using various variables like the area of

the property, location, number of bedrooms, etc.
2. Stock price prediction models

Logistics regression
Logistic regression is a type of regression analysis that is used for
solving classification problems. It is a statistical method that is used to
model the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more
independent variables. It used the ‘logit’ function to classify the
outcome of input into two categories. Unlike linear regression, logistic
regression is used to predict a binary outcome, such as yes/no or
true/false.

Let’s look at the code implementation of the logistics regression

algorithm using the sklearn library.

import pandas as pd
from sklearn.linear_model import LogisticRegression
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split

# Load the data into a Pandas dataframe

data = pd.read_csv("data.csv")

# Split the data into training and testing sets

X = data.drop("Dependent Variable", axis=1)
y = data["Dependent Variable"]
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(X, y, test_size=0.2,
random_state=0)

# Train the model using the training data

classifier = LogisticRegression()
classifier.fit(X_train, y_train)

# Predict the dependent variable using the test data

y_pred = classifier.predict(X_test)

Use-cases:
1. Credit risk classification

2. Fraud detection

3. Medical diagnosis classification

Support Vector Machines

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a machine learning algorithm that
represents data as points in a high-dimensional space, called a
hyperplane. The hyperplane is found that maximizes the margin
between the training data and the margin of misclassification on it. The
algorithm compares this margin with a threshold called the support
vector. This threshold determines how accurately each point will be
classified as belonging to one of two classes.

SVM has been widely used in many different applications, especially in

computer vision and text classification. Some of them are as below:

Use-cases:

1. Image understanding

2. Speech recognition

3. Natural language processing

Decision Trees
Decision Trees are one of the most popular machine-learning
algorithms. They are used for classification, regression, and anomaly
detection. Decision trees set up a hierarchy of decisions based on the
outcome of the test data. Each decision is made by choosing a split at
some point in the tree.

The decision tree algorithm is useful because it can be easily visualized

as a series of splits and leaf nodes, which helps understand how to
make a decision in an ambiguous situation.

Decision trees are widely used because they are interpretable as

opposed to black box algorithms like Neural Networks, gradient
boosting trees, etc.

Use-cases:

1. Loan approval classification

2. Student graduation rate classification

3. Medical expenses prediction

4. Customer churn prediction

Naive Bayes
Naive Bayes is a probabilistic inference algorithm for continuous
(rather than discrete) data. It’s also known as Bayes’ theorem, Bayesian
inference, and Bayes’ rule.
In its simplest form, Naive Bayes assumes that the conditional
probability of an event given evidence A is proportional to the product
of two terms:

P(A|B) = (P(A) * P(B|A))/P(B)

The first term represents the probability of A given B, while the second
term represents the probability of B given A, multiplied by the
probability of A whole divided by the probability of B.

The Naive Bayes algorithm is used widely in text data classification

given the amount of data available in a text corpus. The algorithm
assumes all the input variables are independent of each other which is
the reason it is called a Naive Bayes algorithm. let’s look at some of its
use cases.

Use-cases:

1. Document classification (e.g. newspaper article category

classification)

2. Email spam classification

3. Fraud detection

K-Nearest Neighbors
K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) is a supervised learning algorithm that is
used for classification and regression tasks. It works by finding the k-
closest data points to a given data point and then using the labels of
those data points to classify the given data point.

KNN is commonly used for image classification, text classification, and

predicting the value of a given data point. Some of the use cases are as
below:

Use-cases:

1. Product recommendation system

2. Fraud prevention

Artificial Neural Networks

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are a type of supervised learning
algorithm that is inspired by the biological neurons in the human
brain. They are used for complex tasks such as image recognition,
natural language processing, and speech recognition.

ANNs are composed of multiple interconnected neurons which are

organized into layers, with each neuron in a layer having a weight and
a bias associated with it. When given an input, the neurons process the
information and output a prediction.
There are types of neural networks used in a variety of applications.
Convolutional Neural Networks are used in image classification, object
detection, and segmentation tasks while Recurrent Neural Networks
are used in language modeling tasks. Let’s look at some of the use cases
of ANNs

Use-cases:

1. Image classification tasks

2. Text classification

3. Language Translation

4. Language detection

Random Forests
Random forest is a type of machine learning algorithm that is used for
solving classification and regression problems. It is an ensemble
method that combines multiple decision trees to create a more
accurate and stable model. Random forest is particularly useful for
handling large datasets with complex features, as it is able to select the
most important features and reduce overfitting.

Random forest algorithms can be expensive to train and are really hard
to interpret model performance as opposed to decision trees. let’s look
at some of the use cases of random forests.
Use-cases:

1. Credit scoring models

2. Medical diagnosis prediction

3. Predictive maintenance

K-Means Clustering
K-means is a popular unsupervised machine-learning algorithm that is
used for clustering data. It works by dividing a set of data points into a
specified number of clusters, where each data point belongs to the
cluster with the nearest mean. K-means is an iterative algorithm that
repeats the clustering process until convergence is achieved.

The k-means algorithm is easier to train compared to other clustering

algorithms. It is scalable on large datasets for clustering samples. It is
simple to implement and interpret. let’s look at some of the use cases of
the K-means algorithm.

Use-cases:

1. Customer segmentation

2. Anomaly detection

3. Medical image segmentation

Gradient Boosting
Gradient boosting trees (GBT) is a popular machine learning algorithm
that is used for classification and regression tasks. It is an ensemble
method that combines multiple decision trees to create a more
accurate and stable model. GBT works by sequentially adding decision
trees, where each new tree is trained to correct the errors of the
previous trees. The model combines the predictions of all trees to make
a final prediction.

The gradient boosting algorithm is better compared to other models

for regression tasks. It can handle multicollinearity and non-linear
relationships between variables. It is sensitive to an outlier, therefore
can cause overfitting. Now let’s look at some of its use cases.

Use-cases:

1. Fraud detection

2. Customer Churn Prediction