Linear regression analysis with string/categorical features (variables)?

Question

Regression algorithms seem to be working on features represented as numbers. For example:

This data set doesn\'t contain categorical features/variables. It

Answer 1

You can use "Dummy Coding" in this case. There are Python libraries to do dummy coding, you have a few options:

• You may use scikit-learn library. Take a look at here.
• Or, if you are working with pandas, it has a built-in function to create dummy variables.

An example with pandas is below:

import pandas as pd

sample_data = [[1,2,'a'],[3,4,'b'],[5,6,'c'],[7,8,'b']]
df = pd.DataFrame(sample_data, columns=['numeric1','numeric2','categorical'])
dummies = pd.get_dummies(df.categorical)
df.join(dummies)