Introduction to K-means Clustering

This introduction to the K-means clustering algorithm covers:

  • Common business cases where K-means is used
  • The steps involved in running the algorithm
  • A Python example using delivery fleet data

 

<span class="token keyword">import</span> numpy <span class="token keyword">as</span> np
<span class="token keyword">from</span> sklearn<span class="token punctuation">.</span>cluster <span class="token keyword">import</span> KMeans

<span class="token comment" spellcheck="true">### For the purposes of this example, we store feature data from our</span>
<span class="token comment" spellcheck="true">### dataframe `df`, in the `f1` and `f2` arrays. We combine this into</span>
<span class="token comment" spellcheck="true">### a feature matrix `X` before entering it into the algorithm.</span>
f1 <span class="token operator">=</span> df<span class="token punctuation">[</span><span class="token string">'Speeding Feature'</span><span class="token punctuation">]</span><span class="token punctuation">.</span>values<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span>
f2 <span class="token operator">=</span> df<span class="token punctuation">[</span><span class="token string">'Distance Feature'</span><span class="token punctuation">]</span><span class="token punctuation">.</span>values<span class="token punctuation">(</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span>

X<span class="token operator">=</span>np<span class="token punctuation">.</span>matrix<span class="token punctuation">(</span>zip<span class="token punctuation">(</span>f1<span class="token punctuation">,</span>f2<span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span>
kmeans <span class="token operator">=</span> KMeans<span class="token punctuation">(</span>n_clusters<span class="token operator">=</span><span class="token number">2</span><span class="token punctuation">)</span><span class="token punctuation">.</span>fit<span class="token punctuation">(</span>X<span class="token punctuation">)</span>