Home > Blog > What is Text Classification in Machine Learning - Complete Guide

What is Text Classification in Machine Learning - Complete Guide

What is Text Classification in Machine Learning - Complete Guide

By Upskill Campus
Published Date:   30th September, 2024 Uploaded By:    Priyanka Yadav
Table of Contents [show]

Most data we have could be clearer and easier to understand, like text messages or emails. As a result, this makes it tough for businesses to use all of it. However, with an advanced kind of computer learning called "machine learning," we can teach computers to understand text and sort it into different groups. Additionally, it helps businesses use their data better and get more out of it. That’s why, text classification comes in.

 

Overview of Text Classification in Machine Learning

 

Suppose you have a pile of papers and need to sort them into different folders. Text classification has a computer that can read the papers and automatically put them in the right places. As a result, this saves a lot of time and effort because you don't have to read and sort them yourself. In addition, it's a helpful tool for businesses with lots of documents.
 

Instead of following strict rules, these computer systems learn to classify text by looking at examples. They can find patterns and relationships in the text that we might not notice. As a result, this helps them make more accurate decisions than humans sometimes can. And the more they learn from new information, the better they get at their job.

 

Key Terminologies for Text Classification

 

Different terms will help you to understand more in-depth.
 

  • NLP Text Classification: Text classification is a way to use computers to sort text into different groups. In short, it has a robot that can read and decide if something is about sports, news, or something else. It's not always perfect, but it can be very helpful.
  • Text Classification AI: Text classification is a machine learning technique that uses artificial intelligence to categorize text into predetermined classes or categories. It's a natural language processing technique that helps computers understand and organize unstructured text.
  • Short Text Classification: Short text classification is a certain kind of text classification that works with short pieces of text, like headlines or product reviews.

 

Text Classification Example

 

Businesses use text classification to make things like customer service, employee work, and overall business success better. After understanding the text classification models, we will move further. 
 

  • Sentiment Analysis: It helps companies understand how customers feel about their products or services. In addition, this information can be used to plan marketing campaigns and predict what customers might buy.
  • Content Moderation: Businesses can use text classification to automatically monitor online conversations and identify harmful or inappropriate content. As a result, this helps keep online communities safe.
  • Document Management: Text classification can help businesses organize and sort documents, making it easier to find important information.
  • Customer Support: It can be used to automatically route customer support requests to the right people, so customers get help faster.

 

What Algorithm is Used for Text Classification?

 

If you want to teach a computer to understand and sort text, Python is a great language to use. It's easy to learn and has lots of tools to help you build the computer's brain. There are different ways to teach the computer, and you can choose the best one for your specific task.
 

Logistic Regression

Logistic regression is a computer method used to sort things into two groups. Even though it has the word "regression" in its name, it's actually about classifying things, like deciding if an email is spam or not. In addition, it's a simple but effective method used for many different tasks, including predicting if customers will stop using a service or if someone will click on an ad. It's even used as a part of other computer systems that learn.
 

Logistic regression uses an advanced mathematical tool called the sigmoid function. Additionally, this function takes any number and turns it into a number between 0 and 1. It helps the computer decide if something belongs to one group or another, like spam or not spam.
 

Naïve Bayes

Naïve Bayes is a computer method that uses math to decide if something belongs to one group or another. It assumes that different things are independent of each other, like assuming that the words "game" and "tight" don't affect each other. It calculates the chances of something being in a group based on how often it appears. For example, we can use Naïve Bayes to decide if a sentence is about sports by calculating the chance that the words "game" and "tight" appear in sports sentences. We then choose the group with the highest chance. 
 

Naïve Bayes is a simple but powerful computer method. It assumes that each word in a sentence contributes to its meaning independently, even though this might not always be true. As a result, this simplicity makes it easy to use and works well with large amounts of data. It's often better than more complex methods.
 

Stochastic Gradient Descent

Gradient descent is a method that helps us find the lowest point of a hill. In addition, it starts at a random spot and walks downhill until it reaches the bottom. But when we have a huge hill with millions of steps, this method can take a long time. So, we use a faster version called stochastic gradient descent, which takes smaller steps and can reach the bottom more quickly.
 

Traditional gradient descent is like walking downhill with every step, but when you have millions of steps, it can be slow. Stochastic gradient descent is like taking one step at a time but in a random direction. As a result, this makes it much faster and easier to reach the bottom of the hill.
 

K-Nearest Neighbors

To understand how data points are related, we need to know how close they are. There are different ways to measure this distance, but the most common is measuring the straight-line distance between two points on a map.

K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) is a method that groups things based on their similarities. It looks at the closest neighbors of a new thing and decides which group it belongs to based on what most of those neighbors are. For example, if most of the closest neighbors are blue, then the new thing is probably also blue.
 

Decision Tree

Neural networks are very good at classifying things, but it's hard to understand exactly how they make their decisions. It gives you the right answer but not how it got there. Decision trees, on the other hand, are like maps that show you step-by-step how they concluded. 
 

Decision trees are the flowcharts that help us make decisions. They use rules based on different factors to sort things into groups. They're easy to understand because you can see the steps. However, they can be sensitive to small changes in the data, which can lead to different results.
 

Random Forest

Random forests are a group of decision trees working together. They make better decisions than a single tree by combining the results from many different trees. As a result, this method is used to solve problems like predicting numbers (regression) or putting things into groups (classification).
 

Support Vector Machine

Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are a type of computer learning that helps us sort things into two groups. They learn from examples and can then decide which group a new thing belongs to. In short, it teaches a computer to tell the difference between apples and oranges.
 

SVMs are faster and work better with smaller amounts of data than newer methods like neural networks. As a result, this makes them perfect for sorting text, especially when you don't have a lot of examples to learn from.

 

What is the Best Model to Classify Text?

 

Once you’ve built a model to predict things, the biggest question is: How good is it at its job? To find out, we test it using real data. As a result, this helps us see if it’s making correct guesses. A model might mix up things, like saying a picture of an apple is a carrot. We need to know how often machine learning models for text classification do this to see if it’s reliable.
 

Accuracy

Accuracy is a simple way to measure how well a model works. It tells us how many times it got the answer right. However, accuracy can be misleading, especially when the data is uneven. For example, if a model is good at predicting one thing but bad at predicting another, its overall accuracy might look good even though it’s not very reliable in some areas. So, we need to look at other things besides just accuracy to get a full picture of how well a model is doing.
 

Precision

Precision is a measure that tells us how good a model is at picking out the things it’s supposed to find. For example, if a model says a picture is of a fruit, precision measures how often it’s right. A low precision means the model is often wrong when it says something is a fruit.
 

Recall

Recall is a measure that tells us how well a model is at finding all the things it’s supposed to find. For example, if a model is supposed to find all the pictures of fruit, recall measures how many of the actual fruit pictures it finds. A low recall means the model is missing a lot of fruit pictures.
 

F1 Score

F1 score is a way to combine precision and recall into a single number. It helps us understand how well a model is doing overall, considering both how good it is at finding the right things and how good it is at not finding the wrong things. As a result, this is especially useful when the data is uneven. Sometimes, it’s helpful to visualize the model’s decisions on a graph to see how it’s making mistakes and how we can improve it.

 

Text Classification Applications

 

Text classification has many practical uses in businesses. Here are some applications:
 

  • Email Management: Text classification can help you organize and prioritize emails, saving you time.
  • Ad Analysis: Text classification can help you choose the best ads to spend your money on, improving your results.
  • Product Categorization: Text classification can help you accurately categorize products, making international trade easier.
  • Document Analysis: Text classification can help you check if documents are filled out correctly, reducing errors and delays.
  • Service Request Management: Text classification can help you categorize service requests, making it easier to assign them to the right people.
  • Review Analysis: Text classification can help you analyze customer reviews, giving you insights into how people feel about your products.
  • Survey Analysis: Text classification can help you analyze survey responses, giving you valuable information about your customers.

 

Text Classification Tools

 

Many tools can help businesses analyze text data, such as customer feedback, social media posts, and surveys. These tools can help companies understand how people feel about their products or services, identify trends, and make better decisions.

Some popular text analysis tools include:
 

  • Kapiche: Good for in-depth analysis of customer feedback.
  • Brandwatch: Good for monitoring social media and analyzing brand reputation.
  • MonkeyLearn: Easy to use for small and medium businesses.
  • Lexalytics: Good for businesses that need industry-specific analysis.
  • RapidMiner: A comprehensive platform for data analysis.
  • Keatext: Good for customer experience management.
  • TextIQ: Good for businesses using Qualtrics.
  • Luminoso: Good for real-time insights and trend detection.
  • AYLIEN: Good for developers and data scientists.
  • WordStat: Good for researchers and academics.

 

Conclusion

 

Text classification is a powerful tool that can help businesses understand text data and make better decisions. There are many different types of text classification algorithms, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. To choose the right algorithm, you need to understand what you want to achieve. Remember, data is always changing, so it's important to regularly check how well your text classification model is working and make adjustments as needed. Additionally, this will help you get the best possible results.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 
Q1. What is full text classification?

Ans. Text classification is the process of putting text into different groups. Additionally, the simplest way to do this is to divide the text into two groups, like "good" and "bad" or "yes" and "no."


Q2. What is text classification in NLP?

Ans. Text classification in NLP is the process of categorizing text into predefined labels or classes based on its content.

About the Author

Upskill Campus

UpskillCampus provides career assistance facilities not only with their courses but with their applications from Salary builder to Career assistance, they also help School students with what an individual needs to opt for a better career.

Recommended for you

Leave a comment