Fraud detection today leverages complex algorithms and machine learning approaches. However, this was not always the case. In the past, fraud detection used simple yet highly efficient methods. In this post, we will look at a traditional method of fraud detection that involves setting threshold values for variables to flag a case a fraud or not.

Load Libraries

We will begin by loading our libraries and data. The data for this demonstration is not available on the web. Below, we load pandas, numpy, and matplotlib.

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df = pd.read_csv(data_loc)

We will now look at the means of the individual variables.

Examine Means

To determine the cutoff values for setting our thresholds, we need to examine the means of each variable when a case is marked as fraud or not. Next, we will look at boxplots of the variables we will use. Below is the code and output for the means of the variable based on class.

df.groupby('Class').mean() #provides a general threshold for fraud
Out[2]: 
        Unnamed: 0        V1        V2        V3        V4        V5  \
Class                                                                  
0      143084.8702  0.035030  0.011553  0.037444 -0.045760 -0.013825   
1      121384.7000 -4.985211  3.321539 -7.293909  4.827952 -3.326587   

             V6        V7        V8        V9       V10       V11       V12  \
Class                                                                         
0     -0.030885  0.014315 -0.022432 -0.002227  0.001667 -0.004511  0.017434   
1     -1.591882 -5.776541  1.395058 -2.537728 -5.917934  4.020563 -7.032865   

            V13       V14       V15       V16       V17       V18       V19  \
Class                                                                         
0      0.004204  0.006542 -0.026640  0.001190  0.004481 -0.010892 -0.016554   
1     -0.104179 -7.100399 -0.120265 -4.658854 -7.589219 -2.650436  0.894255   

            V20       V21       V22       V23       V24       V25       V26  \
Class                                                                         
0     -0.002896 -0.010583 -0.010206 -0.003305 -0.000918 -0.002613 -0.004651   
1      0.194580  0.703182  0.069065 -0.088374 -0.029425 -0.073336 -0.023377   

            V27       V28      Amount  
Class                                  
0     -0.009584  0.002414   85.843714  
1      0.380072  0.009304  113.469000  

Now, there are many different ways to explore the data to determine which variables to select and what to set the threshold values to. We can look at histograms, descriptive statistics, rely on domain knowledge, etc. For the sake of simplicity, we are selecting variables V1 and V3 for additional analysis. You can have more than two variables if you desire. Below are boxplots of V1 and V3.

#data to plot
V1=df[df['Class'] == 1]['V1']
V3=df[df['Class'] == 1]['V3']
plot_data=[V1,V3]
# Create a basic box plot
plt.boxplot(plot_data,tick_labels=["V1","V3"] )
plt.show()

Here is an explanation of the code.

We create two objects called V1 and V3. Both of these objects subset the data for Class when it equals 1 (which indicates fraud). The V1 object pulls the values of V1 when Class equals 1. The V3 does the same for the V3 variable. In other words, we now have all values of V1 and V3 when fraud is indicated. Next, we store our values in another object called plot_data. We then create our boxplot and label the x-axis.

The box plot for V1 indicates a median value of around -3, while the box plot for V3 indicates a median value of around -5. We will use these values as our thresholds.

Confusion Matrix with Thresholds

We will now set our thresholds and create the confusion matrix. Below is the code and output.

df['flag_as_fraud'] = np.where(np.logical_and(df['V1']<-3, df['V3']<-5), 1, 0)

print(pd.crosstab(df.Class, df.flag_as_fraud, rownames=['Actual Fraud'], colnames=['Flagged Fraud']))
Flagged Fraud     0   1
Actual Fraud           
0              4984  16
1                28  22

Here is an explanation of the code.

1. We create a new column called “flag_as_fraud”. This column uses a 1 when V1 < -3 and V3 < -5. All other instances are flagged as 0.
2. Next, we create our crosstabs comparing Class with flag_as_fraud. Here are the results.

4984 True negatives = It was flagged as not being fraud, and was not actual fraud
22 True positives = It was flagged as fraud, and it was actual fraud
28 False negatives = It was not flagged as fraud, but it was actual fraud
22 False positives = It was flagged as fraud, but it was not actual fraud

Now, whether these results are good or bad depends on the situation. There are problems with false negatives and false positives. Correcting for one means losing accuracy for another. If the context were credit card fraud, false negatives may be worse, as the criminal may get away with fraud. Another way to assess the values is through a classification report.

from sklearn.metrics import confusion_matrix
from sklearn.metrics import classification_report

print('Classification report:\n', classification_report(df['Class'],df['flag_as_fraud']))
conf_mat = confusion_matrix(y_true=df['Class'], y_pred=df['flag_as_fraud'])
print('Confusion matrix:\n', conf_mat)

Classification report:
               precision    recall  f1-score   support

           0       0.99      1.00      1.00      5000
           1       0.58      0.44      0.50        50

    accuracy                           0.99      5050
   macro avg       0.79      0.72      0.75      5050
weighted avg       0.99      0.99      0.99      5050

Confusion matrix:
 [[4984   16]
 [  28   22]]

The output above provides numbers for us to assess. The precision indicates how well our model is at predicting true positives compared to all positives. Recall indicates how well our model predicts true positives compared to all true positives. The F1-score is an aggregate of the precision and recall values. Our model struggles with both precision and recall, so we need to modify this.

Multiple Rules

It is possible to have more than one rule. Below is an example.

df['flag_as_fraud'] = np.where(np.logical_and(df['V1']<-3, df['V3']<-5),1, 0)
df['flag_as_fraud'] = np.where(np.logical_and(df['flag_as_fraud']== 1, df['V7']<-6),1, 0)
df['flag_as_fraud'] = np.where(np.logical_and(df['flag_as_fraud']== 1, df['V9']<-0),1, 0)
df['flag_as_fraud'] = np.where(np.logical_and(df['flag_as_fraud']== 1, df['V10']<-4.5),1, 0)

In this code, we set the initial rule as done previously. Then, for the second rule, we use the previous rule and place the new variable as the second comparison. We then repeat this as many times as necessary. Below is a verbal explanation of the code above

Create “flag_as_fraud” where V1 < -3 and V3 < -5. Then create “flag_as_fraud” where “flag_as_fraud” = 1 and V7 < -6. Then create “flag_as_fraud” where “flag_as_fraud” = 1 and V9 < 0. Then create “flag_as_fraud” where “flag_as_fraud” = 1 and V10 < -4.5.

Below is the classification report and confusion matrix.

print('Classification report:\n', classification_report(df['Class'],df['flag_as_fraud']))
conf_mat = confusion_matrix(y_true=df['Class'], y_pred=df['flag_as_fraud'])
print('Confusion matrix:\n', conf_mat)

Classification report:
               precision    recall  f1-score   support

           0       0.99      1.00      1.00      5000
           1       0.94      0.34      0.50        50

    accuracy                           0.99      5050
   macro avg       0.97      0.67      0.75      5050
weighted avg       0.99      0.99      0.99      5050

Confusion matrix:
 [[4999    1]
 [  33   17]]

Our precision is improved, which means we did excellent work reducing the number of false positives. However, our false negatives have increased, and our recall has decreased.

Conclusion

The traditional approach is excellent in many circumstances. This approach is easy to understand, which can relieve the anxiety ofleaders who need to know what is going on in case there is a problem. Complex algorithms may yield better results, but it is not always clear how they work and what they are doing. With the traditional approach, this is not a problem. However, if high accuracy is needed, sometimes the traditional approach falls short. Which approach to use depends on the context and the needs of the stakeholders.

In this post, we will explore how to approach resampling when implementing fraud detection with Python. When examining fraud detection, a significant imbalance often exists between negative and positive fraud cases. The problem with this is that by guessing randomly, your model can be highly accurate in predicting whether a case is fraudulent or not. Therefore, we must consider how to address the low number of positive instances when conducting a fraud analysis.

We are going to first look at the characteristics of the data as is, then we will use Python to balance our data and compare the original data with the modified data.

Data Preparation of Original Data

Below are the libraries we will use.

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from imblearn.over_sampling import SMOTE

Pandas and numpy are for creating our dataset. Matplotlib is for data visualization, and the SMOTE function will be used to rebalance our data later on.

The data we will use is not available on the web. Therefore, the code for this dataset is unclear, as I will hide the string where the data comes from on my computer. The code is below.

df = pd.read_csv(data_loc)

We will now look at the data using the .info() method

print(df.info())
<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 5050 entries, 0 to 5049
Data columns (total 31 columns):
 #   Column      Non-Null Count  Dtype  
---  ------      --------------  -----  
 0   Unnamed: 0  5050 non-null   int64  
 1   V1          5050 non-null   float64
 2   V2          5050 non-null   float64
 3   V3          5050 non-null   float64
 4   V4          5050 non-null   float64
 5   V5          5050 non-null   float64
 6   V6          5050 non-null   float64
 7   V7          5050 non-null   float64
 8   V8          5050 non-null   float64
 9   V9          5050 non-null   float64
 10  V10         5050 non-null   float64
 11  V11         5050 non-null   float64
 12  V12         5050 non-null   float64
 13  V13         5050 non-null   float64
 14  V14         5050 non-null   float64
 15  V15         5050 non-null   float64
 16  V16         5050 non-null   float64
 17  V17         5050 non-null   float64
 18  V18         5050 non-null   float64
 19  V19         5050 non-null   float64
 20  V20         5050 non-null   float64
 21  V21         5050 non-null   float64
 22  V22         5050 non-null   float64
 23  V23         5050 non-null   float64
 24  V24         5050 non-null   float64
 25  V25         5050 non-null   float64
 26  V26         5050 non-null   float64
 27  V27         5050 non-null   float64
 28  V28         5050 non-null   float64
 29  Amount      5050 non-null   float64
 30  Class       5050 non-null   int64  
dtypes: float64(29), int64(2)
memory usage: 1.2 MB
None

For our purposes, there are 30 variables available from V1 to Class. We will now look at a breakdown of the Class variable, which tells us if there is fraud or not.

fraud_breakdown = df['Class'].value_counts()
print(fraud_breakdown)
Class
0    5000
1      50
Name: count, dtype: int64

By subsetting for the Class variable and using the .valuecounts() method, we can see that the results indicate there are 5050 rows of data, with 5000 not being fraud and 50 being fraud. This indicates that less than one percent of the cases are instances of fraud, and this is confirmed with the code below.

print(fraud_breakdown / len(df))
Class
0    0.990099
1    0.009901
Name: count, dtype: float64

Next, we will create a visualization of our data.

Data Visualization

In order to create the data visualization, we need to separate the X values, which are all the variables we are using that do not tell us if the case is fraud or not, from the y value, which is the Class variable. We also need to convert them to a numpy array. Below is the code to do this.

X = df.iloc[:, 1:30]    
X = np.array(X).astype('float')    
y = df.iloc[:, 30]    
y=np.array(y).astype('float')

Below is the code for the data scatterplot. The plot will be based on the first two variables of the dataset and colored by the Class variable.

plt.scatter(X[y == 0, 0], X[y == 0, 1], 
            label="Class #0", alpha=0.5, linewidth=0.15)
plt.scatter(X[y == 1, 0], X[y == 1, 1], 
            label="Class #1", alpha=0.5, linewidth=0.15, c='r')
plt.legend()
plt.show()

Here is a breakdown of the code.

1. We use plt.scatter. Inside, we indicate that for the values in X when y = 0 take the values of the first column. In the second subset, we indicate that in X, when y = 0 take the second column of values.

2. Next, we set the label, alpha, and linewidth.

3. We repeat this process, but this time we take the values when y = 1 instead of y= 0. We also set the color to red instead of the default blue.

4. Finally, we plot both scatter plots on the same plot with a legend indicating what the color means.

You can see the huge imbalance with just this visual. We will now look at how to correct this imbalance.

SMOTE

Resampling can be performed in several ways. Undersampling involves reducing the amount of data you are using to match the number of fraud cases. In other words, for our 5050 dataset with 50 fraud cases, we would reduce this to perhaps 100 rows of data with 50 fraud cases. One problem with this is that you throw out a lot of data.

Another approach is oversampling, which involves duplicating your fraud cases until they match half of your data. For example, since our dataset contains 5050 cases with 50 cases of fraud, we would duplicate our fraud cases until we had 5000 fraud cases for a total dataset size of 10,000. Here you can see the problem of duplicating so much data, which can cause problems.

SMOTE, or synthetic minority oversampling technique, is a variation on oversampling. It involves creating additional fraud cases by generating new cases through the traits of the nearest neighbors. This works if your fraud cases are similar to each other.

Below, we will generate a dataset using SMOTE

# Define the resampling method
method = SMOTE()

# Create the resampled feature set
X_resampled, y_resampled = method.fit_resample(X, y)

print(pd.Series(y).value_counts())
print(pd.Series(y_resampled).value_counts())
print(X.shape[0])
print(X_resampled.shape[0])

0.0    5000
1.0      50
Name: count, dtype: int64
0.0    5000
1.0    5000
Name: count, dtype: int64
5050
10000

The code involves creating an instance of SMOTE(). We then create our resampled X and y values using .fit_resample. Next, we print our results. The first output shows the original shape of the data y values from 5000 to 50 cases of fraud. The next output shows the resampled y values with 5000 to 5000 cases using SMOTE(). Now the data is balanced. The last two outputs show the original shape of the X values and compare it to the new shape, thanks to resampling.

Below is the code for the visualization. It is the same as the previous visual, just with the resampled data.

# Plot the resampled data
plt.scatter(X_resampled[y_resampled == 0, 0], 
            X_resampled[y_resampled == 0, 1], 
            label="Class #0", alpha=0.5, linewidth=0.15)
plt.scatter(X_resampled[y_resampled == 1, 0], 
            X_resampled[y_resampled == 1, 1], 
            label="Class #1", alpha=0.5, linewidth=0.15, c='r')
plt.legend()
plt.show()

You can see the difference compared to the first plot. This data is much more balanced, which will help in the detection of fraud cases. How you address imbalances depends on the situation, so let’s not assume SMOTE is the best approach every single time.

Conclusion

Fraud detection is critical in different industries to prevent crime and abuse. Python can be used to support this process. Naturally, fraud is unusual when compared to legitimate transactions. This necessitates the use of various techniques to balance the data and ensure the accuracy of the model.

In this post, we will go over more examples of how to manipulate data with data.table in R. We will begin by loading the needed packages and preparing our data.

Packages and Data Preparation

In the code below, we load our library data.table. Next, we prepare our data set mtcars and convert it into a data.table of the same name. Note that mtcars is preloaded within R.

library(data.table)
mtcars<-data.table(mtcars)

Below is a preview of the mtcars dataset.

> head(mtcars)
     mpg   cyl  disp    hp  drat    wt  qsec    vs    am  gear  carb
   <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num>
1:  21.0     6   160   110  3.90 2.620 16.46     0     1     4     4
2:  21.0     6   160   110  3.90 2.875 17.02     0     1     4     4
3:  22.8     4   108    93  3.85 2.320 18.61     1     1     4     1
4:  21.4     6   258   110  3.08 3.215 19.44     1     0     3     1
5:  18.7     8   360   175  3.15 3.440 17.02     0     0     3     2
6:  18.1     6   225   105  2.76 3.460 20.22     1     0     3     1

Selecting Columns

Below is an example of how to select columns. You can do this by using brackets and placing the columns you want inside the c function. Remember to place a comma in front of the c function, as this indicates to take all rows of data, while the information after the comma indicates which columns to take.

# Select mpg and cyl using a character vector
> mtcars_select <- mtcars[,c("mpg","cyl")]
> head(mtcars_select)
   mpg cyl
1 21.0   6
2 21.0   6
3 22.8   4
4 21.4   6
5 18.7   8
6 18.1   6

By indicating which columns we wanted, we were able to pull only what we wanted. If you want to leave out columns, you just need to place a minus sign in front of the c function as shown below.

> # Deselect mph and cyl columns
> mtcars_drop <- mtcars[,-c("mpg","cyl")]
> head(mtcars_drop)
    disp    hp  drat    wt  qsec    vs    am  gear  carb
   <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num> <num>
1:   160   110  3.90 2.620 16.46     0     1     4     4
2:   160   110  3.90 2.875 17.02     0     1     4     4
3:   108    93  3.85 2.320 18.61     1     1     4     1
4:   258   110  3.08 3.215 19.44     1     0     3     1
5:   360   175  3.15 3.440 17.02     0     0     3     2
6:   225   105  2.76 3.460 20.22     1     0     3     1

In the example above, the columns left out are mpg and cyl, as we indicated. Next, we will look at performing calculations.

Performing Calculations

It is also possible to perform specific calculations. In the example below, we calculate the median mpg of all cars in the dataset.

> # Calculate median mpg using the j argument
> median_mpg <- mtcars[,median(mpg)]
> median_mpg
[1] 19.2

As you can see, to perform a calculation, you must place the function inside the brackets and after the comma. The column you want to perform the calculation on must be inside the formula, as usual.

It is also possible to give names to your output. In the example below, we provide the output of our calculation, the name “mean_mpg”. Notice also the use of the period right in front of the parentheses, which is needed when performing this type of calculation

> # Calculate the average mpg as mean_mpg 
> mean_mpg <- mtcars[,.(mean_mpg=mean(mpg))]
> mean_mpg
   mean_mpg
       <num>
1:  20.09062

In our example above, we can see that the average mpg of all the cars in our dataset is 20.09.

Multiple Calculations

By employing the same dot notation, it is possible to perform multiple calculations at once. In the example below, we find the minimum and maximum values of mpg for all cars.

> # Get the min and max mpg values
> min_max_mpg <- mtcars[, .(min(mpg),max(mpg))]
> min_max_mpg
      V1    V2
   <num> <num>
1:  10.4  33.9

There is nothing unique here except for the inclusion of a second function. Notice how each function is separated by a comma.

Just as before, you can also name each output from your results. Below is the mean weight and the max hp from the dataset.

> # Calculate the average wt and the max hp
> other_stats <- mtcars[, .(mean_wt=mean(wt),max_hp=max(hp))]
> other_stats
   mean_wt max_hp
     <num>  <num>
1: 3.21725    335

Filtering and Calculations

So far, we have not made any adjustments to the input before the comma when performing calculations. In the example below, we are filtering for cars with 6 cylinders and hp that is less than 120. Once this is filtered, we then want to calculate the minimum and maximum mpg.

> #filter for two or more variables then statistics
> mpg_stats <- mtcars[cyl==6 & hp<120, .(min_dur=min(mpg), 
+                             max_dur=max(mpg))]
> mpg_stats
   min_dur max_dur
     <num>   <num>
1:    18.1    21.4

The output speaks for itself. Normally, when subsetting data, the information before the comma indicates the rows. However, when performing calculations, the information before the comma can be used to filter the data as appropriate.

In the example below, we make a histogram based on the same filtering criteria.

mtcars[cyl==6 & hp<120, 
                    hist(mpg)]

As you can see, the use of data.table is almost endless

Conclusion

The data.table library provides you with several beneficial tools for conveniently slicing data. Data analysis can use these tools as needed to provide insights for their audience.

Annotating data allows you to communicate vital information in a visualization for an audience. In the example below, we will look at how to annotate a visualization while using Python.

Libraries and Data Preparation

We will begin by loading the needed libraries and preparing the data. In the code below, lines 1 and 3 load our visualization libraries. Line 2 loads the function we will need to load our data.

import seaborn as sns
from pydataset import data
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

In the code below, we use the data() function to load the Prestige data from pydataset into an object called df. Then, we display the head of this data using the .head() method.

df=data('Prestige')
df.head()

Our dataset contains various jobs measured on five dimensions. In our code below, we will focus on using the education, income, and prestige variables.

Making a Comment

Now we will add a comment to our visualization. Specifically, we will point out the highest income value. Below is the code, followed by the visualization

# Draw basic scatter plot of education data and income 
sns.scatterplot(x = 'education', y = 'income', data = df)

# Label highest income value with text annotation
plt.text(6, 25000,
         'The max income is over 25000', 
         # Set the font to large
         fontdict = {'ha': 'left', 'size': 'large'})
plt.show()

The first step was to make a basic scatterplot. We use the .scatterplot() method from seaborn and plot education and income from our df dataset. Next, we set up our text using the .text() method from matplotlib. For the text, we set an x and y value and then indicate what the text should say. Below that, we adjust the font to come from the left and top to be large in size.

Arrow Annotation

Using an arrow is another way to bring attention to data in a visualization. In the code below, we will use an arrow that will point to the same data point that we used in the previous example. Below is the code, followed by the visualization.

# Query and filter to General Managers
women_census = df.query("(women  ==  4.02) & (census  ==  1130)")
prestige_type = df.query("(prestige  ==  69.1) & (type  ==  'prof')")

sns.scatterplot(x = 'education', y = 'income',
                data = df)

# Point arrow to General Managers 
plt.annotate('General Managers',
             xy = (women_census.education, prestige_type.income),
             xytext = (6.5, 15000), 
             # Shrink the arrow to avoid occlusion
             arrowprops = {'facecolor':'gray', 'width': 3, 'shrink': 0.03},
             backgroundcolor = 'white')
plt.show()

Here is what we did,

1. We create two queries to locate the data point we want the arrow to point to. All the values in the .query() method for both the woman_census and the prestige_type are values from the general manager row. As shown below,

These two objects are used to locate general managers in the dataset.

2. We make the same scatterplot as shown before

3. The .annotate() method is used. We start by writing in quotes what we want to appear in the scatterplot. Next, we set the x and y coordinates of the data point we want to highlight using the women_census and prestige_type queries we did previously. From there, we have to set the text location. After this, we set the arrow properties in terms of the color, width, and size. Lastly, the background color is set.

Annotation with Color & Text

Color annotation provides a contrast based on color. Below is the code and the visualization when this approach is used.

# Make a vector where prof is orangered; else lightgray
prof = ['orangered' if type  ==  'prof' else 'lightgray' for type in df['type']]

# Map facecolors to the list prof and set alpha to 0.3
sns.regplot(x = 'education',
            y = 'income',
            data = df,
            fit_reg = False,
            scatter_kws = {'facecolors':prof, 'alpha': 0.3})

# Add annotation to plot
plt.text(11, 23000, 'General Managers')
plt.show() 

This approach is simpler compared to the last one. We begin by separating the data based on type. Professionals are colored orange, and the rest are colored light gray. Next, we create our scatterplot using the .regplot() method this time. Education and income are the x and y axes, the regression line is removed, and the color of the dots is set using the scatter_kws argument. The “prof” argument provides the coloring rules, and the alpha is set to make the points transparent. The next step uses the .text() method to set the x and y coordinates for the text.

Conclusion

Annotation is one of many ways to bring attention to crucial insights in a visualization. The examples above provide some of the many ways this tool can be used to provide crucial information when using Python

Comparing groups within a dataset is another aspect of analysis. Here, we will use some tools from Python.

Libraries & Data Prep

First, we need to load our libraries and prepare our data. Below is the code for the libraries we need.

import seaborn as sns
from pydataset import data
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

The first and last lines load the libraries we need for data visualization. The second line loads the data() function from pydataset, where our data will come from. Below is the code for loading our data.

df=data('Prestige')
df.head()

Our data is the Prestige dataset from the data() function, loaded as the object df. The .head() method displays the first few lines of our dataset. This dataset contains various jobs measured in terms of education, income, women, prestige, census, and type. We are now ready to create our first comparison.

Histogram Comparision

The histogram comparison allows us to compare the shape of different distributions of data when the histograms overlap each other. We will compare the income distribution by job type in the code below.

# Filter dataset for prof
sns.kdeplot(df[df.type == 'prof'].income, 
            # Shade under kde and add a helpful label
            fill = True,
            label = 'prof')

# Filter dataset for non prof
sns.kdeplot(df[df.type != 'prof'].income, 
            # Again, shade under kde and add a helpful label
            fill = True,
            label = 'non-prof')
plt.show()

We create the first plot (blue color) by submitting the data for “prof” and income. We repeat this process and subset the data for individuals who are not “prof.”The plot shows that there is a broader distribution of income for people whose job type is professional. We could confirm this with a t-test or ANOVA, but the visual can often help to determine if statistical testing is appropriate

Rug Plot

A rug plot serves a similar purpose to a histogram. The main difference is that a rug plot includes ticks along the x-axis that help to show where data points are located. This knowledge can be used to remove outliers when necessary. Below is the code, output, and explanation of how to create a rug plot.

sns.kdeplot(df[df.type == 'prof'].income, 
             label = 'prof',
             # Turn the color blue to stand out
             color = 'green')

sns.kdeplot(df[df.type != 'prof'].income,
             label = 'Other types',
             # Turn the color gray
             color = 'red')
# Turn on rugplot
sns.rugplot(df[df.type == 'prof'].income, 
             label = 'prof',
             color = 'green')

sns.rugplot(df[df.type != 'prof'].income, 
             label = 'Other types',
             color = 'red')
plt.show()

The first two blocks of code are the same as the last example and make the histograms. The main difference is that no color fills the inside of the histograms. The new code is the two blocks of code that use the rugplot() method. The code for the arguments within the ruplot() method is almost the same as for the histogram, so there is little to discuss.

Swarm Plot

The swarm plot provides a different way to visualize a distribution. Like the histogram, it can be useful for comparison. In the code below, we use a swarm plot to look at the distribution of education by job type.

# Plot beeswarm 
sns.swarmplot(y = "type",
              x = 'education', 
              data = df, 
              # Decrease the size of the points to avoid crowding 
              size = 3)

# Give a descriptive title
plt.title('Education and Type')
plt.show()

The code is straightforward. You use the swarmplot() method and put in your values for the x and y axes. The plot shows you that prof job types have a higher level of education compared to the other job types.

Conclusion

People have their preferences for how they want to view data. The point here was not to state that one method was better than another. Rather, the goal was to raise awareness of the available options and to show how they can be created using Python.

In this post, we will examine additional ways to modify a Bokeh data visualization. The data points in a Bokeh visualization are referred to as glyphs. Glyphs can take various shapes, colors, etc, and we will learn how to modify glyphs specifically for scatter plots in this post.

Libraries

We will need several libraries to work with glyphs in a scatterplot. They are listed below.

from pydataset import data
from bokeh.plotting import figure
from bokeh.io import output_file, show

The first library is for pulling the data we need. The next two libraries are basic libraries from Bokeh for generating our scatterplot.

Data Preparation

Data preparation is simple in this example. All we have to do is use the data() function to load the “Duncan” dataset into an object we call “df.” After this, we print out the first few rows of this dataset using the head() method.

df=data('Duncan')
df.head()

The Duncan dataset contains various occupations that are scored on type, income, education, and prestige. We will be focused primarily on education and prestige in this post.

Default Scatterplot

The code below provides a default scatterplot without any modifications. The purpose of providing this is to serve as a comparison to what we will do when we modify the glyphs in the subsequent examples. Below is the code, output, and explanation.

#Fig Setup
fig = figure(x_axis_label="Prestige", y_axis_label="Education", title="Prestige vs Education")

# Add glyphs
fig.circle(x="prestige", y="education", source=df)

output_file(filename="pres_vs_inc.html")
show(fig)

The first line of code sets up the x and y axis using the figure() function in an object we created called “fig”. The second line allows us to add the actual data points using the .circle() method on the “fig” object. The last two lines allow us to display our plot. output_file() function allows us to save our work and the show() function displays the plot.

Modified Glyphs

Our first modification will involve changes to the appearance of the glyphs in the scatterplot. The first line is the same but the second line includes changes to the size, color, and transparency of the glyphs. Below is the code, output, and explanation.

fig = figure(x_axis_label="Prestige", y_axis_label="Education", title="Prestige vs Education")

# Add glyphs
fig.circle(x="prestige", y="education", source=df, size=16, fill_color="yellow", fill_alpha=0.2)

output_file(filename="pres_vs_inc.html")
show(fig)

In the second line of code, we changed the size to 16 using the size argument and the fill of the dots to yellow using the fill_color argument. We also adjusted the transparency using the fill_alpha argument.

Multiple Glyphs

The example below includes the modification of different glyphs based on a categorical variable. A tooltip is also included to show how various tools can be combined when employing Bokeh. The code, output, and explanation are below.

#Subset Data
source_wc = df[df["type"]=="wc"]
source_prof = df[df["type"]=="prof"]

TOOLTIPS=[('Education', '@education'), ('Prestige', '@prestige')]
fig = figure(x_axis_label="Education", y_axis_label="Prestige", tooltips = TOOLTIPS)
wc_glyphs = fig.circle(x="education", y="prestige", source=source_wc, legend_label="WC", fill_color="blue",fill_alpha=0.2)
prof_glyphs = fig.circle(x="education", y="prestige", source=source_prof, legend_label="Prof", fill_color="green", fill_alpha=0.6)

output_file(filename="update.html")
show(fig)

Here is what we did

1. We subsetted the data into two different objects (source_ws & source_prof) based on the type variable.
2. We created our tooltip which allows us to see the education and prestige of individual data points on the graph.
3. We make the figure or x and y axis for our plot.
4. We use the .circle() method twice. Once for job type “WC” and once for job type “prof”. We set the colors, fills, and transparency of each subset of data. Notice that we created a legend as well. Remember that we named each object in this step wc_glyph and prof_glyph
5. The last two lines of code create a file for the visualization and display it.

Updating Glyphs

We will now learn how to update our code rather than recreating it from scratch. We will update the size of the glyphs and change their color from the prior example.

# Update glyph size
wc_glyphs.glyph.size = 20
prof_glyphs.glyph.size = 10

# Update glyph fill_color
wc_glyphs.glyph.fill_color = "red"
prof_glyphs.glyph.fill_color = "yellow"

output_file(filename="update.html")
show(fig)

We begin by using the objects we created in the last example wc_glyph and prof_glyph, These two objects contain all the information for creating the figure and data points. To update the glyph size we will use the .glyph.size argument and set it to two different values for each of the two objects that were created. We repeat this process for the fill_color.

You can compare the last two visualizations and see the differences for yourself.

Conclusion

Being able to customize glyphs is another powerful feature of Bokeh. With these tools, you can modify your visualizations with ease to communicate with your audience.