Question

Classification and regression tree analysis

Answer 1

hi there,

Classification Trees: where the target variable is categorical and the tree is used to identify the "class" within which a target variable would likely fall into.Regression Trees: where the target variable is continuous and tree is used to predict it's value.
The CART algorithm is structured as a sequence of questions, the answers to which determine what the next question, if any should be.  The result of these questions is a tree like structure where the ends are terminal nodes at which point there are no more questions.  A simple example of a decision tree is as follows 
The main elements of CART (and any decision tree algorithm) are:Rules for splitting data at a node based on the value of one variable;Stopping rules for deciding when a branch is terminal and can be split no more; andFinally, a prediction for the target variable in each terminal node...