When working on the Python project, if you receive the error message stating, “NameError: name ‘StandardScaler’ is not defined,” it means scikit-learn, an open-source library for machine learning has not been included in the array of tools in use. Let’s simplify what this means by explaining its causes and solutions.
Table of Content
What is StandardScaler?
StandardScaler is a tool that rescales the data. It ensures that the set of numbers is centered around 0 with a standard deviation of 1, allowing some algorithms to work even better.
Why Do You See This Error?
This error happens when Python doesn’t know what StandardScaler is. It can be most likely because:
- You forgot to import StandardScaler before using it.
- There’s a problem with the scikit-learn library or it’s not installed on your system.
How to Fix It?
1. Import StandardScaler
StandardScaler must be imported before you call on it. Just include this line in the initial part of your code:
from sklearn.preprocessing import StandardScaler
Then you can create a StandardScaler object in the following way:
scaler = StandardScaler()
2. Install the scikit-learn library
If you still get the error, it may be due to a lack of installation of the scikit-learn library. You may install scikit-learn using the following:
pip install scikit-learn
3. Check Your Environment
If you use a virtual environment or specific software such as Jupyter Notebook, install scikit-learn there, too.
Conclusion
Since the StandardScaler is not recognized in Python, this error might be resolved easily. Just make sure to import it correctly and install scikit-learn. Once you do that, you can improve your machine-learning projects with the help of StandardScaler