Lasso Regression (L1 Regularization)
Lasso regression also adds a penalty term (L1 regularization) to the linear regression cost function. It not only prevents overfitting but also tends to force some coefficients to be exactly zero, effectively performing feature selection.
👉 What it does: Adds penalty that can shrink some coefficients to exactly zero → automatic feature selection
✅ When to use:
- You want a simpler model
- You suspect only a few features actually matter
- You need interpretability + feature selection
🧠 Real-life examples:
- Identifying key factors affecting house prices (maybe only 5 out of 50 matter)
- Marketing: finding which campaigns actually drive sales
- Genomics: selecting important genes from thousands
💡 Key idea: 👉 Eliminates irrelevant features