Author: Roland Krasser
Date: 2025-12-10

# Explore penguins

#### Roland Krasser

#### 2025-12-10

## How to explore the penguins dataset using the explore package.

The explore package simplifies Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA). Get faster insights with less code! We will use < 10 lines of code and just 6 function names to explore penguins:

function | package | description
--- | --- | ---
`library()` | {base} | load a package
`filter()` | {dplyr} | subset rows using column values
`describe()` | {explore} | describe variables of the table
`explore()` | {explore} | explore graphically a variable
`explore_all()` | {explore} | explore all variables of the table
`explain_tree()` | {explore} | explain a target using a decision tree

The `penguins` dataset comes with the palmerpenguins package. It has 344 observations and 8 variables. (https://github.com/allisonhorst/palmerpenguins)

Furthermore, we use the packages {dplyr} for `filter()` and `%>%` and {explore} for data exploration.

    library(dplyr)
    library(explore)
    penguins <- use_data_penguins()
    # equivalent to
    # penguins <- palmerpenguins::penguins

### Describe variables

    penguins %>% describe()
    #> # A tibble: 8 × 8
    #>   variable          type     na na_pct unique    min   mean    max
    #>   <chr>             <chr> <int>  <dbl>  <int>  <dbl>  <dbl>  <dbl>
    #> 1 species           fct       0    0        3   NA     NA     NA
    #> 2 island            fct       0    0        3   NA     NA     NA
    #> 3 bill_length_mm    dbl       2    0.6    165   32.1   43.9   59.6
    #> 4 bill_depth_mm     dbl       2    0.6     81   13.1   17.2   21.5
    #> 5 flipper_length_mm int       2    0.6     56  172    201.   231
    #> 6 body_mass_g       int       2    0.6     95 2700   4202.  6300
    #> 7 sex               fct      11    3.2      3   NA     NA     NA
    #> 8 year              int       0    0        3 2007   2008.  2009

There are some `NA`-values (unknown values) in the data. The variable containing the most NAs is sex. flipper_length_mm and others contain only 2 observations with NAs.

### Data cleaning

We use only penguins with known flipper length for the data exploration!

    data <- penguins %>%
      filter(flipper_length_mm > 0)

We reduced the penguins from 344 to 342.

### Explore variables

    data %>%
      explore_all(color = "skyblue")

### Which species?

What is the relationship between all the variables and species?

    data %>%
      explore_all(
        target = species,
        color = c("darkorange", "purple", "lightseagreen"))

We already see some strong patterns in the data. `flipper_length_mm` separates species Gentoo, `bill_length_mm` separates species Adelie from Chinstrap. And we see that Chinstrap and Gentoo are located on separate islands.

Now we explain species using a decision tree:

    data %>% explain_tree(target = species)

We found an easy explanation how to find out the species by just using flipper_length_mm and bill_length_mm.

- If `flipper_legnth_mm >= 207`, it is a Gentoo penguin (95% right)
- If `flipper_length_mm < 207` and `bill_length_mm < 43`, it is a Adelie penguin (97% right)
- If `flipper_length_mm < 207` and `bill_length_mm >= 43`, it is a Chinstrap penguin (92% right)

Now let’s take a closer look to these variables:

    data %>%
      explore(
        flipper_length_mm, bill_length_mm,
        target = species,
        color = c("darkorange", "purple", "lightseagreen")
        )

The plot shows a not perfect but good separation between the 3 species!