Variable types

Put simply, dependent variables respond to the influence of the independent variables. In data mining, the dependent variables are often called output vars because they are the outcome of whatever underlying mathematical or statistical behavior you are trying to model. Indeed, predictive analytics attempts to model the dependent variables' response to the independent variables in the dataset and, by doing so, predict its output in future events. Practitioners will often refer to independent variables collectively as X and dependent variables as Y: 

• Independent variables: The features of a dataset; these are often denoted as X in XY data terminology.
• Dependent variables: The output in response to independent feature variables; the Y in XY data terminology: