Types of Data Mining Techniques

What is Data Mining?

The term "data mining" describes the process of obtaining knowledge from vast amounts of data. In other words, big data is the art, science, and technique of locating significant patterns in huge and complicated data sets. Theorists and practitioners are constantly looking for better methods to increase the process's effectiveness, economy, and accuracy. 

Many terms, including information mining from data, information harvesting, information analysis, and data dredging, have meanings that are similar to or slightly distinct from those of data mining. Knowledge Discovery from Data, often known as KDD, is another commonly used phrase that data mining uses as a synonym. Others see data mining as just a crucial stage in the knowledge discovery process when intelligent techniques are used to extract patterns in data. Now that we have explored what exactly data mining is let us explore its areas of usage.

Where is Data Mining (DM) Used?

Numerous sectors, including healthcare, retail, banking, government, and manufacturing, use Data Mining extensively.

For instance, if a business wants to recognize trends or patterns among the customers who purchase particular goods, it can use data-gathering techniques to examine past purchases and create models that anticipate which customers will want to purchase merchandise based on their features or behavior. Data mining, therefore, aids businesses in creating more effective sales techniques in the retail industry.

These tools can also be applied to:

• Predict Cancellations: Using past data, determine which clients are likely to cancel their orders.
• Product and Service Recommendation: Users should be given product and service recommendations based on their prior usage.
• Customer Segmentation: Customers should be divided into groups based on similar habits so that personalized marketing messages may be sent to each group.
• Fraud Detection: This is possible by using historical transaction data to spot and stop suspicious behavior.

Applications of Data Mining

Additionally, data mining methods are becoming more popular in practically every industry, including banking, logistics, finance, and science. Data mining is also used in intelligence and law enforcement:

• Based on past border crossings, customs officials can better identify the general profile of crossing violators and concentrate on particular groups of people.
• Because they are aware of when and where crimes are most likely to occur, police can pinpoint locations where they require to increase their manpower.

Data mining is employed in finance to:

• Locate investment opportunities
• Forecast share demand, allowing potential investors to make well-informed choices.

In the field of education, Data Mining aids in creating unique programs based on the following:

• The ways in which students study, such as whether they prefer to read, listen to or watch videos, or combine all three.
• Trends in the labor market make it possible to choose the educational concentration that is most pertinent.

We will now be looking at the various stages of the data mining process.

Stages of The Data Mining Process

There are essentially three main stages of the data mining process:

• Preparatory stage
• Data Mining Proper
• Post-Processing Presentation

1. Preparatory Stage

Setting Business Goals

Finding out the project's ultimate purpose and how it will help the organization is the first stage. The objective can be to categorize the basis of consumers on their tastes or behavior, better understand market trends, or forecast purchasing behaviors.

Data Cleaning and Extracting

The next step is to gather pertinent data from various repositories, including CRMs, databases, websites, social media, etc. Data from all of these sources will need to be combined and then formatted so that it can be used for research (analysis).

Once you've obtained the necessary data, you must pre-process it to make it suitable for analysis. Data organization and cleaning are required for this.

2. Data Mining Proper

Data Exploration

It is crucial to comprehend the data before beginning to analyze it. Finding patterns or connections in data is what data exploration is all about.

Forming Hypothesis

It is now time to look for undiscovered clusters, patterns, and trends in the data. Algorithms for classification, forecasting, and grouping are used in this phase. Suitable methods, such as pass, bootstrapping, and loss matrix analysis, are used to evaluate each hypothesis. The most useful theories are gathered and then disclosed to the general audience.

3. Post-Processing: Presentation

The results must be presented in a way that is concise, organized, and simple to comprehend in order for them to be translated into insightful business information. The key findings, such as patterns, patterns, or connections that will enable data-driven decision-making, can be highlighted by visualizing it as a paper, diagram, or infographic.

Let us now explore the different types of Data Mining Techniques.

Different Types of Data Mining Techniques

1. Classification

Data are categorized to separate them into predefined groups or classes. Based on the values of a number of attributes, this method of data mining identifies the class to which a document belongs. Sorting data into predetermined classes is the aim. 

Predicting a variable that can have one of two or more different values (for example, spam/not spam; good or neutral/negative evaluation) given one or even more input factors called predictors is the most typical application of classification.

2. Clustering

The next data mining technique is clustering. Similar entries inside a database are grouped together using the clustering approach to form clusters. The clustering first identifies these groups inside the dataset and afterward classifies factors based on their properties, in contrast to classification, which places variables into established categories.

For instance, you can group clients based on sales data, such as those who consistently purchase certain drinks or pet food and have consistent taste preferences. You may easily target these clusters with specialized adverts once you've established them.

Clustering has several uses, including the following:

• Web analytics
• Text mining
• Biological computation
• Medical Diagnosis

3. Association Rule Learning

Finding if-then patterns between two or more independent variables is done through association rule learning. The relationship between purchasing bread and butter is the most basic illustration. Butter is frequently purchased along with bread, and vice versa. Because of this, you can find these two products side by side at a grocery shop.

The connection might not be so direct, though. For instance, Walmart found in 2004 that Strawberry Pop-Tart sales peaked just before the hurricane. Along with stocking up on necessities like batteries, many also bought these well-liked treats. 

In hindsight, the psychological motive is rather clear: having your favorite meal on hand during emergencies gives you a sense of security, and tarts with a long shelf life are the ideal choice. But data mining methods had to be used in order to identify this association.

4. Regression

The next data mining technique is Regression. A link between variables is established using regression. Its objective is to identify the appropriate function that best captures the relationship. Linear regression analysis is the term used when a linear function (y = axe + b) is applied. 

Methods like multiple linear regression, quadratic regression, etc., can be used to account for additional kinds of relationships. Planning and modeling are the two most prevalent applications. One illustration is estimating a customer's age based on past purchases. We may also forecast costs based on factors like consumer demand; for instance, if demand for vehicles in the US increases, prices on the secondary market would rise.

5. Anomaly Detection

A data mining technique called anomaly detection is used to find outliers (values that deviate from the norm). For instance, it can identify unexpected sales at a store location during a specific week in e-commerce information. It can be used, among other things, to find credit or debit fraud and spot network attacks or disruptions.

6. Sequential Pattern Mining

A data mining technique known as sequential pattern mining finds significant connections between events. We can discuss a dependency between events when we can pinpoint a time-ordered sequence that occurs with a particular frequency. 

Let's imagine we wish to look into how a drug or a specific therapeutic approach affects cancer patients' life expectancy. By including a temporal component in the study, sequential pattern mining makes it possible for you to do that. 

This method can be used, among other things, in medicine to determine how to administer a patient's medicines and in security to foresee potential systemic attacks.

Sequential pattern mining has several uses, such as:

• DNA-sequencing studies
• Natural catastrophes
• Stock exchanges
• Shopping patterns
• Medical procedures

7. Artificial Neural Network Classifier

A process model supported by biological neurons could be an artificial neural network (ANN), also known as a "Neural Network" (NN). It is made up of a networked group of synthetic neurons. A neural network is a collection of connected input/output units with weights assigned to each connection. 

In order to be able to anticipate the class label of the input samples correctly, the network accumulates information during the knowledge phase by modifying the weights. Due to the links between units, neural network learning is also known as connectionist learning. 

Neural networks require lengthy training periods, making them more suitable for applications where it is possible. They need a variety of parameters, like the network topology or "structure," which are often best determined empirically. 

Since it is challenging for humans to understand the symbolic significance of the acquired weights, neural networks have come under fire for their poor interpretability. First, these characteristics reduced the appeal of neural networks for data mining.

However, neural networks' strengths include their high level of noise tolerance and their capacity to classify patterns for which they have not yet been taught. Additionally, a number of novel methods have been created to extract rules from trained neural networks. These problems affect how effective neural networks are at classifying data in data mining.

An artificial neural network is a machine that modifies its structure in response to information that passes through it during a learning phase. The learning-by-example principle underlies the ANN. Perceptron and multilayer perceptron are two of the most traditional neural network architectures. 

8. Outlier Analysis 

Data objects that do not adhere to the overall behavior or model of the data may be found in a database. These informational items are outliers. OUTLIER MINING is the process of looking into OUTLIER data. 

When employing distance measurements, objects with a tiny percentage of "near" neighbors in space are regarded as outliers. Statistical tests that assume a distribution and probability model for the data can also be used to identify outliers. 

Deviation-based strategies identify exceptions/outliers by examining variances in the primary features of items in a collection rather than using factual or distance metrics.

9. Prediction

The next data mining technique is Prediction. Data classification and data prediction both involve two steps. Despite the fact that we do not use the term "Class label attribute" for prediction because the attribute whose values are being forecasted is consistently valued (ordered) rather than category (discrete-esteemed and unordered). 

Simply calling the attribute "the expected attribute" will do. Prediction can be thought of as the creation and use of a model to determine the class of an unlabeled item or the value or ranges of a particular attribute that an object is likely to possess.

10. Genetic Algorithms

The majority of evolutionary algorithms are genetic algorithms, which are adaptive heuristic algorithms. Natural selection and genetics are the foundations of genetic algorithms. These are clever uses of random search that are supported by historical data to focus the search on areas with superior performance in the solution space. They are frequently employed to produce excellent answers to optimization and search-related issues. 

Natural selection is simulated by genetic algorithms, which means that only those species that can adapt to changes in their environment will be able to survive, procreate, and pass on to the next generation. 

In order to solve an issue, they essentially replicate "survival of the fittest" among people of successive generations. Each generation consists of a population of people, and each person represents a potential solution or a point in the search space. A string of characters, integers, floats, and bits represents every person. This string resembles a chromosome.

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Start Learning Data Mining

In this article, we discussed what data mining is, the various applications of data mining in multiple fields, the several stages of performing data mining, and its different types. To learn more about Data Mining and become an expert Data Analyst, check out Simplilearn's Data Analyst Master's Program and take a step towards growing your career.

FAQs

1. What is data mining?

Organizations use data mining to find patterns in data that can provide insights into their operational needs. Both data science and business intelligence require it.

2. What is the difference between data mining and machine learning?

In ML, establishing criteria for data classification comes before analysis. Since data clearance is skipped in this step, inappropriate data might be excluded from the analysis. In Data Mining, patterns must be established because they are not known in advance.

3. What are data mining and its types?

Types of Data mining include:

• Clustering
• Prediction
• Classification
• Genetic Algorithms
• Regression
• Association rule learning
• Anomaly detection
• Artificial Neural Network Classification
• Outlier Analysis
• Sequential Pattern Mining

4. What is Data Mining used for?

Modern computers and the use of data mining techniques allowed for the analysis of exponentially large amounts of data and the extraction of valuable, counterintuitive insights that allowed for the forecasting of likely business outcomes, the reduction of risks, and the exploitation of recently discovered opportunities.

Data mining is a viable career path because of its applicability across numerous industries and its crucial part in corporate success.