Data Mining Issues and Tasks

Data Mining - Issues
Data mining is not an easy task, as the algorithms used can get very complex and
data is not always available at one place. It needs to be integrated from various
heterogeneous data sources. These factors also create some issues. Here in this
tutorial, we will discuss the major issues regarding −
 Mining Methodology and User Interaction

 Performance Issues
 Diverse Data Types Issues
The following diagram describes the major issues.
Mining Methodology and User Interaction Issues

It refers to the following kinds of issues −
 Mining different kinds of knowledge in databases − Different users may be
interested in different kinds of knowledge. Therefore it is necessary for data
mining to cover a broad range of knowledge discovery task.
 Interactive mining of knowledge at multiple levels of abstraction − The
data mining process needs to be interactive because it allows users to focus
the search for patterns, providing and refining data mining requests based on
the returned results.
 Incorporation of background knowledge − To guide discovery process and
to express the discovered patterns, the background knowledge can be used.
Background knowledge may be used to express the discovered patterns not
only in concise terms but at multiple levels of abstraction.
 Data mining query languages and ad hoc data mining − Data Mining
Query language that allows the user to describe ad hoc mining tasks, should
be integrated with a data warehouse query language and optimized for
efficient and flexible data mining.
 Presentation and visualization of data mining results − Once the patterns
are discovered it needs to be expressed in high level languages, and visual
representations. These representations should be easily understandable.
 Handling noisy or incomplete data − The data cleaning methods are
required to handle the noise and incomplete objects while mining the data
regularities. If the data cleaning methods are not there then the accuracy of
the discovered patterns will be poor.
 Pattern evaluation − The patterns discovered should be interesting because
either they represent common knowledge or lack novelty.
Performance Issues
There can be performance-related issues such as follows −
 Efficiency and scalability of data mining algorithms − In order to
effectively extract the information from huge amount of data in databases,
data mining algorithm must be efficient and scalable.
 Parallel, distributed, and incremental mining algorithms − The factors
such as huge size of databases, wide distribution of data, and complexity of
data mining methods motivate the development of parallel and distributed
data mining algorithms. These algorithms divide the data into partitions which
is further processed in a parallel fashion. Then the results from the partitions
is merged. The incremental algorithms, update databases without mining the
data again from scratch.
Diverse Data Types Issues
 Handling of relational and complex types of data − The database may
contain complex data objects, multimedia data objects, spatial data, temporal
data etc. It is not possible for one system to mine all these kind of data.
 Mining information from heterogeneous databases and global
information systems − The data is available at different data sources on
LAN or WAN. These data source may be structured, semi structured or
unstructured. Therefore mining the knowledge from them adds challenges to
data mining.
Data Mining - Tasks

Data mining deals with the kind of patterns that can be mined. On the basis of the
kind of data to be mined, there are two categories of functions involved in Data
Mining −
 Descriptive
 Classification and Prediction
Descriptive Function
The descriptive function deals with the general properties of data in the database.
Here is the list of descriptive functions −
 Class/Concept Description
 Mining of Frequent Patterns
 Mining of Associations
 Mining of Correlations
 Mining of Clusters
Class/Concept Description
Class/Concept refers to the data to be associated with the classes or concepts. For
example, in a company, the classes of items for sales include computer and printers,
and concepts of customers include big spenders and budget spenders. Such
descriptions of a class or a concept are called class/concept descriptions. These
descriptions can be derived by the following two ways −
 Data Characterization − This refers to summarizing data of class under
study. This class under study is called as Target Class.
 Data Discrimination − It refers to the mapping or classification of a class with
some predefined group or class.
Mining of Frequent Patterns
Frequent patterns are those patterns that occur frequently in transactional data.
Here is the list of kind of frequent patterns −
 Frequent Item Set − It refers to a set of items that frequently appear together,
for example, milk and bread.
 Frequent Subsequence − A sequence of patterns that occur frequently such
as purchasing a camera is followed by memory card.
 Frequent Sub Structure − Substructure refers to different structural forms,
such as graphs, trees, or lattices, which may be combined with item-sets or
subsequences.
Mining of Association
Associations are used in retail sales to identify patterns that are frequently
purchased together. This process refers to the process of uncovering the
relationship among data and determining association rules.
For example, a retailer generates an association rule that shows that 70% of time
milk is sold with bread and only 30% of times biscuits are sold with bread.
Mining of Correlations
It is a kind of additional analysis performed to uncover interesting statistical
correlations between associated-attribute-value pairs or between two item sets to
analyze that if they have positive, negative or no effect on each other.
Mining of Clusters
Cluster refers to a group of similar kind of objects. Cluster analysis refers to forming
group of objects that are very similar to each other but are highly different from the
objects in other clusters.
Classification and Prediction
Classification is the process of finding a model that describes the data classes or
concepts. The purpose is to be able to use this model to predict the class of objects
whose class label is unknown. This derived model is based on the analysis of sets of
training data. The derived model can be presented in the following forms −
 Classification (IF-THEN) Rules

 Decision Trees
 Mathematical Formulae
 Neural Networks
The list of functions involved in these processes are as follows −
 Classification − It predicts the class of objects whose class label is unknown.
Its objective is to find a derived model that describes and distinguishes data
classes or concepts. The Derived Model is based on the analysis set of
training data i.e. the data object whose class label is well known.
 Prediction − It is used to predict missing or unavailable numerical data values
rather than class labels. Regression Analysis is generally used for prediction.
Prediction can also be used for identification of distribution trends based on
available data.
 Outlier Analysis − Outliers may be defined as the data objects that do not
comply with the general behavior or model of the data available.
 Evolution Analysis − Evolution analysis refers to the description and model
regularities or trends for objects whose behavior changes over time.
Data Mining Task Primitives

 We can specify a data mining task in the form of a data mining query.
 This query is input to the system.
 A data mining query is defined in terms of data mining task primitives.
Note − These primitives allow us to communicate in an interactive manner with the
data mining system. Here is the list of Data Mining Task Primitives −
 Set of task relevant data to be mined.

 Kind of knowledge to be mined.
 Background knowledge to be used in discovery process.
 Interestingness measures and thresholds for pattern evaluation.
 Representation for visualizing the discovered patterns.
Set of task relevant data to be mined
This is the portion of database in which the user is interested. This portion includes
the following −
 Database Attributes
 Data Warehouse dimensions of interest
Kind of knowledge to be mined
It refers to the kind of functions to be performed. These functions are −
 Characterization
 Discrimination
 Association and Correlation Analysis
 Classification
 Prediction
 Clustering
 Outlier Analysis
 Evolution Analysis
Background knowledge
The background knowledge allows data to be mined at multiple levels of abstraction.
For example, the Concept hierarchies are one of the background knowledge that
allows data to be mined at multiple levels of abstraction.
Interestingness measures and thresholds for pattern evaluation
This is used to evaluate the patterns that are discovered by the process of
knowledge discovery. There are different interesting measures for different kind of
knowledge.
Representation for visualizing the discovered patterns
This refers to the form in which discovered patterns are to be displayed. These
representations may include the following. −
 Rules
 Tables
 Charts
 Graphs
 Decision Trees
 Cubes

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Data Mining - Issues

 Mining Methodology and User Interaction

Mining Methodology and User Interaction Issues

Data Mining - Tasks

 Classification (IF-THEN) Rules

Data Mining Task Primitives

 Set of task relevant data to be mined.

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