ABSTRACT
The basic idea of discriminant analysis consists of assigning an individual or a group of individuals to one of several known or unknown distinct populations, on the basis of observations on several characters of the individual or the group and a sample of observations on these characters from the populations if these are unknown. In scientific literature, discriminant analysis has many synonyms, such as classification, pattern recognition, character recognition, identification, prediction, and selection, depending on the type of scientific area in which it is used. The origin of discriminant analysis is fairly old, and its development reflects the same broad phases as that of general statistical inference, namely, a Pearsonian phase followed by Fisherian, Neyman-Pearsonian, and Waldian phases.
