ABSTRACT
The last chapter described the steps involved in data mining. These include preparing the data, determining what outcomes to expect, selecting data mining tools, doing the mining, pruning the results, determining the actions to be taken, and evaluating the benefits. This chapter focuses on concepts in data mining. In particular, what possible outcomes can one expect, what the are approaches or methodologies used, and what are the data mining techniques used? Various data mining and machine learning text books, such as the ones by Mitchell [MITC97], Berry and Linoff [BERR97], and Adriaans and Zantinge [ADRI96] have focused mainly on the topics discussed in this chapter. In particular, Berry and Linoff [BERR97] have given an excellent discussion on the outcomes, approaches and techniques for data mining.13 Therefore, we will only discuss the essential points in this chapter. For further reading we refer the reader to the references we have given.
