Introduction to Data Mining

This chapter introduces data mining, also known as knowledge discovery from data, as a process of discovering useful, interesting and previously unknown patterns from data. Some techniques and domains related to data mining are described, explaining their similarities and differences. Some data types are then analysed since data on multiple data inputs might be considered due to the natural evolution of information technology. Data processing approaches are also described, stating how to transform raw data into a readable and useful form and presenting different data representations. Finally, general data mining techniques are outlined. Mining frequent patterns and associations; predictive analysis; supervised descriptive analysis; cluster analysis; and outliers analysis, to list a few.