280 Chapter 7 Clustering
7.2 DEFINITION OF CLUSTERS AND CLUSTERING
As the amount of data stored and managed in a database increases, the need
to simplify the vast amount of data also increases. Clustering is defined as
the process of classifying a large group of data items into smaller groups that
share the same or similar properties. Due to its usefulness in classifying and
simplifying data, clustering has been extensively studied and has been dem-
onstrated as a tool for dealing with massive amounts of data. This process is
called cluster analysis in many statistical publications (see the bibliography at the
end of this chapter for complete references). Therefore, the terms clustering and
cluster analysis are interchangeable.
Cluster ...