Practical Applications of Data Mining

7.5 Clustering algorithms 307

7.5.3 Partition Algorithms:  K-means Algorithm

In the previous sections, hierarchical clustering algorithms were discussed and

illustrated with various examples. In hierarchical clustering algorithms, data

items are categorized into a nested sequence of groups and the results are

represented in a dendrogram. While the hierarchical clustering algorithms try

to obtain clusters from a tree-like dendrogram by using a critical value against

similarities, non-hierarchical clustering algorithms, also known as partition

algorithms or optimization algorithms, try to find partitions (resulting clusters)

that minimize ...