Practical Data Mining

Contents

Dedication

Preface

About the Author

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 What Is Data Mining and What Can It Do?

Purpose

Goals

1.1 Introduction

1.2 A Brief Philosophical Discussion

1.3 The Most Important Attribute of the Successful Data Miner: Integrity

1.4 What Does Data Mining Do?

1.5 What Do We Mean By Data?

1.5.1 Nominal Data vs. Numeric Data

1.5.2 Discrete Data vs. Continuous Data

1.5.3 Coding and Quantization as Inverse Processes

1.5.4 A Crucial Distinction: Data and Information Are Not the Same Thing

1.5.5 The Parity Problem

1.5.6 Five Riddles ...