Description
In computer science and data mining, Apriori[1] is a classic algorithm for learning association rules. Apriori is designed to operate on databases containing transactions (for example, collections of items bought by customers, or details of a website frequentation). Other algorithms are designed for finding association rules in data having no transactions (Winepi and Minepi), or having no timestamps (DNA sequencing).
As is common in association rule mining, given a set of itemsets (for instance, sets of retail transactions, each listing individual items purchased), the algorithm attempts to find subsets which are common to at least a minimum number C of the itemsets. Apriori uses a "bottom up" approach, where frequent subsets are extended one item at a time (a step known as candidate generation), and groups of candidates are tested against the data. The algorithm terminates when no further successful extensions are found.
The purpose of the Apriori Algorithm is to find associations between different sets of data. It is sometimes referred to as "Market Basket Analysis". Each set of data has a number of items and is called a transaction. The output of Apriori is sets of rules that tell us how often items are contained in sets of data.
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