Patent US6182058 - Bayes rule based and decision tree hybrid classifier

The present invention relates generally to data mining and more specifically to a classifier and inducer used for data mining. Many data mining tasks require classification of data into classes. Typically, a classifier classifies the data into the classes. For example, loan applications can be classified into either "approve" or "disapprove" classes. The classifier provides a function that maps (classifies) a data item (instance or record; records and instances are used interchangeably hereinafter) into one of several predefined classes. More specifically, the classifier predicts one attribute of a set of data given one or more attributes. For example, in a database of iris flowers, a classifier can be built to predict the type of iris (iris-setosa, iris-versicolor or iris-virginica) given the petal length, sepal length and sepal width. The attribute being predicted (in this case, the type of iris) is called the label, and the attributes used for prediction are called the descriptive attributes. A classifier is generally constructed by an inducer.