Data mining is not an intuitive activity. It requires skills and techniques which can be honed by using books like data mining: practical machine learning tools and techniques. This book is an ultimate guide for applying machine learning techniques and tools in real-world situations of data mining. The book will help you interpret outputs, evaluate results and prepare inputs and will provide the algorithmic methods for efficient data mining. You will not only find the explanation of concepts in this book but will also come across practical advice for successful data mining.

I chose this book after looking at a number of options. The text is clearly written for individuals with an bachelor-level education in computer science. The author prefers pseudocode and text explanations of algorithms to equations, and when he does use equations they use clear, commonly understandable notation rather than the terse greek alphabet soup preferred by many of the more mathematically oriented authors. It should be pointed out that about 10% of the text of this book is devoted simply as a user manual for an open source MLA package called Weka. When I first realized this I almost flipped; I really didn't want a book that was devoted to gaining a surface understanding of a particular implementation of a set of algorithms.

Review applies to the kindle edition. While the information in the book is good, the formatting of the kindle addition is terrible. If the Kindle edition is updated, I'll update my review.

Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Fourth Edition, offers a thorough grounding in machine learning concepts, along with practical advice on applying these tools and techniques in real-world data mining situations. This highly anticipated fourth edition of the most acclaimed work on data mining and machine learning teaches readers everything they need to know to get going, from preparing inputs, interpreting outputs, evaluating results, to the algorithmic methods at the heart of successful data mining approaches. Extensive updates reflect the technical changes and modernizations that have taken place in the field since the last edition, including substantial new chapters on probabilistic methods and on deep learning. Accompanying the book is a new version of the popular WEKA machine learning software from the University of Waikato. Authors Witten, Frank, Hall, and Pal include today's techniques coupled with the methods at the leading edge of contemporary research.

Ian H. Witten is a professor of computer science at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He directs the New Zealand Digital Library research project. His research interests include information retrieval, machine learning, text compression, and programming by demonstration. He received an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University, England; an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, Canada; and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Essex University, England. He is a fellow of the ACM and of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques offers a thorough grounding in machine learning concepts as well as practical advice on applying machine learning tools and techniques in real-world data mining situations. This highly anticipated third edition of the most acclaimed work on data mining and machine learning will teach you everything you need to know about preparing inputs, interpreting outputs, evaluating results, and the algorithmic methods at the heart of successful data mining. Thorough updates reflect the technical changes and modernizations that have taken place in the field since the last edition, including new material on Data Transformations, Ensemble Learning, Massive Data Sets, Multi-instance Learning, plus a new version of the popular Weka machine learning software developed by the authors. Witten, Frank, and Hall include both tried-and-true techniques of today as well as methods at the leading edge of contemporary research.

This book is very easy to read and understand. Unlike Hastie's Statistical Learning book, it is not geared towards those with an expert level knowledge of statistics, and instead takes time to explain functions and formulas for the person with a decent but not extrordinary understanding of statistical/math concepts. For example, their description of a Gaussian was the clearest I've seen. On the other hand, if you're math/statistics background is considerable, you may find this book somewhat simplistic or tedious. The book has a good coverage of techniques and algorithms, although I was somewhat disappointed that they do not mention Influence Diagrams, considering the amount of coverage of both decision trees and Bayesian techniques.