Advanced technologies have enabled us to collect large amounts of data on a continuous or periodic basis in many fields. On one hand, these data present the potential for us to discover useful information and knowledge that we could not see before. On the other hand, we are limited in our ability to manually process large amounts of data to discover useful information and knowledge. This limitation demands automatic tools for data mining to mine useful information and knowledge from large amounts of data. Data mining has become an active area of research and development. This book presents comprehensive coverage of data mining concepts, algorithms, methodologies, management issues, and tools, which are all illustrated through simple examples and real-world applications for an easy understanding and mastering of those materials. Necessary materials for data mining are presented and organized coherently in one volume. This enables one to quickly start and conduct research work or practical applications of data mining without spending precious time searching for those materials from many different sources. Advanced topics in the area of data mining are also introduced in this handbook with extensive references for further readings.
